Wohaa, this "forum representation" of a mailing list sucks big time if a
thread gets overly complicated.....
@Fab:
>Your use of "most likely" while citing statistics without sources is
>not useful, on the other hand. Please don't do that.
I am not citing statistics. This is what they call an educated guess. I have
spent over 20 years with video capturing, video editing and video conversion.
All this with "tons" of different devices under Windows and Linux. Thus I
consider myself at least as experienced in this area.
When I write 90-95% of consumer devices, this is a positive lie at best. If
we take the all the devices / models in Europe which are capable of both
receiving TV broadcasts and somehow interface to an PC (satellite boxes with
USB HDDs are not counted here) as 100%, then I expect less then 1% of those
(may be 0.5% ?) to run without firmware. Those will be either implemented as
LAN-device which streams TV channels via LAN or settop boxes with LAN /
Fireware interfaces which can be controlled via a interface (Web / external
library). The amount of such devices sold will be even lower than 0.5%
compared to the majority of all other TV cards being sold. Most of us live in
a somewhat free-market economy. Low sales = low gain = low interest to do
something. It is a simple as this. No matter what I guess, estimate, evaluate
or analyze.
>Please don't GUESS - ask him directly, or
>do the search yourself and report back here.
Uhm...hello ? Those who write BIG usually scream. You currently sound like my
personal drill instructor.
1st: Chris is the one with the biggest experiences as manufacturer /
distributor of free devices. Thus, if there would be more than one or two
options for a free device capable of receiving TV signals (following the TV
standards in US / Europe / ROW), we would hear this from Chris directly soon
enough...for so long I will leave it with GUESSING :)
2nd: Why should I research ? Pascal asked and I answered to show the
available options. I personally understand the implications of using non-free
firmware on my PC as well as using the NVidia blob instead of Noveau. I do
not want to endorse people to use non-free stuff but feel they should be
aware of the non-free alternatives and make their own judgement.
BTW: As far as I could see the HD Homerun you have mentioned support DVB-T /
DVB-C for Europe. IMO this is by far the worst combination to support.
DVB-C means you are bound to a cable provider for which you have to pay a
monthly fee. DVB-T means that even in the core transmission area, you will
often have a bad time receiving all available channels at good quality.
Especially under worse weather conditions (strong rain / snow). DVB-t per
default means less channels with lower bitrate in most mid-european
countries. DVB-S2 is by far the better standard to support. More channels,
better bitrates, HD channels and so on. Not supporting DVB-S2 is a dead end
for the peoples on the flat country.
