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DVB-T STB/MPEG2 Player That Can Access SMB Shares
feanor writes "Siemens is realeasing beginning of November the Gigaset M740 AV (German text). This is a DVB-T set-top-box that can access SMB shares either via ethernet or WLAN and store its MPEG2 compliant streams. Alternatively it can be used as an MPEG2 streaming client. Other cool features include the ability to hook-up standard USB hard-drives as storage, a dual tuner architecture and a very cool design."
DVB you say? Shame that's not going to be compatible with the ATSC standard here in the states.
Maybe, one day such a device will be available here... after the Induce act fails again and is lost forever... after pigs fly, hell freezes over and the {MP|RI}AA and bit torrent get along as friends.
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
This looks pretty cool to me. I was thinking about knocking something together to do something simillar but this seems to make life easier and definately looks better
another Roadkill on the Information Superhighway
SMB?? We want NFS or nothing!
"The dew has clearly fallen with a particularly sickening thud this morning"
The interesting question is: does it use some sort of windows, or does it use samba to access those shares?
Wenn ist das Nunstueck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput.
DSB-T STB that plays MPEG2 over SMB and with so much trauam in the LBC it's kinda hard bein snoop D O Double G with my BLT. I'll be hangin over here with my WLAN wearin SPF 30 cause of the UV...
Am I the only one that had to read the title and description like 4 times to get the gist of this? I know acronyms are a fact of life but I think my brain is starting to overload on them.
Pretty widgets? What pretty widgets?
Every cable company is (or has been) rolling out digital cable packages to subscribers, touting the enormous number of extra channels, insta-PPV ordering, "digital quality sound" etc. The big catch is that you're shackled to their box - all the years of cable-ready TV sets go out the window. As such, since I'm not aware of any cable companies that will let you bring your own box, cool set tops are useless to us.
RW
how much does it cost??
Hmmmm what if I don't read german? I have no idea what that thing is actually able to do beside having read the slashdot memo. SMB, DVB what? ...
Anyone got something with more meat?
My PC is a plain putty box.
This device is a plain silver box.
This is a cool design? I beg to differ...
To be cool, it must have open clear windows showing the guts, lots 'o LED lights, preferably spinning in fans housings.
English translation
They could have delivered a killer box if it supported Mpeg4.
There's no way I am going to re-encode all my DivX to Mpeg-2. And I don't want to run VideoLan on my PC to encode on the fly and stream to this thing.
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity
Please, only mpeg2? What about the divx device feartured yesterday.
Dreambox is a set top box that has supported DVB for years, and it supports DVB-T (Broadcast), DVB-S (Satalite) as well as DVB-C (Cable).
t e/DM7000_featurelist.php/
http://www.dream-multimedia-tv.de/Bereiche/Produk
VDR has aslo been available for years to support the same standards under Linux. It is a full featured PVR with a robust plugin interface.
http://cadsoft.de/vdr/
North American viewers on the East Coast can take advantage of DVB-S & pick up a number of satalites that cover the Atlantic region. There is a wide variety of FTA programming available. My dad used to be a ham operator, I guess this is the new `ham` hobby.
No it can't you dumbass. This box has DVB-T hardware for digital TV and also PVR features for time-shiftinf etc. Try doing that with your XBOX.
This looks cool. Hopefully it can view aussie DTV... I understand that our standard is a weird blend of DVB-T and ATSC in that we use DVB for everything but the audio, which is in AC-3.
Whilst that made STB's initially expensive, I think it'll be a good decision as we move to the future - it's nice to be able to receive a HD signal on my PC with my DVB-T tuner card and pipe the AC-3 out the fibre to my receiver.
So yeah, umm... this is cool and perhaps if this or something even better comes out down here that'll be another nail in the coffin of my currently-stalled DVR project.
I betcha cant put linux on it!
Oooh where did you get the X-Box with a DVB-T dual tuner then?
Matt Thompson - Actuality - Insert product here.
I recently bought the D-Link DSM-320, which isn't a tuner, but allows you to play movies and music as well as view images from your computer, onto your TV via ethernet or 802.11b/g.
