Thursday, October 27, 2005
Recording over 1394 (Firewire) in Media Center
Posted by Jeremy Charette in "SOFTWARE" @ 08:00 AM
"There has been some recent effort to pry open the 1394 interface in various STBs (set-top boxes), most notably that of timmmoore's STB package that goes to extraordinary lengths to hook into Media Center's experience. The state of the world today, at least with Media Center, is that the "outside looking in" hooks of Tim's package are the only way to get that HD content off of digital cable and into Media Center."
There's a few onstacles when it comes to connecting a STB and MCE via. Firewire. Some of them are technical, and a few are legal. But I think Peter Rosser has the right idea when he talks about using STBs to stream content to MCE PCs. The legal obstacles can be hurdled far easier by cable providers than they can by PC component and system manufacturers. For example: CableCard approval in the PC arena is slow in coming, and lacks the fundamental support of CableLabs and content providers. Microsoft is having to come up with new DRM schemes and new secure hardware interfaces in order to pacify these concerns. Meanwhile, my Time Warner Cable STB already allows me display HD movies on HBO and Showtime though "unsecure" component video inputs.
End users could rip these movies to a PC with a component video input card (without violating the DMCA), but I don't see the movie studios trying to shut Time Warner Cable down. Perhaps this is an issue that Microsoft et. al. need to look at more closely, because apparently the cable companies have a lot more pull with content providers than they do. Perhaps integrating the digital TV signal decoder into the PC itself is the wrong way to approach the problem, and an external box is the more practical answer?
There's a few onstacles when it comes to connecting a STB and MCE via. Firewire. Some of them are technical, and a few are legal. But I think Peter Rosser has the right idea when he talks about using STBs to stream content to MCE PCs. The legal obstacles can be hurdled far easier by cable providers than they can by PC component and system manufacturers. For example: CableCard approval in the PC arena is slow in coming, and lacks the fundamental support of CableLabs and content providers. Microsoft is having to come up with new DRM schemes and new secure hardware interfaces in order to pacify these concerns. Meanwhile, my Time Warner Cable STB already allows me display HD movies on HBO and Showtime though "unsecure" component video inputs.
End users could rip these movies to a PC with a component video input card (without violating the DMCA), but I don't see the movie studios trying to shut Time Warner Cable down. Perhaps this is an issue that Microsoft et. al. need to look at more closely, because apparently the cable companies have a lot more pull with content providers than they do. Perhaps integrating the digital TV signal decoder into the PC itself is the wrong way to approach the problem, and an external box is the more practical answer?
