I use whatever disks I had laying arouind to build my NAS but the data is still protected. The software I use is developed by Lime-Technology http://www.lime-technology.com/. It's NOT RAID and instead is a JBOD setup with the first drive being a PARITY drive. This means that if one of my drives fails I still have access to the data. If TWO drives fail I lose TWO drives worth of data - *not* the whole damned thing. The data is not striped and is stored in a ReiserFS F/S so I can pull a drive and mount it elsewhere if I desire. This also means that if a drive isn't being acively used it can be spun down - try that with a striped RAID:-) When you write only the parity disk and the disk being written to need to be spinning, love that. The system can hold more than 12 disks if you use their top of the line software - mine only holds 12 total for a bit over 4.5TB worth of storage. Boots a customized Linux off of a memory stick and yeas source for mods is distributed but not the source for the WEB management stuff - he appears to be GPL compliant.
Some limitations: Parity drive must be as big or bigger than all others. Each drive is a seperate mount point unless you use a funky sort of shared folder feature. The system doesn't have as high a transfer speed as a RAID would, however it streams video for me to an XBMC XBOX1 just fine. It doesn't have a super robust system to notify you of failed drives out of the box although some users have added this functionality. Not a whole lot of security although I've met someone who has added this on and the developer is also working on expanding this in the future. Pretty decent support overall IMO and he's just moved to the 2.6 kernel - I've yet to upgrade though.
All in all this system seems to be perfect for HTPCs and I also use it to store backup images of all my workstations. All of my music and DVDs are stored on it and I'm about to build a second one as I need still more storage and have "spare" drives that I've pulled from the existing one as I've upgraded that I'd like to put to good use:-) Check out the user forums on the site, the developer is pretty responsive...
What you've said sums this argument up pretty well IMO! TIVO took GPL code who's spirit was that changes had to be released back (and to be fair they did) but then hardware locked the systems such that if anyone modified them the sysem refused to run. They didn't violate the specifics of the license but they certainly seem to have violated the spirit which was to allow people freedom to work with the code. I'm *not* a contributor of code, it's not my talent, but I am certainly one of the ones who was fairly frustrated by what TIVO did. That TIVO is upset about GPL3 is fine by me - some of the changes were made to specifically block the crap they pulled.:-)
The BSD license I've not ever learned too much about and this discussion has been pretty enlightening. The point you've made about having code run in more places vs having changes released back is a very good one and appears to define the two camps well. I would imagine that writing code and then having it improved upon by others would be pretty cool, I'm surprised that many people are comfortable allowing their code to be used\modified by others (credited or not). Different strokes for different folks it seems and you've captured the two shools pretty well I think - I believe I'd probably be more of the GPL type.
It will be VERY interesting to see how many adopt the GPL3 license. That Linus isn't is interesting but I guess if everyone else does it won't matter too much. TIVO might actually be forced to write their own stuff from a more basic level moving forward, serves them right IMO for having locked the hardware to begin with - "content providers" be damned. Close the hardware? Write your own damned code....
I've done this for my DVD. 4+ TB NAS (unRAID), plus an old XBOX1 hacked to run XBMC = perfect HTPC front end for downloaded and ripped media. It will also play games, emulators like MAME, give weather info, allow me to watch YouTube vids, Apple Trailers, and plays all of my MP3s too. If it could record and play back greater than 720P I'd be in heaven.
$50 for old XBOX, $30 for chip, XBMC for free. XBMC is currently being ported to Linux and will be aimed at specific hardware platforms so stay tuned if hacking an XBOX is too hard for you;-)
I had a dog that was nearly killed by a Black Widow while visitng my girlfriend, put the dog into a coma for days and she awoke deaf and blind. She regained hearing but not sight except for on rare occasions when she could see for maybe a day and then go dark again. Took us forever to figure out it was a spider, we finally found the welt, and due to the symptoms we deduced it was a Black Widows vs a Brown Recluse which is also native to that area. It wasn't until we cleaned that place out for a move that we found the nest behind some furniture - spider still in residence. Black Widow are pretty nasty little buggers, this dog was a full up 50lbs and it took heroic measures by the Vet to save her. Not a spider to mess with for sure....
Ripping DVDs has become commonplace. I've been surprised more than once while working on someone's computer to find that they not only have DVD ripping software but several movies ON their computer. Generally I'm working on these computers because the person was too clueless to know how to stop spyware from installing itself and they have come to me for help. Don't know how to protect their computer but many savvy enough to rip DVDs and nearly all capable of ripping CDs. If I had a dollar for every parent that asked me how to copy DVD so their kids wouldn't damage the originals or how to rip DVD to a laptop or PSP for traveling I'd be rich. If you think this isn't in demand you're fooling yourself or not getting out enough. It's become so common that one day when my SO bought a movie in the grocery store the clerk behind the counter went on and on to tell her how she could rent and rip DVDs for "practically free" and that it was "legal". She knows better and we buy our DVDs (I promptly rip them to the NAS) but she got quite the chuckle telling me about the guy behind the counter. He was even telling her what software to download! (lol)
Like it or not ripping media for use on computers, iPODs, PSP, and other devices has become pretty mainstream. There are lots of advantages to being able to do this with the media when you've bought it and this hasn't escaped notice by Joe Consumer, taking that ability away from them will NOT make them happy.
P.S. And yeah, not being able to forward past the FBI warnings and previews DOES piss people off - they do not simply accept it. I help moderate a tech forum for both the knowledgable and the novice techy types - whenever the subject of DVD players comes up the Chinese models that allow you to forward past those warnings (and upscale) are always highly recommended\sought after. No one likes to be force fed and that stupid FBI warning is bitched about a great deal!
I'd like to believe that the EFF and ACLU have that kind of clout, we'll see. I already donate to the EFF every single year during DEFCON. Usually $100 in cash but methinks this year it's going to have to go up some as things are still sliding downhill. Most people don't even know who they are and when I wear one of their hats to work people look at me with suspicion wondering what they are all about, hopefully at least once in awhile one of them will check out the URL and learn something...