It doesn't use SMB shares, however. You run a server app on your Windows machine and tell it the directories you want to share.
I have to say I'm a bit disappointed with it so far. The biggest problem is that using the wireless, a lot of movies don't have sound. From what I have read, this is a bandwidth issue and should go away if I go with wired ethernet, but I haven't tried that yet.
It also has a number of small usability issues. It doesn't respond to the remote control very well and you need pretty direct aim and also need to sometimes press a button multiple times. It sometimes hangs and responds late to button presses, so you end up hitting a button over and over again thinking it's not getting it, only to get all the button hits several seconds later.
On the other hand, the system allows for automatic firmware upgrades (which it did the first time I connected) and it appears to have improved significantly from earlier versions, so I'm hoping it will continue to improve. I considered taking it back, but I'm going to hold onto it and just hope that the firmware upgrades will eventually remedy most of these problems.
It's nice to see more of these types of devices coming out. My real goal is to build a MythTV box because I think that's going to be more of what I'm looking for. I have a DirectTV receiver with TiVo and the TiVo is great with the exception that I can't store the movies offline and I can't access my substantial collection of TV shows from my computer with it. So I think at this point MythTV is the only way to go.
That, is just a matter of time. A decent modded Xbox ($99+$25) with the free non-MS Media Center, can stream all the popular media formats. There are also 3rd party drivers (and linux drivers) that support the in built USB ports, so I'm sure if someone hunted hard enough, a USB DVB capture dongle could be used.
Personally, I don't Record off-air, as it's all shite.
Together, We Can Make Slashdot Better. I Do NOT Mod ACs. - Check Me Out
i'm going to see how you can put a 15mbit 1080i mpeg2+ac3 dvb stream on a 12mbit usb connection.
We've slashdotted the biggest electronics company in the Fourth Reich!
You have a point there ;) I'll shut up.
Together, We Can Make Slashdot Better. I Do NOT Mod ACs. - Check Me Out
Obviously they're using the Samba client, so where's the source?
Three or four years ago, in 2000-2001, firewire was the only choice for external hard disks, USB 1.1 was too slow.
Even now firewire 1 is faster than high speed USB and firewire 1.5 is way much better. Right now high speed usb and firewire 1 adapters have about the same prices and most external boxes are combos. Why use USB and not firewire?
It's worth noting that DVB-T, T for Terrestrial, is the standard for over the air digital broadcasts everywhere in the world except the US, and possibly South Korea.
DVB-C, the standard for digital cable, and DVB-S is the standard for Satellite TV.
The US claims that DVB-T doesn't work well in more rural areas, which maybe true.
http://www.hawknest.com/
More Pictures:
http://www.siemens.com/index.jsp?sdc_rh=null&sdc_f lags=null&sdc_sectionid=0&sdc_secnavid=0&sdc_3dnvl stid=&sdc_countryid=0&sdc_mpid=0&sdc_unitid=999&sd c_conttype=2&sdc_contentid=1213888&sdc_langid= 0
http://www.siemens.com/index.jsp?sdc_rh=null&sdc_f lags=null&sdc_sectionid=0&sdc_secnavid=0&sdc_3dnvl stid=&sdc_countryid=0&sdc_mpid=0&sdc_unitid=999&sd c_conttype=2&sdc_contentid=12138
It's probably derived from the same IBM sourced reference design as the MVP (bolting on a DVB tuner is a doddle). If it's anything like the MVP, it'll even be running linux as well....
+++ BASELINE REALITY FAILURE+++ +++ PLEASE REBOOT UNIVERSE +++
Ah, the Beer Party ticket. Good choice.
ROTFL! So Mike Bouma finally made it in the movie business!
First floppies, then the Internet, then email within the 'net. Now your video player. Why would you want to turn your video device into yet another... erm... channel for spreading Windows viri?
i'm going to see how you can put a 15mbit 1080i mpeg2+ac3 dvb stream on a 12mbit usb connection.
Screw USB. I'm going to see how they can put such a stream on 100mbit ethernet connection.
With that many acronyms in the summary, this MUST be really cool technology I should rush out and buy!!!
;)
So, uh... what does it do?
