On Monday 14 February 2005 6:49, Cory Papenfuss wrote: > > Really doubt this becomes available before July 05, which is when > > the > > broadcast flag comes into effect. Even if it comes out afterwards, > > I doubt > > myth will be able to use any card that obeys the boradcast flag. So > > you will > > have to just keep on wanting it all, cause it doesnt look like youll > > get it > > all at all. > > > The bigger question is whether or not there will ever be a > linux-friendly implementation of the CableCard. When cable companies > go > to all (or almost all) digital, homebrew PVRs will be marginalized if > they > can't play encrypted streams. Piracy issues notwithstanding, playing > encrypted content is something that you should be able to do if you're > paying for the service. It shouldn't matter what kind of box you want > to > do it with.
Kind of ironic, but I have to say it's quite possible that Microsoft might actually be a help in this... for Windows MCE to suceed in the long-term, it's going to need to be able to record & play back digital cable content. Tivo has already announced a CableCard Tivo box. Microsoft will need to have a PCI card that can tune QAM *and* decrypt the stream (probably via CableCard) if they want to compete. With Microsoft support, you can bet such a card will eventually be developed. Then it's just a question of obtaining one (they might only be OEM) and reverse-engineering a driver (you can bet the manufacturer won't release specs on the card without a license and/or NDA). Of course, even the idea of having a PCI card that works in a standard PC goes against parts of the FCC's broadcast flag mandate, because it would be too easy to hack. I'm interested to see how Microsoft addresses this challenge, but they most certainly will address it. Of course, it will probably involve industry collusion, proprietary DRM and possibly a 'trusted computing' platform, but the important first step is to get a card that fits in a slot! -JAC _______________________________________________ mythtv-users mailing list [email protected] http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