I do think that any one individual trying to fix this with a lawsuit is doomed to failure and financial ruin. The stakes involved for the *AAs are so high that any one person pushing is going to get stomped. that anyone has made progress against them at all in court is amazing and truly a tribute to their arrogance. My hat's off to countrylawyer who posts here, he seems to be doing great work.
Sadly, most sheeple aren't even aware of what's going on. I've educated quite a few as best I can and continue to try and point out where things seem to be going wrong but I fear it's like spitting in the wind. Better than nothing but not nearly enough. Perhaps if other things weren't in the forefront of everyone's minds at the polling place we'd have more attention. Fingers crossed that at some point people smell the coffee but I fear it will have to be much worse before it even begins to get noticed much less changed for the better.
I'm not sure I 100% agree. Microsoft doesn't look good when things goto hell and don't work. When users get what they want and it works THEN they look good. Microsoft knows this. Like it or not they are usually "good enough" for people who aren't computer geniuses to be able to get things done. Even if they had no patents and no DRM alliance they still wouldn't just disappear - too many people use their software. Linux is going to have to get a whole lot easier to use on the desktop before you have a mass exodus from Microsoft big enough to hurt them.
That said... they want to be in your living room. They have already gotten huge on desktops but now folks are buying things for the living room, expensive things. Microsoft wants to be that thing and to control it. They know that if they suck people will stop buying them, they also know if they aren't first they will lose. They ARE the first with CableCard - okay second if you count the S3. In order to be that first, in order to beat out who knwos what box running embedded Linux somone in China is probably dreaming up they had to sign in blood. They TRIED with XP to get certified and were REJECTED, so they bent over and made changes to Vista specifically to support this DRM crap. Like it or not they are the first general purpose box to be able to use CableCard. Sadly Linux will probably never be there short of a huge effort to crack the damned stuff and eventhen it might not be doable since your cable company has to allow the card to work.
Sure, Microsoft could've said no but why would they? They aren't looking to support the consumer in this endeavor, they are looking to be FIRST to market. As hosed up as CableCard is they could be only to market too. Couple this with what they are doing with the 360 - making it an extender and recorder controller and an IPTV receiver and you can see they have a grand plan in mind. Whether the consumer swallows this hook or not is the question - so far there's no seriously viable competitor at hand. No prepacked Myth box that just plugs in and works sold at Walmart by a big name and there won't be either if the "providers" have anything to say about it. Microsoft isn't gasping for breath, not yet anyway.
Anyone but me find it amusing that I have some ass telling me how he's not had to recompile his kernel in ages while two other people are scratching their heads over how to compile their kernels to get an HDTV card *specifically* designed to work with Linux working? (lol)
As for the subscription renewal for the onscreen guide with Myth - I signed up for that service when I was trying it out and while I don't use it I've also not ever received a renewal notice either. Hrm.... Add to that I've heard others bitching about the renewal . I can understand why a renewal is there etc. but that doesn't make it less of a PITA. It does beat paying.
And SQL databases never ever get hosed, nope not ever. Maintenance free...
The saddest thing is that I'd kill to have a setup like Myth working in my home. It has great potential and I've tried to set it up more than once but in the end there was no way I was going to use what I'd managed to get working as the primary interface to my family's entertainment. I get enough frief now as it is about how to get something to work and while a DTIVO is damned reliable the amount of grief you hear when something burps is incredible. At least I can partially shift blame to Direct or TIVO right now...:-) I keep watching and I have high hopes that LinuxMCE will work out or something like it but the content providers are throwing up roadblocks as fast as they can.
You're completely correct wrt Cablecard. It has lots of downsides and so far no upsides that I can find. One way cablecards with Vista don't concern me - the computer software can be updated. The Tivo S3 on the other hand is apparently going to be tougher to update due to some hardware decisions apparently made. I guess if the 2way CC ever gets created we'll sweat it then.
As for Myth, I had issues with things other than the tuner. I bought a Hauppauge dual input tuner. I had bigger issues with the video card, an Nvidia card of all things. Then there's getting a remote to work. Setting up the guide subscription, and renewing it every few months (I'm told), and on and on. Lots of fiddly things. Certainly people who get Myth running well can beat their chests with pride, but for how long will it work before something somewhere needs tweaking? Don't get me wrong, I like to tweak and play and I do that with my computer all the time. However my computer is just that *my* computer. It's not shared by all other members of the household! Break your computer and kick yourself, break the computer that provides entertainment for the rest of the family and they all come after you! Tell them it'll be just a few more minutes while you recompile the kernel for a new feature or that they need to hang on while the SQL database cleans itself and see how far that flies before they start knotting rope and looking for a tall tree. XBMC from an ease of use standpoint stomps this. It's also less complex and doesn't require much more than FTP to install. Sadly it cannot record but it does an awesome job of playing content downloaded from a Torrent onto a networked NAS.
aTV, you're right it doesn't record - yet. $300 isn't bad though and a USB HDTV tuner hooked into it would give it that recording capability. It's got a small footprint, HDMI, optical output, wireless(?), and decent CPU horsepower. Best of all, IMO, it's not got a zillion things that can be swapped around in it to make support difficult. Pick a GOOD USB tuner or three for the community and go nutz developing on it and XBMC will be history. Fat chance that it will happen though:-(
You've not tilted at too many windmills yet have you young grasshopper? I wish you the best of luck in suing these large companies over a concept that they refuse to admit even exists. I also wish you the best of luck in affording the lawyers required to do so for their pockets are both wide and quite deep.
Better we should vote with our wallets, it's worked for the music industry! Oh wait, they call us thieves when sales tank... Better yet, wait for things to get so damned bad that even the meekest of sheeple wake up from their grazing and realize that while their heads were down things went to hell. Perhaps when even they have managed to pick up pitchforks and torches to storm the gate we'll finally have a loud enough voice to get things changed. I figure it'll take another 10 years to get there though so don't hold your breath. Do keep preaching though, just keep an eye on the laws or you might find yourself jailed for having spoken out or something. It's getting pretty bad....
