OT: open source/ hardware video recorder in NY Times

[Erich Newell]

I'm not sure which device Shawn was commenting on ("It doesn't do HD
yet!!"), but I have an HDHomerun and I can tell you it records OTA
ATSC HDTV very nicely! I absolutely love this device and cannot
recommend it highly enough. I currently have 2 HD antennae
(http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2253765)
attached to it and record inordinate amounts of PBS along with Heroes,
The Office and My Name is Earl in beautiful HD using MythTV (which is
also kind enough to remove commercials for me). Granted, I did have to
change some of the Myth settings so that it wouldn't try and compress
the video. I have ~1TB dedicated to my PVR and am really more
concerned about getting quality video to my 60" Sony Wega than saving
disk space.

The only downside (if there is one) is that recording 2 streams while
pushing a 3rd uses approximately 60Mbit, which stresses my 100Mbit
switched network to the max. I'm hoping to alleviate this by
multi-homing these systems with 802.11a cards and using the
multi-homing benefits of SCTP to overcome this, but I'm uncertain if
MythTV is setup to work with this protocol properly or how hard it
would be to do the conversion myself.

As a result, I now have an extra pcHDTV I'd be happy to part with for
a reasonable price. If anyone is interested, drop me a line.

On a related, but slightly OT note: If you are looking to use *any*
standard HD consumer equipment to view FTA HD satellite transmissions
in the USA it will not work. The worldwide standard for HD
transmission is H.264 mpeg4 via 8PSK. US network providers have again
gone their own way in an effort to stymie piracy. They use Turbo-8PSK
which, although defined within a subset of 8PSK, is not compatible
with that equipment. Further, they use H.264 with PFF frames which is
only handled properly by VLC in the latest trunk available via svn.


Share and Enjoy.

- Erich



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