[mythtv-users] DISH Receivers and external HDDs

[Robert Johnston]

On Sat, Apr 12, 2008 at 2:45 PM, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
>
>  On Apr 12, 2008, at 2:35 PM, Brad DerManouelian wrote:
>  >
>  > You need software to view the mpeg files which requires a license fee.
>  > They probably require this software to enable the feature. It's like
>  > paying Apple for Quicktime Pro which includes mpeg2 support which they
>  > aren't legally allowed to give you for free.
>
>  The external drive is just storing the same transport stream that I
>  would have watched if I had viewed the program live, so I can't see
>  any additional license being needed. What's the difference if I watch
>  it now or watch it later. The same hardware is being used in both cases.
>  There is absolutely no new MPEG encoding or decoding happening.
>
>  You're telling me I need a license to store an mpeg stream (that I
>  have already paid for) on a hard drive?
>
>  As I said: Greed.

The license is not to store an mpeg stream, it's to pay for the use of
the MPEG decoder patent owned by Frauhofner Institute (FhG). Same way
MP3 encoders are supposed to pay FhG for the use of their patented
code. LAME gets around this by not distributing an executable, and
thus not actually using the code (All the LAME binaries are
self-compiled or compiled by a 3rd party source that doesn't care
about such legalities).
-- 
Robert "Anaerin" Johnston