The problem is getitng the content into the PC for recording - be that MCE, aTV, or Myth you have to have some way to get the video into the box for both display and recording. It used to be you could simply plug your cable into the computer and decode the analog video\audio with a proper card. Then someone decide we had to pay for channels with premium content and those channels were scrambled - how to get it now? Well you simply rented a set top box (STB) and plugged IT'S output into your computer - perfect. Done right you could even switch channels etc. with the computer.
Now comes HD. HD content is too much data to receive as raw video in this manner and encode it fast enough to keep up. Instead DVRs record the already compressed content straight out of the air or in the case of STBs straight out of the firewire port with the added benefit of firewire being that you can change channels on many boxes. Except some cable providers, in violation of FCC mandate, disable the firewire output or provide boxes that don't have one.
In addition there's cablecard which is in response to a mandate by the FCC to get rid of STBs and their attendant rental fees. Cablecard is evil for all of the reasons given by myself and others in this thread - it's got crypto issues and cannot be installed into equipment that's not been "blessed" by the manufacturer and "activated" by a tech using a special voodoo like process. It's a locked black box which leaves everyone watching HD via rabbit ears and QAM encoded signals if they have a tuner for this and a cable company that actually follows the mandate to broadcast it down the wire.
So, how do you get the content you've paid for into the device you've built to time shift the viewing? Further, how do you get the content you've time shifted onto media you might with to share with friends? If you cannot get it into the computer you're SOL.... You could rent the cable companies (far) less capable DVR and pay their fee I suppose but then I'd argue we were better off with STBs that obeyed our commands...
Yes, honestly I knew all that - I just didn't want to write a book explaining it yet again.:-) The saddest thing, to me, was that the FCC mandated that these guys come up with something "better" than STBs. They were TRYING to help the consumer. However the mutated result was a bunch of twits gathering around and coming up with a way to further HURT the consumer. Controlled hardware, restricted OS, yes the cablecard computer of the future - assuming one ever really becomes widely available - will be as much a black box as anything else. It will have had to have been certified, the tech will have had to verify that certification, and it will have had to have had a 2 way crypto handshake to turn on. Hacking these won't be easy and with the laws going the way they are you're likely to wind up in jail for even ATTEMPTING it.
We're sliding backwards not moving forwards when it comes to AV PCs it seems. It's honestly just easier to torrent the content you want sometimes.
Ah, also worth noting is that the cable providers are required to send local OTA channels down their cables digitally encoded using QAM. If you've got a QAM tuner and no STB, like me:-), you can decode these and watch them for free. I pay for 'net and not cable but I still get these - the FCC mandated that the QAm encoded stuff be done too I think although I'm probably not supposed to get them with a 'net only subscription. this is\was supposed to help ut folks who couldn't receive OTA I guess. Sadly all of the premium channels you might like to record, even if you pay for them, are going to be encrypted as noted above.
It's really sad when you look back on it all. We all thought things were getitng better when we could get "premium" concetn without commercials oh so long ago. Why we could even record that stuff when not home in order to watch it when we had time using our VCRs - assuming we could program them. Then we got this new HD stuff and whoops recording thnigs has become both harder and easier. Easier in that a decent PVR will actually record the show when it comes on but harder in that flags can now control how long or even *if* the show is capable of being recorded. I *pay* for the entire set of premium channels from my provider and haven't hit any DRM roadblocks but I've also hacked my PVR (TIVO) to allow extraction and not encrypt. Now I want to go HD and no viable option exists for me to maintain what I've already got. The result? I've stuck to SD while waiting for the market to get a clue. It's not looking good despite my willingness to spend money....
How does that solve the problem? Those boxes are beholden to the SAME companies that Microsoft is and TIVO too. If you think there's not DRM in them you're mistaken.
You've got the right answer but didn't express it well. This isn't Microsoft it's the content providers who are doing this. Microsoft has licensing agreements with these people just like TIVO. Why don't TIVO S3 boxes have TIVO2Go and Multi-room viewing? Because they wouldn't license cablecard if they wanted to retain those features. Why was TIVO having issues with this very same thing - notices about HBO and other content being restricted? Because they had licenses in place that forced them to enable this sort of DRM and the broadcast content came down with those flags. Same thing apparently happened to one of the software packages that came with some tuner card too when it was "upgraded".
Microsoft isn't completely stupid, they have to know that this kind of thing will piss off customers. However much as we migh tall like them to "take a stand" and violate their licensing agreements with companies like Macrovision it's not going to happen. These folks say jump and Microsoft does it. Vista is a perfect example of this, they wanted to support cablecard and as a result had to bend over to the providers in order to satisfy their requirements. Now they will be "first" but no one will want to buy them
If we're going to be pissed off abotu this at least direct the ire at the organizations responsible. It's pretty sad that we've "advanced" so far that we're all back out shopping for antennas for our roofs now!
I could be wrong but having that firewire port available may be an FCC requirement - if they aren't living up to it you may be able to force them to provide this functionality. Hopefully others who know the rules on this can better speak to this.
As for CableCard - good luck. This little device was supposed to help us to get away from STBs. Unfortunatly you cannot just buy one and plug it in. Oh no, it must be plugged in and "activated" by the head end using a crypto handshake after the installer ensures that the box it's plugged into is "certified". So first you must figure out how to get your paws on one and then you must figure out a way to activate it. This isn't so unlike the old cards for activating SAT service I'd imagine except that it's possible these guys have learned from that experience - they appear to be using a 2-way handshake at the very least. Done right you might never see a working hacked cablecard under Myth. Nice huh?
Personally I see two HUGE problems with MythTV. The biggest is of course cablecard, eventually STBs will go away and we'll be left with these or some other nasty competitor (supposedly one exists, I've heard little about it however). You can bet that no one will ever "bless" Myth working with cablecard unless maybe they provide a closed source binary blob driver that no one finds pallatable and violates who knows what licenses. The second issue I see with Myth is the PITA factor. Myth tries to support so many damned pieces of weirdo' hardware that it's a hassle to setup and strango' things just happen. There have been some "standard" platform suggestions made in the past for Myth but no one seems to really follow them and support remains splintered. It would be nice if someone could take a page out of the TIVO, Apple, and XBMC playbook and choose a seriously solid set of hardware and then refine the hell out of the support. The aTV box could be such a thing maybe although 720P max rez would turn people off and everyone seems to be working on making the Apple software better - the platform is cheap at least. If this were to happen you'd end up with something that "just works" like XBMC only far more powerful - more like TIVO. Good luck with that, even Knoppmyth is a hassle but it was the closest thing to an Easy button I've tried for Myth yet. LinuxMCE sounds like a good idea but it's early yet and again not built for a standard platform.