Diplomacy is the art of saying, "Nice doggie!" until you can find a rock.
By law, digital cable companies are required to support CableCARD. It started a few months ago. This means if you have a CableCARD ready TV or decoder box, you can use it with a rented card to receive the shows you want.
All HDTVs are now required to come with digital tuners in them. Within the last month, a friend got one of these, hooked his cable to it, and is receiving digital cable channels without a cable box. It seemed like a miracle to me, which sucks since back in the 70s, anyone could do this (when cable was analog).
But anyway, it is here. Try to keep up.
While the modulation for DVB-S is standardized, the encryption setups for DVB-S are not quite so standard. There ARE standard interfaces between most DVB-S receivers and encryption devices, but the encryption scheme used by Echostar (Dish) is not implemented in any of the dongles supported by PCI DVB-S tuners such as those made by Hauppauge for the European market.
DVB-C and DVB-T (Cable and Terrestrial DVB, they do use different modulation schemes, etc.) are not used in the U.S. at all.
OTA Broadcast streams use ATSC, which does have decent hardware support (including *linux-only* tuner boards), but cable streams use a proprietary transmission format that uses QAM modulation and is almost always encrypted, even for "local" channels that are available unencrypted in the same area if you've got an antenna. Very few PCI tuners support QAM modulation schemes, and NONE will decrypt encrypted cable streams.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=57 2&ncid=572&e=1&u=/nm/20041018/lf_nm/life_parakeets _dc
This would NoT be the "mlife" that ms would like to live down... if all these birds began "cussin' up a storm", making late wakers "sleepless in Seattle", HOOO!!!!
Maybe those streams can carry this to the dishes and STBs and on to the TV sets, except, maybe the birds will give uncle bill the bird... "Blank you, bill gates, Bendover, bill gates..."
I guess a schload of megaphones can teach the birds in short order...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
I've got $20 for somebody who can get me a parts list that'll do this for under $200. There ought not be any expensive encoders needed - it's MPEG-2 already.
All I want to do is to be able to use MythTV with the digital signal I've paid for, with my authorized smart card - no shenanigans here. Some kind of USB or PCI hardware that I can slide my smartcard into would be fine.
I already have the Dish DVR and it's very light on the features and pretty heavy on the bugs.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Maybe the D-Link MediaLounge is more what you're looking for.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Firewire devices can be chained without a hub and thus no multiple ports on the adapter are necessary. This is not possible for USB devices, if you are out of sockets you need a hub. For old boxes, manufactured in 2000-2001, it is better to use a firewire hub, otherwise variable currents may damage the box or the adapter. This is not a problem for the new boxes, manufactured in 2003-2004.
Does Intel olffer USB for free?
For those who are wondering about the price: 299 EUR (~374 $)
But I suppose you'll get in much cheaper on ebay (like most of the Siemens products)
I was sure that was a typo and we were talking about DVD and NTSC. Seriously. I guess I must read too much of mispelled texts and my brain is trying to correct all the typos subconciously without my consent and knowledge. Thanks for the hint.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
What are you some kind of moron advocating that dumb crap in your sig?
and now I'm SOL
-------- In Soviet Russia, "Soviet Russia" sigs hate Slashdot.
Austalia uses standard MPEG Layer 2 stereo audio for Standard Definition (same as Europe), but uses AC-3 for HD so that surround audio can be sent to a Dolby Digital capable receiver. Most receivers on the market here don't have Layer 2 decode, so the DVD player or DTV set top box just sends it as stereo PCM.
Many stations actually transmit both layer 2 and AC-3 stereo audio for SDTV. Occasionally there will be 5.1 AC-3 audio on the SD broadcast for special events (e.g. ABC rock music concert).
DVB-T for SDTV in Australia uses a different channel spacing (7 not 8MHz) uses VHF as well as UHF bands.
+5 Insightful my ass. The box is not meant for cable. The T in DVB-T stands for "terrestrial". So this is meant for the new TV standard that's replacing the traditional air wave TV.
Your sig contains too many lines.
Please eliminate three.
I am not a crackpot.
-- Abraham Simpson
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana