[mythtv-users] Firewire no longer required on HD STBs

[Brian Wood]

On Tuesday, June 29, 2010 02:44:48 pm Eric Sharkey wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 12:58 PM, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> > That reference was kind of thin on details of the IP interface. It would
> > be nice if the STB would serve out content as an NFS or Samba share,
> > and/or as a UPnP server.
> 
> I don't think that makes a lot of sense.  Most of the STB's aren't
> DVRs with local storage, so they won't be able to have a file-system
> like interface.  The IP interface would need to look something more
> like what the HDHR provides.

I have seen devices that stream video from the net, and present it as a UPnP server, so it should be possible for an STB 
to *look* like a UPnP server to a renderer/player. It would essentially be a "virtual" filesystem.

Basically it just needs enough information  about the "file", like the name, size etc., to be able to fake out a UPnP 
renderer and make it think the streamed program from the cable co. is actually just a file, which is all it really is 
anyway.

It's just that there are so many UPnP devices out there, even some TV sets, that it would give users many choices, but I 
suppose that's what the cable company does *not* want to do.