I still use a hacked DTIVO despite it's not being HD and XBMC on an old XBOX because nothing I've tried has been so good I had to have it - including MCE. Too bad the S3 TIVO cannot do extraction or I'd have one and bite the bullet on cablecard. The 360 is going to be getting the ability to record and playback IPTV streams it looks like, when that happens I'm sure it will be DRM hell but maybe it will "just work". MythTV sure didn't seem to:-(
Seems that Ballmer was apparently quoting a study done by someone else during his little speech. And the author of that study says that Linux infringes no more so than any other large scale piece of code - including Windows! Where has this article gotten such detailed figures? I'm pretty sure the authoer of the original piece didn't get that specific (did he?) so does that mean that Microsoft decided to break them out? And why was Ballmer's number lower than the original author's numbers? The author seems to support Linux and feels he's being taken out of context it seems.
I have to admit to feeling just a bit creeped out by how much thought obviously goes into gaming the Patent system just based on the previous two postings. Yes, I understand why getting rejected for obviousness is expected - you want to make claims as broad as possible and only narrow them when forced to do so. However by doing so it's also obvious why the Patent Office is so overworked and buried in applications - submitters are gaming the system by forcing multiple examinations ni order to get the broadest Patents possible.
Might we perhaps come up with a one or two strikes rule? Something along the lines of "submit this piece of overlly broad crap more than X number of times and it will be rejected out of hand for all time"? That would force submitters to be more careful and lower the burden on the PTO.
Also, using this system to extend dates using appeals and extensions is a bit slimey too IMO. Submitting knowing you will be rejected but get some sort of protection from first submssion date is what seems to be going on, ick. In addition by virtue of some things being allowed and others not it's like shotgunning ideas and making the PTO be the ones to try and filter the wheat from chaff - again adding work to the examiners. Shouldn't the submitter be forced to be a bit more focused than that? Or are we all okay with someone simlpy submitting whacky idea after whacky idea hoping to get something through or run out of money while trying?
I believe we need patents and I've said as much before when this has come up. But overlly broad patents hurt innovators and software patents are crippling. Frankly I'd hate to try and sit down to write code for a "new" commercial product. The chances of being able to write anything right now and not find out later on down the road that you had somehow infringed on something you had no idea about when you wrote your code seem pretty slim.
I used to be fervantly FOR term limits. Then one day I had a discussion with someone much more political than I and he pointed out that members who serve multiple terms often become experts in parts of the legislation and can lend expertise that a short timer might not. Social Security, National Defense, things like that aren't something that can be understood at a glance.
I cannot say that I no longer believe in Term Limits being a good idea but I have to admit that it gives me pause to think about how smart it might be to throw out the guys who might actually be decent and have become experts in certain areas. I wish there was some easy solution...
http://eve.gamingradio.net/ perhaps? I listen to that playing EVE and yeah much of it is overseas and some of it is from that region I believe - certainly some of the DJ are.
Yes I believe that's the SKB keys - not in use yet and probably won't be deployed until they have tried software armoring and other techniques. It's already being discussed in depth at Doom9...
Yeah, I used to think that ripping DVD was for folks who knew computers and were geeks. That was until I worked on a few barely computer literate people's computers and found ripping software! It gets better, while my SO was buying a DVD she'd found cheap at a grocery store the clerk running the checkout starts to tell her all about how to rent and RIP DVDs - then goes so far as to tell her it's perfectly legal! He even told her what software to use - she was pretty amused and just nodded while he went on and on about it. My point is - the folks who don't live computers are doing this in amazing numbers.
Now we're talking High Def DVD and people still want that content. They have just forced a bunch of folks to patch their software. Meanwhile the guys on the Doom9 forums have hacked the HD DVD firmware for the XBOX 360 such that it ignores half the scheme and coughs up the Volume keys. http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=124294 Whoops. People will soon be flashing their drives to decrypt the media all over again. What are they going to do, revoke drives in mass? Do they think this SAME thing won't be done to Blu Ray and other hardware? The last time around they even shared keys between Blu Ray and HD DVD pressings, talk about one key to rule them all! Slysoft even released a commercial product to rip the new media...
So what do they think will happen with HD content that's ANY different than with standard DVDs? If someone can hack existing firmware to avoid these keys then what stops an offshore manufacturer from simply producing such a drive? You might have to hit a few buttons on the remote to activate it but you can bet it will happen. the biggest thing slowing it down right now i shear size of the content - 20Gigs and an hour's worth of time to rip it is going to put off a few folks I'll bet. Where are those 1TB drives being released again?:-)
The consumers will speak - this sucker is toast. It won't be long before simply buying a fake on a streetcorner or downloading from a torrent is FAR less trouble than buying the real thing.
You ought to be able to do 720P - mine can. You may need to up some of the buffers to stream it smoothly but it SHOULD work. 1080 chokes mine, kills it memory wise or CPU, not sure which but it keels right over. 720P looks damned nice though!
