The answer is: sorta! Native connection to a digital cable service or encrypted digital signal won't work, no matter what capture card you're using, and some cable/satellite services encrypt their digital signal to the set-top box. In other words, you need an open digital signal to use a DIY PVR.
That said, there is an option that some folks use & I am looking into: you connect your cable/sat box to the capture card, and use something called an IR blaster, which is basically a Serial or USB cable with an IR transmitter at the end - it transmits (or, if set properly relays) IR signals heard from your computer to the cable/sat box. Such a setup has P.I.T.A. potential, but this appears to be a worn path if you're willing to do some research. I like this idea because it means being able to use the cable/sat box to order piped-in movies, which I'm addicted to & would definitely assist the wife acceptance factor.
This might open the door for homebrew, if Sony's downloadable video game process could be reverse-engineered at a different site (where the game source would be redirected by a firewall perhaps). Then you could benefit from the homebrew scene without needing to stay locked in at the original firmware.
It's reasonable for software companies to push for console-only releases - think of how much money they would save by closing off the open arena of PC hardware troubleshooting, and you get the idea. I might add that this action would choke off the DIY game-making crowd pretty well, and places like Garage Games would then expand to become a mindsharing portal for people to figure out how to port games to consoles on the cheap.
To piggyback, Torque uses a modified version of C scripting, which might be an overly tall order for a few months' project. I might recommend getting a book called Game Programming for Teens and make whatever simple game you want. It uses Blitz Basic which is simple and straightforward. A nice place to start.
If however you wanted to abandon the cross-platform requirement, use a 3D-capable presentations program like Liquid Media, which also handles variables and J# scripting, with built-in collision detection and lighting.
In any case, you will need to focus first on getting your greaphical content in order and planning out how you want your game to play and look like.
Let's not kid ourselves, this interface will reintroduce the divide between programmers and users. I for one welcome this divide, which brings back the IT mystique & presige (read: more $$ for real computer makers/problem solvers), and hopefully puts users back in the position of needing computer help for real type computer problems; not the usual "how the hell does one use this" issues.
The industry NEEDS these kinds of ideas! Regular users no longer want to be their own IT departments, and are getting sick of having to do so due to the usual slathering of viral/spyware problems - they'll welcome a new paradigm if it gets presented/promoted rightly.
One might ask that question for every OS. For the Amiga (being still in beta), the answer is definitely yes, but the real clue is given on Page 5 where you see the reviewer using the Amiga's media player to listen to the immortal "Every OS Sucks" by 3 Dead Trolls in a Baggie!
If you think that you'd like to hash out a quick and dirty game, you have 2 options:
1) take some basic and intermediate classes at your local university or technical college. Then look at some game programming options then and only then, like Game Institute or something like that afterwards.
2) Get comfortable with an advanced presentations program like Flash or Liquid Media which at present handle enough options to put some simple games together. It will have even more options to manipulate 3D environments in the near future, so I would say this is a real possibility for you, since it saves the programming pain. You sacrifice the flexibiltiy of a real game engine and have to work with the constraints of a presentation. Still very workable IMHO.
I definitely don't see a problem, esp. where "valued customers" = lambs to the slaughter!
No thank you really, I'd rather not be the first to implement something like SP2 again. If people want to pay for that 'privilege', then bombs away!
I must remember to put a smiley or something in posts like that, as it is quite clear that automobile ID tags have everything to do with national security.
(This is not a troll, I just had to laugh when someone thought I was being serious!)
If anything, we should be grateful for anything that pushes the urge/need for faster Internet access. It will serve only to encourage cheapening current speeds and make LAN-type speeds more available to the rest of the populous.
That of course requires the 3rd world and currently-duped (first world) Juno/AOL Speedband customers to know a real product when they see it.
WHAT??? Remember your history. AV was part of DOS once. The question is, why did M$ stop doing it until now? Maybe because they weren't making extra coin on it I reckon.
If Evolution then connects to Suse's Openexchange Server as seamlessly as to M$'s, then suddenly Microsoft Exchange Server is the unwitting new standard in groupware servers.
"Technical Collaboration The Technical Collaboration Agreement will provide both companies with access to aspects of each other's server-based technology and will enable them to use this information to develop new server software products that will work better together. The cooperation will initially center on Windows Server and Windows Client, but will eventually include other important areas"
Like Palladium? Security nuts would love it if M$ and Sun partnered up on internet-viewable CPU ID's.
But M$ IS in the hardware market. At present, they make everything but full computers. If they plan to buy super quantities of hardware and low-ball the manufacturers like Wal-Mart does, I could see where this comment might be true, but it would attempt to make Silicon Valley & the Oriental manufacturing plants into sweatshops, and that WOULD be a feat that us consumers might blindly buy into, which would be sad if it worked. It probably would also mean mere semi-stable computers (given the conditions would have to be of lesser quality than at present, or hardware with less or no expensive cache memory in the places that matter - Remember the Palladium or the Champ hard drives?). Ugh!
Ok, I will be first in line to say that parents could show more miles of discretion in what they allow their children to play. I'll also be first in line to say that as an adult, violent videogames can be a great diversion - especially for those dissatisfied with office work.
That said however, it strikes me as unbelievable as to how often peaceful strategies in gaming is ignored. The only FPS-type games to give it credence is Deus Ex, and even there you have to opt for the frequent take-down. This mirrors the spy life, I know, but encouraging life-ending behaviors does show a lack of imagination on the storywriters' parts. Redemptive violence is such an old theme that we don't know how to find alternatives. Every writer (from now to the beginning of time, and that does include Shakespeare) that has blindly bought into this paradigm. We should be ashamed.
