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Is The Public Stuck With The Broadcast Flag?
peeping_Thomist writes "The only company that sells HDTV tuner cards for Linux has run out of cards to sell, and they are now missing deadlines for new getting new cards. Linux users who want to view and record HDTV face an uphill battle. Meanwhile, the dreaded July 1, 2005 deadline for manufacturing DRM-free HDTV tuners is fast approaching. MythTV supports HDTV tuner cards, but so far no one has made a move to, as the EFF puts it, "buy, build, and sell fully-capable, non-flag-compliant HDTV receivers" prior to the July 1 deadline. The current combination of MythTV and pcHDTV (assuming pcHDTV cards become available again) may, as the EFF says, be "great for geeks," but it is a far cry from the TIVO-esque simplicity a mass market demands. Unless someone can get bring a DRM-free hdtv recorder to market before the deadline, it seems the general public will have no chance to avoid the broadcast flag."
By 1:00AM on July 1st someone will have hacked it.
Why is this a troll? I mean, it's stupid, since a Windows card can have Linux drivers written for it, but why is this a troll?
3 years ago this would have concerned me.
But there is nothing good on over-the-air TV. Nothing. I can't name a single show that's watchable. I have the rabbit ears - I don't really use them.
I thought about getting cable, but I realized that I'd be paying $50 a month to get The Daily Show. Which is nice - and probably the best show on TV - but hardly worth $1.66 a day. I wish I could subscribe to just that one show - and maybe some of the adult swim stuff on Cartoon Network - a la carte channels just won't do it.
So this broadcast flag? Sorry, but you actually have to broadcast something I want to watch before I buy a new TV tuner card or anything else. If that means I get nothing but snow on my TV after 2005, it won't make much of a difference.