I'm completely torn on the 360 though. I have one with ancient firmware bought new at COSTCO last week. a friend is teling me about the wonders of Live! and how he's got his streaming video fine via ORB. But I want XBMC or something like it and that means I have a painful wait and may never be able to get on Live!. A second 360 might follow me home or if the aTV (or a mini) could be setup to something as good as XBMC (a "standard" Myth install maybe?)I'd maybe consider that. I really hate being stuck like this:-(
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I use whatever disks I had laying arouind to build my NAS but the data is still protected. The software I use is developed by Lime-Technology http://www.lime-technology.com/. It's NOT RAID and instead is a JBOD setup with the first drive being a PARITY drive. This means that if one of my drives fails I still have access to the data. If TWO drives fail I lose TWO drives worth of data - *not* the whole damned thing. The data is not striped and is stored in a ReiserFS F/S so I can pull a drive and mount it elsewhere if I desire. This also means that if a drive isn't being acively used it can be spun down - try that with a striped RAID :-) When you write only the parity disk and the disk being written to need to be spinning, love that. The system can hold more than 12 disks if you use their top of the line software - mine only holds 12 total for a bit over 4.5TB worth of storage. Boots a customized Linux off of a memory stick and yeas source for mods is distributed but not the source for the WEB management stuff - he appears to be GPL compliant.
:-) Check out the user forums on the site, the developer is pretty responsive...
Some limitations: Parity drive must be as big or bigger than all others. Each drive is a seperate mount point unless you use a funky sort of shared folder feature. The system doesn't have as high a transfer speed as a RAID would, however it streams video for me to an XBMC XBOX1 just fine. It doesn't have a super robust system to notify you of failed drives out of the box although some users have added this functionality. Not a whole lot of security although I've met someone who has added this on and the developer is also working on expanding this in the future. Pretty decent support overall IMO and he's just moved to the 2.6 kernel - I've yet to upgrade though.
All in all this system seems to be perfect for HTPCs and I also use it to store backup images of all my workstations. All of my music and DVDs are stored on it and I'm about to build a second one as I need still more storage and have "spare" drives that I've pulled from the existing one as I've upgraded that I'd like to put to good use
What you've said sums this argument up pretty well IMO! TIVO took GPL code who's spirit was that changes had to be released back (and to be fair they did) but then hardware locked the systems such that if anyone modified them the sysem refused to run. They didn't violate the specifics of the license but they certainly seem to have violated the spirit which was to allow people freedom to work with the code. I'm *not* a contributor of code, it's not my talent, but I am certainly one of the ones who was fairly frustrated by what TIVO did. That TIVO is upset about GPL3 is fine by me - some of the changes were made to specifically block the crap they pulled. :-)
The BSD license I've not ever learned too much about and this discussion has been pretty enlightening. The point you've made about having code run in more places vs having changes released back is a very good one and appears to define the two camps well. I would imagine that writing code and then having it improved upon by others would be pretty cool, I'm surprised that many people are comfortable allowing their code to be used\modified by others (credited or not). Different strokes for different folks it seems and you've captured the two shools pretty well I think - I believe I'd probably be more of the GPL type.
It will be VERY interesting to see how many adopt the GPL3 license. That Linus isn't is interesting but I guess if everyone else does it won't matter too much. TIVO might actually be forced to write their own stuff from a more basic level moving forward, serves them right IMO for having locked the hardware to begin with - "content providers" be damned. Close the hardware? Write your own damned code....
I've done this for my DVD. 4+ TB NAS (unRAID), plus an old XBOX1 hacked to run XBMC = perfect HTPC front end for downloaded and ripped media. It will also play games, emulators like MAME, give weather info, allow me to watch YouTube vids, Apple Trailers, and plays all of my MP3s too. If it could record and play back greater than 720P I'd be in heaven.
;-)
$50 for old XBOX, $30 for chip, XBMC for free. XBMC is currently being ported to Linux and will be aimed at specific hardware platforms so stay tuned if hacking an XBOX is too hard for you
I had a dog that was nearly killed by a Black Widow while visitng my girlfriend, put the dog into a coma for days and she awoke deaf and blind. She regained hearing but not sight except for on rare occasions when she could see for maybe a day and then go dark again. Took us forever to figure out it was a spider, we finally found the welt, and due to the symptoms we deduced it was a Black Widows vs a Brown Recluse which is also native to that area. It wasn't until we cleaned that place out for a move that we found the nest behind some furniture - spider still in residence. Black Widow are pretty nasty little buggers, this dog was a full up 50lbs and it took heroic measures by the Vet to save her. Not a spider to mess with for sure....
Ripping DVDs has become commonplace. I've been surprised more than once while working on someone's computer to find that they not only have DVD ripping software but several movies ON their computer. Generally I'm working on these computers because the person was too clueless to know how to stop spyware from installing itself and they have come to me for help. Don't know how to protect their computer but many savvy enough to rip DVDs and nearly all capable of ripping CDs. If I had a dollar for every parent that asked me how to copy DVD so their kids wouldn't damage the originals or how to rip DVD to a laptop or PSP for traveling I'd be rich. If you think this isn't in demand you're fooling yourself or not getting out enough. It's become so common that one day when my SO bought a movie in the grocery store the clerk behind the counter went on and on to tell her how she could rent and rip DVDs for "practically free" and that it was "legal". She knows better and we buy our DVDs (I promptly rip them to the NAS) but she got quite the chuckle telling me about the guy behind the counter. He was even telling her what software to download! (lol)
Like it or not ripping media for use on computers, iPODs, PSP, and other devices has become pretty mainstream. There are lots of advantages to being able to do this with the media when you've bought it and this hasn't escaped notice by Joe Consumer, taking that ability away from them will NOT make them happy.
P.S. And yeah, not being able to forward past the FBI warnings and previews DOES piss people off - they do not simply accept it. I help moderate a tech forum for both the knowledgable and the novice techy types - whenever the subject of DVD players comes up the Chinese models that allow you to forward past those warnings (and upscale) are always highly recommended\sought after. No one likes to be force fed and that stupid FBI warning is bitched about a great deal!
I'd like to believe that the EFF and ACLU have that kind of clout, we'll see. I already donate to the EFF every single year during DEFCON. Usually $100 in cash but methinks this year it's going to have to go up some as things are still sliding downhill. Most people don't even know who they are and when I wear one of their hats to work people look at me with suspicion wondering what they are all about, hopefully at least once in awhile one of them will check out the URL and learn something...
I do think that any one individual trying to fix this with a lawsuit is doomed to failure and financial ruin. The stakes involved for the *AAs are so high that any one person pushing is going to get stomped. that anyone has made progress against them at all in court is amazing and truly a tribute to their arrogance. My hat's off to countrylawyer who posts here, he seems to be doing great work.
