[mythtv-users] MythTV in my spam

[Stephen Boddy]

On Wednesday 09 March 2005 11:43, Simon Kenyon wrote:
> here in europe they have finally agreed on what HDTV standards are going to
> be adopted. Sky TV (the major satellite broadcaster in the UK and Ireland)
> has stated that their boxes will only have HDMI (with  HDCP protection)
> output for HD. what will i/we do with myth then?
>
> this is not a troll - i want to understand the situation because i spend
> rather a lot on money/time on mythtv

this is not an answer ;-) personally I think Sky is a waste of money. 50% is 
crap and/or ancient, 20% is repeated 6 times a week, 20% is adverts, 8% they 
want you to pay even more for (sports/movies), and of the 2% left, perhaps 1 
in 10 is something I might want to watch! Of those few, the majority will be 
on FTA, usually within a month or two, and I can be patient.

I think people are starting to get a glimmer of what TV should be like. 
What /I/ want to watch, when /I/ want to watch it. This is technically 
possible in a number of ways. HTPC's for the most part give me choice and 
flexibility, but the problem comes when STB's are put into most homes. The 
network infrastructure needs to be in place first, but they will restrict my 
choices and rights, and you'll even be unable to skip ads. Believe me, 
content providers would love to push dumb set-top boxes into homes and keep 
the storage and access restrictions in the CP's network. The next step is 
pay-per-view everything, although that is some years away. You'll be looking 
for 10-20 Mbps to homes, at low cost. On top of that the infrastructure will 
need to be in place to distribute all that content, and that is not a small 
investment.

For those that don't have a problem with the dubious legality, I don't doubt 
that at some point you will be able to get an HDCP stripper. Of course you 
then become, in the eyes of the content providers, the same class of person 
as burglars, murderers, rapists and worse. You also have the fun of trying to 
buy and import a piece of equipment from a dodgy firm (prob. Chinese or one 
of the other countries where they can get away with ignoring the legal 
issues.)
-- 
Steve Boddy