Follow the OWC link given in the original article (the one that supposedly can handle up to 160gb but no larger -- where that idea came from isn't clear), then read the nice big prominent notice
This OWC Mercury Elite FireWire enclosure supports all brands of IDE/ATA 3.5" hard drive models up to 128GB. This enclosure also supports all Maxtor 3.5" IDE/ATA up to 250GB. If you plan to use an IBM or Western Digital Drive model that is larger than 128GBs, you will need our ATA-6 model Elite Enclosure available by clicking here.
and follow the final link -- http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Item.cfm?ID=5350 &Item=OWCMEFWATA6
"when a better one comes out" -- you must have had better experiences with cable companies than I have. Why offer an upgrade when they've still got unused units from last year on the shelves? It's not like you can go buy from someone else...
There's nothing wrong with them trying to make money -- did I say they shouldn't do this? Users just need to keep in mind that cable companies' interests aren't at all the same as their own.
There are some definite benefits to a combined system: digital channels can be recorded without being re-compressed, increasing quality; it's easier & more likely to be able to record more than one show at a time; it should cost less than two separate units duplicating functionality; the combined UI could be simpler to use.
There are some pretty significant drawbacks, though. As others have pointed out, these units are unlikely to have features content providers dislike -- they certainly won't have automatic commercial skipping, and may not have 30-second skip; they're not likely to have internet video sharing; they may have restrictions on how long shows can be kept, how many times they can be played, and whatkinds of shows can be recorded. The biggest problem, though, is that the end user won't own the unit -- it'll be rented from the cable company. Thus, no modifications. No HD upgrades, no tivo web, no shell hacking, nada.
ReplayPC (C, cross-platform, commandline, scriptable) and DVArchive (Java, cross-platform, user-friendly UI) can archive shows from ReplayTV 4000s and 4500s. DVArchive or ReplayServer can stream the archived content back, so you can watch on your tv, or you can burn VCDs or DVDs or whatnot.
VideoLan Client is available for Mac OS X, can play MPEG-2 streams (either transport or program), and can play while straming from a VideoLan server or an HTTP server.
First, there are four separate lawsuits against SB, all with slightly different language.
Second, all four claim that both internet video sharing and commercial skip violate copyrights.
Some add additional claims on top of that -- the MGM and Columbia suits claim that recording based on keywords in show descriptions violates copyrights, for instance.
Shows are sent as-recorded, commercials intact and all.
The EFF suit is short, you could read it in one sitting, and see that it *is* related to the ongoing lawsuit.
For the plaintiffs to win their suit against SB, they have to prove contributory copyright infringement on SB's part; to prove that, they have to prove direct infringement on SB's customers' part. The plaintiffs repeatedly refer to R4k users as copyright infringers in both the court filings and, yes, the media.
Put it all together, and there's reason to believe that, if they win the case against SB, their next target will be users. THAT is what the EFF is suing to prevent.
The commercials are recorded, they're available for playback if the user chooses.
User intervention *is* required -- the user has to either 1. set the default to be 'commercial advance on', 2. set the checkbox for 'commercial advance' on the play menu, or 3. push the 'commercial advance toggle' button on the remote control.
There is on-screen notice when a commercial block is skipped; depending on timing, there's also up to 1/2 second of commercial shown at both the beginning and end of the block.
The centralized nameserver doesn't give SB much data, actually, certainly not enough to comply with this order -- they can more-or-less tell who's sending shows to whom (although they can't differentiate between that and adding an address book entry), but they can't tell from that what's being sent, much less what commercials are being skipped.
The myreplaytv features give them somewhat more, but still not enough for the skipping data; to comply with this, they're going to have to do a client-side software update, presumably adding things to the system log.
I'm guessing you mean the Guide+ data from Gemstar/TV-Guide.
Reasons not to use it include, but probably aren't limited to: Using it without a license from Gemstar would get them sued; a license would cost both money and control - they'd likely have to include the Gemstar-supplied ads, for instance; the data's not available for all stations and in all areas; even in areas where it is available, cable providers aren't required to pass it through; providing any value-added features (such as the data that drives the ReplayZones or TiVo's genre suggestions) would still require a separate data feed, even for people who were able to get full complete Guide+ data.
We know the hostname (rns.replaytv.net). We know most of the data formats, and it wouldn't take someone with interest long to fill in the missing details. This part of the conversation isn't encrypted, and even if it were, we know the encryption system At least one person knows the data formats from earlier models well enough to do exactly this already.
See http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&t hreadid=116146
The comments implying that the media companies are only scared now because of the difference between analog and digital recording, or because they've suddenly changed in some way, are completely wrong.
Universal Studios and Disney *sued* Sony for contributing to copyright violations when Sony introduced the first VCRs. The suit was eventually decided, in Sony's favor, by the US Supreme Court.
You can record the signal going to the sound card, but to store it in any reasonable amount of space, you'll have to compress it. mp3 is lossy, and I'd assume WMA's compression is as well. At best, the end results won't be as good as the original; At worst, artifacts in the original will trigger worst-case behavior in the mp3, leading to something noticably worse.
This is similar to what happens when you convert a graphic from jpeg to a raw format and recompress it. The effects are bad enough that graphic artists keep uncompressed copies of their work in case any modifications are later needed.
They refused to hear the case, that's all. It lets the lower court ruling stand in this case, but doesn't give it any additional approval. In particular, it creates no precedence outside of the circuit it was from.
The SC, with few exceptions, chooses its own cases, based on importance, disagreements between lower court rulings, and their caseload. Declining to hear a case doesn't even necessarily mean they agree with the ruling.