Sadly, most sheeple aren't even aware of what's going on. I've educated quite a few as best I can and continue to try and point out where things seem to be going wrong but I fear it's like spitting in the wind. Better than nothing but not nearly enough. Perhaps if other things weren't in the forefront of everyone's minds at the polling place we'd have more attention. Fingers crossed that at some point people smell the coffee but I fear it will have to be much worse before it even begins to get noticed much less changed for the better.
I'm not sure I 100% agree. Microsoft doesn't look good when things goto hell and don't work. When users get what they want and it works THEN they look good. Microsoft knows this. Like it or not they are usually "good enough" for people who aren't computer geniuses to be able to get things done. Even if they had no patents and no DRM alliance they still wouldn't just disappear - too many people use their software. Linux is going to have to get a whole lot easier to use on the desktop before you have a mass exodus from Microsoft big enough to hurt them.
:-Pi sta-cablecard-media-center-pc-part-2-perfecto/
That said... they want to be in your living room. They have already gotten huge on desktops but now folks are buying things for the living room, expensive things. Microsoft wants to be that thing and to control it. They know that if they suck people will stop buying them, they also know if they aren't first they will lose. They ARE the first with CableCard - okay second if you count the S3. In order to be that first, in order to beat out who knwos what box running embedded Linux somone in China is probably dreaming up they had to sign in blood. They TRIED with XP to get certified and were REJECTED, so they bent over and made changes to Vista specifically to support this DRM crap. Like it or not they are the first general purpose box to be able to use CableCard. Sadly Linux will probably never be there short of a huge effort to crack the damned stuff and eventhen it might not be doable since your cable company has to allow the card to work.
Sure, Microsoft could've said no but why would they? They aren't looking to support the consumer in this endeavor, they are looking to be FIRST to market. As hosed up as CableCard is they could be only to market too. Couple this with what they are doing with the 360 - making it an extender and recorder controller and an IPTV receiver and you can see they have a grand plan in mind. Whether the consumer swallows this hook or not is the question - so far there's no seriously viable competitor at hand. No prepacked Myth box that just plugs in and works sold at Walmart by a big name and there won't be either if the "providers" have anything to say about it. Microsoft isn't gasping for breath, not yet anyway.
Some bumps in the road so far though
contrasted with http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/21/installing-a-v
Anyone but me find it amusing that I have some ass telling me how he's not had to recompile his kernel in ages while two other people are scratching their heads over how to compile their kernels to get an HDTV card *specifically* designed to work with Linux working? (lol)
:-) I keep watching and I have high hopes that LinuxMCE will work out or something like it but the content providers are throwing up roadblocks as fast as they can.
As for the subscription renewal for the onscreen guide with Myth - I signed up for that service when I was trying it out and while I don't use it I've also not ever received a renewal notice either. Hrm.... Add to that I've heard others bitching about the renewal . I can understand why a renewal is there etc. but that doesn't make it less of a PITA. It does beat paying.
And SQL databases never ever get hosed, nope not ever. Maintenance free...
The saddest thing is that I'd kill to have a setup like Myth working in my home. It has great potential and I've tried to set it up more than once but in the end there was no way I was going to use what I'd managed to get working as the primary interface to my family's entertainment. I get enough frief now as it is about how to get something to work and while a DTIVO is damned reliable the amount of grief you hear when something burps is incredible. At least I can partially shift blame to Direct or TIVO right now...
You're completely correct wrt Cablecard. It has lots of downsides and so far no upsides that I can find. One way cablecards with Vista don't concern me - the computer software can be updated. The Tivo S3 on the other hand is apparently going to be tougher to update due to some hardware decisions apparently made. I guess if the 2way CC ever gets created we'll sweat it then.
:-(
As for Myth, I had issues with things other than the tuner. I bought a Hauppauge dual input tuner. I had bigger issues with the video card, an Nvidia card of all things. Then there's getting a remote to work. Setting up the guide subscription, and renewing it every few months (I'm told), and on and on. Lots of fiddly things. Certainly people who get Myth running well can beat their chests with pride, but for how long will it work before something somewhere needs tweaking? Don't get me wrong, I like to tweak and play and I do that with my computer all the time. However my computer is just that *my* computer. It's not shared by all other members of the household! Break your computer and kick yourself, break the computer that provides entertainment for the rest of the family and they all come after you! Tell them it'll be just a few more minutes while you recompile the kernel for a new feature or that they need to hang on while the SQL database cleans itself and see how far that flies before they start knotting rope and looking for a tall tree. XBMC from an ease of use standpoint stomps this. It's also less complex and doesn't require much more than FTP to install. Sadly it cannot record but it does an awesome job of playing content downloaded from a Torrent onto a networked NAS.
aTV, you're right it doesn't record - yet. $300 isn't bad though and a USB HDTV tuner hooked into it would give it that recording capability. It's got a small footprint, HDMI, optical output, wireless(?), and decent CPU horsepower. Best of all, IMO, it's not got a zillion things that can be swapped around in it to make support difficult. Pick a GOOD USB tuner or three for the community and go nutz developing on it and XBMC will be history. Fat chance that it will happen though
You've not tilted at too many windmills yet have you young grasshopper? I wish you the best of luck in suing these large companies over a concept that they refuse to admit even exists. I also wish you the best of luck in affording the lawyers required to do so for their pockets are both wide and quite deep.
Better we should vote with our wallets, it's worked for the music industry! Oh wait, they call us thieves when sales tank... Better yet, wait for things to get so damned bad that even the meekest of sheeple wake up from their grazing and realize that while their heads were down things went to hell. Perhaps when even they have managed to pick up pitchforks and torches to storm the gate we'll finally have a loud enough voice to get things changed. I figure it'll take another 10 years to get there though so don't hold your breath. Do keep preaching though, just keep an eye on the laws or you might find yourself jailed for having spoken out or something. It's getting pretty bad....