I dare say it's a trap. Not the kind of trap that warrants censorship, but a greater imagination and artistic creativity than we currently believe in. I just don't see anyone who's got the balls for it anymore.
Slashdot Mirror
With no registry to leave residue in, this problem doesn't worry me so much, but then maybe Dell will find a way to introduce cruft.
That said, there is an option that some folks use & I am looking into: you connect your cable/sat box to the capture card, and use something called an IR blaster, which is basically a Serial or USB cable with an IR transmitter at the end - it transmits (or, if set properly relays) IR signals heard from your computer to the cable/sat box. Such a setup has P.I.T.A. potential, but this appears to be a worn path if you're willing to do some research. I like this idea because it means being able to use the cable/sat box to order piped-in movies, which I'm addicted to & would definitely assist the wife acceptance factor.
This might open the door for homebrew, if Sony's downloadable video game process could be reverse-engineered at a different site (where the game source would be redirected by a firewall perhaps). Then you could benefit from the homebrew scene without needing to stay locked in at the original firmware.
Just a thought. Anyone care to comment?
I know a lot of one dimensional people. Would this take pictures of them too?
Nah it just means the people surveyed aren't really scientists at all, which is what happens when you sidestep the method.
It's reasonable for software companies to push for console-only releases - think of how much money they would save by closing off the open arena of PC hardware troubleshooting, and you get the idea. I might add that this action would choke off the DIY game-making crowd pretty well, and places like Garage Games would then expand to become a mindsharing portal for people to figure out how to port games to consoles on the cheap.
If however you wanted to abandon the cross-platform requirement, use a 3D-capable presentations program like Liquid Media, which also handles variables and J# scripting, with built-in collision detection and lighting.
In any case, you will need to focus first on getting your greaphical content in order and planning out how you want your game to play and look like.
BEST OF LUCK!!! I'm pulling for you!
The industry NEEDS these kinds of ideas! Regular users no longer want to be their own IT departments, and are getting sick of having to do so due to the usual slathering of viral/spyware problems - they'll welcome a new paradigm if it gets presented/promoted rightly.
Christ once lauded a poor old woman for donating her last penny. The metric then, is "when it hurts".
One might ask that question for every OS. For the Amiga (being still in beta), the answer is definitely yes, but the real clue is given on Page 5 where you see the reviewer using the Amiga's media player to listen to the immortal "Every OS Sucks" by 3 Dead Trolls in a Baggie!
If you think that you'd like to hash out a quick and dirty game, you have 2 options:
1) take some basic and intermediate classes at your local university or technical college. Then look at some game programming options then and only then, like Game Institute or something like that afterwards.
2) Get comfortable with an advanced presentations program like Flash or Liquid Media which at present handle enough options to put some simple games together. It will have even more options to manipulate 3D environments in the near future, so I would say this is a real possibility for you, since it saves the programming pain. You sacrifice the flexibiltiy of a real game engine and have to work with the constraints of a presentation. Still very workable IMHO.
I definitely don't see a problem, esp. where "valued customers" = lambs to the slaughter! No thank you really, I'd rather not be the first to implement something like SP2 again. If people want to pay for that 'privilege', then bombs away!
(This is not a troll, I just had to laugh when someone thought I was being serious!)
There goes our defense system again...
If anything, we should be grateful for anything that pushes the urge/need for faster Internet access. It will serve only to encourage cheapening current speeds and make LAN-type speeds more available to the rest of the populous.
That of course requires the 3rd world and currently-duped (first world) Juno/AOL Speedband customers to know a real product when they see it.
WHAT??? Remember your history. AV was part of DOS once. The question is, why did M$ stop doing it until now? Maybe because they weren't making extra coin on it I reckon.
Maybe, but Valve produces something people actually want. SCO on the other hand...
Spoon!
And if Al (inventor-of-the-internet) Gore serves as an example, the winning politician most certainly will.
If Evolution then connects to Suse's Openexchange Server as seamlessly as to M$'s, then suddenly Microsoft Exchange Server is the unwitting new standard in groupware servers.
My favorite acronyms:
Project Management Professional
and
Canadian Reinsurance Administration Professionals!
Wasn't even a fetus by then. Just a mere RFC between my 'rents.
Like Palladium? Security nuts would love it if M$ and Sun partnered up on internet-viewable CPU ID's.
I'm not sure I want too look like I've wet my pants every time I want to look up an address.
But M$ IS in the hardware market. At present, they make everything but full computers. If they plan to buy super quantities of hardware and low-ball the manufacturers like Wal-Mart does, I could see where this comment might be true, but it would attempt to make Silicon Valley & the Oriental manufacturing plants into sweatshops, and that WOULD be a feat that us consumers might blindly buy into, which would be sad if it worked. It probably would also mean mere semi-stable computers (given the conditions would have to be of lesser quality than at present, or hardware with less or no expensive cache memory in the places that matter - Remember the Palladium or the Champ hard drives?). Ugh!
Ok, I will be first in line to say that parents could show more miles of discretion in what they allow their children to play. I'll also be first in line to say that as an adult, violent videogames can be a great diversion - especially for those dissatisfied with office work. That said however, it strikes me as unbelievable as to how often peaceful strategies in gaming is ignored. The only FPS-type games to give it credence is Deus Ex, and even there you have to opt for the frequent take-down. This mirrors the spy life, I know, but encouraging life-ending behaviors does show a lack of imagination on the storywriters' parts. Redemptive violence is such an old theme that we don't know how to find alternatives. Every writer (from now to the beginning of time, and that does include Shakespeare) that has blindly bought into this paradigm. We should be ashamed. I dare say it's a trap. Not the kind of trap that warrants censorship, but a greater imagination and artistic creativity than we currently believe in. I just don't see anyone who's got the balls for it anymore.