Slashdot Mirror
Congress agreed with you, and created a .kids.us back in 2003. You can see for yourself how well that worked out.
> I haven't heard of anyone using it.
ReplayTV 4000s and above use it to announce their presence and find other ReplayTV units on the LAN.
With ReplayPC, DVArchive, or rolling your own tools with the LanVideoSharing documentation out there.
"when a better one comes out" -- you must have had better experiences with cable companies than I have. Why offer an upgrade when they've still got unused units from last year on the shelves? It's not like you can go buy from someone else...
There's nothing wrong with them trying to make money -- did I say they shouldn't do this? Users just need to keep in mind that cable companies' interests aren't at all the same as their own.
There are some definite benefits to a combined system: digital channels can be recorded without being re-compressed, increasing quality; it's easier & more likely to be able to record more than one show at a time; it should cost less than two separate units duplicating functionality; the combined UI could be simpler to use.
There are some pretty significant drawbacks, though. As others have pointed out, these units are unlikely to have features content providers dislike -- they certainly won't have automatic commercial skipping, and may not have 30-second skip; they're not likely to have internet video sharing; they may have restrictions on how long shows can be kept, how many times they can be played, and whatkinds of shows can be recorded. The biggest problem, though, is that the end user won't own the unit -- it'll be rented from the cable company. Thus, no modifications. No HD upgrades, no tivo web, no shell hacking, nada.
ReplayPC (C, cross-platform, commandline, scriptable) and DVArchive (Java, cross-platform, user-friendly UI) can archive shows from ReplayTV 4000s and 4500s. DVArchive or ReplayServer can stream the archived content back, so you can watch on your tv, or you can burn VCDs or DVDs or whatnot.
VideoLan Client is available for Mac OS X, can play MPEG-2 streams (either transport or program), and can play while straming from a VideoLan server or an HTTP server.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
First, there are four separate lawsuits against SB, all with slightly different language.
Second, all four claim that both internet video sharing and commercial skip violate copyrights.
Some add additional claims on top of that -- the MGM and Columbia suits claim that recording based on keywords in show descriptions violates copyrights, for instance.
Shows are sent as-recorded, commercials intact and all.
The EFF suit is short, you could read it in one sitting, and see that it *is* related to the ongoing lawsuit.
For the plaintiffs to win their suit against SB, they have to prove contributory copyright infringement on SB's part; to prove that, they have to prove direct infringement on SB's customers' part. The plaintiffs repeatedly refer to R4k users as copyright infringers in both the court filings and, yes, the media.
Put it all together, and there's reason to believe that, if they win the case against SB, their next target will be users. THAT is what the EFF is suing to prevent.
The commercials are recorded, they're available for playback if the user chooses.
User intervention *is* required -- the user has to either 1. set the default to be 'commercial advance on', 2. set the checkbox for 'commercial advance' on the play menu, or 3. push the 'commercial advance toggle' button on the remote control.
There is on-screen notice when a commercial block is skipped; depending on timing, there's also up to 1/2 second of commercial shown at both the beginning and end of the block.
The centralized nameserver doesn't give SB much data, actually, certainly not enough to comply with this order -- they can more-or-less tell who's sending shows to whom (although they can't differentiate between that and adding an address book entry), but they can't tell from that what's being sent, much less what commercials are being skipped.
The myreplaytv features give them somewhat more, but still not enough for the skipping data; to comply with this, they're going to have to do a client-side software update, presumably adding things to the system log.
I'm guessing you mean the Guide+ data from Gemstar/TV-Guide.
Reasons not to use it include, but probably aren't limited to: Using it without a license from Gemstar would get them sued; a license would cost both money and control - they'd likely have to include the Gemstar-supplied ads, for instance; the data's not available for all stations and in all areas; even in areas where it is available, cable providers aren't required to pass it through; providing any value-added features (such as the data that drives the ReplayZones or TiVo's genre suggestions) would still require a separate data feed, even for people who were able to get full complete Guide+ data.
We know the hostname (rns.replaytv.net). We know most of the data formats, and it wouldn't take someone with interest long to fill in the missing details. This part of the conversation isn't encrypted, and even if it were, we know the encryption system At least one person knows the data formats from earlier models well enough to do exactly this already.
t hreadid=116146
See http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&
I'd appreciate it if the person who owns coke.ch would contact me - I'd like to compare notes.
jtl@molehill.org
jtl@dietcoke.net, for the moment at least.
The comments implying that the media companies are only scared now because of the difference between analog and digital recording, or because they've suddenly changed in some way, are completely wrong.
Universal Studios and Disney *sued* Sony for contributing to copyright violations when Sony introduced the first VCRs. The suit was eventually decided, in Sony's favor, by the US Supreme Court.
You can record the signal going to the sound card, but to store it in any reasonable amount of space, you'll have to compress it. mp3 is lossy, and I'd assume WMA's compression is as well. At best, the end results won't be as good as the original; At worst, artifacts in the original will trigger worst-case behavior in the mp3, leading to something noticably worse.
This is similar to what happens when you convert a graphic from jpeg to a raw format and recompress it. The effects are bad enough that graphic artists keep uncompressed copies of their work in case any modifications are later needed.
Besides all the other problems with this, it would do more to kill mailing lists than spam. How much would the vger admins suddenly owe?
Last time we saw this the consensus was that
it was a hoax. I expect it still is.
They refused to hear the case, that's all. It lets the lower court ruling stand in this case, but doesn't give it any additional approval. In particular, it creates no precedence outside of the circuit it was from.
The SC, with few exceptions, chooses its own cases, based on importance, disagreements between lower court rulings, and their caseload. Declining to hear a case doesn't even necessarily mean they agree with the ruling.