The problem is getitng the content into the PC for recording - be that MCE, aTV, or Myth you have to have some way to get the video into the box for both display and recording. It used to be you could simply plug your cable into the computer and decode the analog video\audio with a proper card. Then someone decide we had to pay for channels with premium content and those channels were scrambled - how to get it now? Well you simply rented a set top box (STB) and plugged IT'S output into your computer - perfect. Done right you could even switch channels etc. with the computer.
Now comes HD. HD content is too much data to receive as raw video in this manner and encode it fast enough to keep up. Instead DVRs record the already compressed content straight out of the air or in the case of STBs straight out of the firewire port with the added benefit of firewire being that you can change channels on many boxes. Except some cable providers, in violation of FCC mandate, disable the firewire output or provide boxes that don't have one.
In addition there's cablecard which is in response to a mandate by the FCC to get rid of STBs and their attendant rental fees. Cablecard is evil for all of the reasons given by myself and others in this thread - it's got crypto issues and cannot be installed into equipment that's not been "blessed" by the manufacturer and "activated" by a tech using a special voodoo like process. It's a locked black box which leaves everyone watching HD via rabbit ears and QAM encoded signals if they have a tuner for this and a cable company that actually follows the mandate to broadcast it down the wire.
So, how do you get the content you've paid for into the device you've built to time shift the viewing? Further, how do you get the content you've time shifted onto media you might with to share with friends? If you cannot get it into the computer you're SOL.... You could rent the cable companies (far) less capable DVR and pay their fee I suppose but then I'd argue we were better off with STBs that obeyed our commands...
Yes, honestly I knew all that - I just didn't want to write a book explaining it yet again. :-) The saddest thing, to me, was that the FCC mandated that these guys come up with something "better" than STBs. They were TRYING to help the consumer. However the mutated result was a bunch of twits gathering around and coming up with a way to further HURT the consumer. Controlled hardware, restricted OS, yes the cablecard computer of the future - assuming one ever really becomes widely available - will be as much a black box as anything else. It will have had to have been certified, the tech will have had to verify that certification, and it will have had to have had a 2 way crypto handshake to turn on. Hacking these won't be easy and with the laws going the way they are you're likely to wind up in jail for even ATTEMPTING it.
We're sliding backwards not moving forwards when it comes to AV PCs it seems. It's honestly just easier to torrent the content you want sometimes.
Ah, also worth noting is that the cable providers are required to send local OTA channels down their cables digitally encoded using QAM. If you've got a QAM tuner and no STB, like me :-), you can decode these and watch them for free. I pay for 'net and not cable but I still get these - the FCC mandated that the QAm encoded stuff be done too I think although I'm probably not supposed to get them with a 'net only subscription. this is\was supposed to help ut folks who couldn't receive OTA I guess. Sadly all of the premium channels you might like to record, even if you pay for them, are going to be encrypted as noted above.
It's really sad when you look back on it all. We all thought things were getitng better when we could get "premium" concetn without commercials oh so long ago. Why we could even record that stuff when not home in order to watch it when we had time using our VCRs - assuming we could program them. Then we got this new HD stuff and whoops recording thnigs has become both harder and easier. Easier in that a decent PVR will actually record the show when it comes on but harder in that flags can now control how long or even *if* the show is capable of being recorded. I *pay* for the entire set of premium channels from my provider and haven't hit any DRM roadblocks but I've also hacked my PVR (TIVO) to allow extraction and not encrypt. Now I want to go HD and no viable option exists for me to maintain what I've already got. The result? I've stuck to SD while waiting for the market to get a clue. It's not looking good despite my willingness to spend money....
How does that solve the problem? Those boxes are beholden to the SAME companies that Microsoft is and TIVO too. If you think there's not DRM in them you're mistaken.
You've got the right answer but didn't express it well. This isn't Microsoft it's the content providers who are doing this. Microsoft has licensing agreements with these people just like TIVO. Why don't TIVO S3 boxes have TIVO2Go and Multi-room viewing? Because they wouldn't license cablecard if they wanted to retain those features. Why was TIVO having issues with this very same thing - notices about HBO and other content being restricted? Because they had licenses in place that forced them to enable this sort of DRM and the broadcast content came down with those flags. Same thing apparently happened to one of the software packages that came with some tuner card too when it was "upgraded".
Microsoft isn't completely stupid, they have to know that this kind of thing will piss off customers. However much as we migh tall like them to "take a stand" and violate their licensing agreements with companies like Macrovision it's not going to happen. These folks say jump and Microsoft does it. Vista is a perfect example of this, they wanted to support cablecard and as a result had to bend over to the providers in order to satisfy their requirements. Now they will be "first" but no one will want to buy them
If we're going to be pissed off abotu this at least direct the ire at the organizations responsible. It's pretty sad that we've "advanced" so far that we're all back out shopping for antennas for our roofs now!
I could be wrong but having that firewire port available may be an FCC requirement - if they aren't living up to it you may be able to force them to provide this functionality. Hopefully others who know the rules on this can better speak to this.
:-(
As for CableCard - good luck. This little device was supposed to help us to get away from STBs. Unfortunatly you cannot just buy one and plug it in. Oh no, it must be plugged in and "activated" by the head end using a crypto handshake after the installer ensures that the box it's plugged into is "certified". So first you must figure out how to get your paws on one and then you must figure out a way to activate it. This isn't so unlike the old cards for activating SAT service I'd imagine except that it's possible these guys have learned from that experience - they appear to be using a 2-way handshake at the very least. Done right you might never see a working hacked cablecard under Myth. Nice huh?
Personally I see two HUGE problems with MythTV. The biggest is of course cablecard, eventually STBs will go away and we'll be left with these or some other nasty competitor (supposedly one exists, I've heard little about it however). You can bet that no one will ever "bless" Myth working with cablecard unless maybe they provide a closed source binary blob driver that no one finds pallatable and violates who knows what licenses. The second issue I see with Myth is the PITA factor. Myth tries to support so many damned pieces of weirdo' hardware that it's a hassle to setup and strango' things just happen. There have been some "standard" platform suggestions made in the past for Myth but no one seems to really follow them and support remains splintered. It would be nice if someone could take a page out of the TIVO, Apple, and XBMC playbook and choose a seriously solid set of hardware and then refine the hell out of the support. The aTV box could be such a thing maybe although 720P max rez would turn people off and everyone seems to be working on making the Apple software better - the platform is cheap at least. If this were to happen you'd end up with something that "just works" like XBMC only far more powerful - more like TIVO. Good luck with that, even Knoppmyth is a hassle but it was the closest thing to an Easy button I've tried for Myth yet. LinuxMCE sounds like a good idea but it's early yet and again not built for a standard platform.
I still use a hacked DTIVO despite it's not being HD and XBMC on an old XBOX because nothing I've tried has been so good I had to have it - including MCE. Too bad the S3 TIVO cannot do extraction or I'd have one and bite the bullet on cablecard. The 360 is going to be getting the ability to record and playback IPTV streams it looks like, when that happens I'm sure it will be DRM hell but maybe it will "just work". MythTV sure didn't seem to
http://www.eweek.com/print_article2/0,1217,a=13966 9,00.asp
Seems that Ballmer was apparently quoting a study done by someone else during his little speech. And the author of that study says that Linux infringes no more so than any other large scale piece of code - including Windows! Where has this article gotten such detailed figures? I'm pretty sure the authoer of the original piece didn't get that specific (did he?) so does that mean that Microsoft decided to break them out? And why was Ballmer's number lower than the original author's numbers? The author seems to support Linux and feels he's being taken out of context it seems.
I have to admit to feeling just a bit creeped out by how much thought obviously goes into gaming the Patent system just based on the previous two postings. Yes, I understand why getting rejected for obviousness is expected - you want to make claims as broad as possible and only narrow them when forced to do so. However by doing so it's also obvious why the Patent Office is so overworked and buried in applications - submitters are gaming the system by forcing multiple examinations ni order to get the broadest Patents possible.
Might we perhaps come up with a one or two strikes rule? Something along the lines of "submit this piece of overlly broad crap more than X number of times and it will be rejected out of hand for all time"? That would force submitters to be more careful and lower the burden on the PTO.
Also, using this system to extend dates using appeals and extensions is a bit slimey too IMO. Submitting knowing you will be rejected but get some sort of protection from first submssion date is what seems to be going on, ick. In addition by virtue of some things being allowed and others not it's like shotgunning ideas and making the PTO be the ones to try and filter the wheat from chaff - again adding work to the examiners. Shouldn't the submitter be forced to be a bit more focused than that? Or are we all okay with someone simlpy submitting whacky idea after whacky idea hoping to get something through or run out of money while trying?
I believe we need patents and I've said as much before when this has come up. But overlly broad patents hurt innovators and software patents are crippling. Frankly I'd hate to try and sit down to write code for a "new" commercial product. The chances of being able to write anything right now and not find out later on down the road that you had somehow infringed on something you had no idea about when you wrote your code seem pretty slim.
I used to be fervantly FOR term limits. Then one day I had a discussion with someone much more political than I and he pointed out that members who serve multiple terms often become experts in parts of the legislation and can lend expertise that a short timer might not. Social Security, National Defense, things like that aren't something that can be understood at a glance.
I cannot say that I no longer believe in Term Limits being a good idea but I have to admit that it gives me pause to think about how smart it might be to throw out the guys who might actually be decent and have become experts in certain areas. I wish there was some easy solution...
1080 no, 720 YES! Looks damned good too. XBMC is awesome and revised regularly - love it.
http://eve.gamingradio.net/ perhaps? I listen to that playing EVE and yeah much of it is overseas and some of it is from that region I believe - certainly some of the DJ are.
Yes I believe that's the SKB keys - not in use yet and probably won't be deployed until they have tried software armoring and other techniques. It's already being discussed in depth at Doom9...
Yeah, I used to think that ripping DVD was for folks who knew computers and were geeks. That was until I worked on a few barely computer literate people's computers and found ripping software! It gets better, while my SO was buying a DVD she'd found cheap at a grocery store the clerk running the checkout starts to tell her all about how to rent and RIP DVDs - then goes so far as to tell her it's perfectly legal! He even told her what software to use - she was pretty amused and just nodded while he went on and on about it. My point is - the folks who don't live computers are doing this in amazing numbers.
:-)
Now we're talking High Def DVD and people still want that content. They have just forced a bunch of folks to patch their software. Meanwhile the guys on the Doom9 forums have hacked the HD DVD firmware for the XBOX 360 such that it ignores half the scheme and coughs up the Volume keys. http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=124294 Whoops. People will soon be flashing their drives to decrypt the media all over again. What are they going to do, revoke drives in mass? Do they think this SAME thing won't be done to Blu Ray and other hardware? The last time around they even shared keys between Blu Ray and HD DVD pressings, talk about one key to rule them all! Slysoft even released a commercial product to rip the new media...
So what do they think will happen with HD content that's ANY different than with standard DVDs? If someone can hack existing firmware to avoid these keys then what stops an offshore manufacturer from simply producing such a drive? You might have to hit a few buttons on the remote to activate it but you can bet it will happen. the biggest thing slowing it down right now i shear size of the content - 20Gigs and an hour's worth of time to rip it is going to put off a few folks I'll bet. Where are those 1TB drives being released again?
The consumers will speak - this sucker is toast. It won't be long before simply buying a fake on a streetcorner or downloading from a torrent is FAR less trouble than buying the real thing.
You ought to be able to do 720P - mine can. You may need to up some of the buffers to stream it smoothly but it SHOULD work. 1080 chokes mine, kills it memory wise or CPU, not sure which but it keels right over. 720P looks damned nice though!
:-(
I'm completely torn on the 360 though. I have one with ancient firmware bought new at COSTCO last week. a friend is teling me about the wonders of Live! and how he's got his streaming video fine via ORB. But I want XBMC or something like it and that means I have a painful wait and may never be able to get on Live!. A second 360 might follow me home or if the aTV (or a mini) could be setup to something as good as XBMC (a "standard" Myth install maybe?)I'd maybe consider that. I really hate being stuck like this
Click it and see TinyURL filter his crap! (lol)