We've been following the developments of
SiliconDust's HDHomeRun Prime for
some time and while there's still no word on when it'll be ready to sell, the latest interesting news is that
SiliconDust hopes to make it work with
MythTV. Unfortunately the
OCUR spec requires that any content marked
Copy Once, or worse, be locked down with
PlayReady DRM before it leaves the tuner, and there's almost no chance of that changing. But believe it or not there is plenty of programming delivered via encrypted digital cable that is marked Copy Freely (depending on your provider of course). So apparently CableLabs is considering a engineering change recommendation made by SiliconDust that would allow Copy Freely content to stream to DVR software that isn't CableLabs certified, and thus can't participate in the encrypted connection -- yes that's right, the content is encrypted as well as the communications between the hardware and software -- which means that software like MythTV could work with the tuner. Depending on your provider and your DVR software of choice this could be very good news.
posted July 21st 2010 7:43PM
Can you imagine the look on the cable guy's face when you ask them to install the cable card into the HD Homerun?
@RangerOne
HD Homerun is an external device that connects to the PC through ethernet, so it probably looks to the cable guy like a new sort of TiVo.
The cable guy will really be going WTF when he has to install a Cable Card in my Ceton InfiniTV 4 in a full tower case when that finally arrives.
@glugglug
An HDHomeRun looks WAY too small to be a Tivo.
The cable guy will be confused.
I will be asking him to get me a beer out of the fridge while I steal it and quickly insert it myself, so he doesn't f'it up.
EPIC WIN!! I'd pay anything for this! I'm tired of having to have a cablebox just so i can get premium channels.
Any longer of a wait and Silicon Dust will be getting all of Ceton's customers. I'm getting close to cancelling my Ceton order. I wish I had waited, like a fool I expected shipment back in May and ordered and built my HTPC, which is sitting and waiting for the Ceton.
@GlobalCop Same here...I'd love to go with a Triple tuner instead of a Quad. I have a feeling that will correspond with a $100 drop in price. It seems to be about $100 per tuner.
Yes, I have also been waiting for a long time to ditch my DVR...
I haven't found any channels that fit these parameters. All the copy freely channels are clear QAM. What this would do is allow the cableCARD tuner to deliver clearQAM to another device. Currently the ATI DCT won't do that, it has to go to Media Center.
There is one strange channel here, A&E HD which is on Switched Digital, but it copy freely. If you tune it with a tuning resolver and then scan your tv set, you can get it. Unfortunately it's a four digit channel 94.8431 which you can't add manually to Media Center and it won't appear unless the node has been notified to ship the channel.
@johnw248
On FiOS (non-frontier) all the channels marked copy freely and almost all have QAM encryption.
@BenD It's too bad that Verizon has stopped moving forward with FIOS and has sold a major footprint of their FIOS to another company. Just how long all this will remain copy freely is a matter of much concern to many FIOS subscribers.
I have one clear QAM channel (FXHDP) which records copy freely with clear QAM but records as Copy Once with the ATI DCT so while it isn't encrypted, it is still marked as copy once.
John
Sure do wish SiliconDust would make a 3 or 4 ATSC tuner HDHomeRun.
SiliconDust tech guys == awesome
They have been pushing CableLabs on the regulations and trying to eek out every bit of performance/features that they can argue falls outside of the content protections that CableLabs can legally enforce.
This is a step in the right direction. It exposes the CCI variation based on provider problem even more though.
Ben, a good story for the site would be an investigative piece trying to figure out where these CCI decisions are getting made and why.
@swoon
It is at the cable provider level, but they claim it is a result of contracts with Hollywood, but there are some examples where this has been proven it is not the case.
Unfortunately the OCUR spec requires that any content marked Copy Once, or worse, be locked down with PlayReady DRM before it leaves the tuner, and there's almost no chance of that changing. But believe it or not there is plenty of programming delivered via encrypted digital cable that is marked Copy Freely (depending on your provider of course).
That problem it not up to the cable provider the real problem at television network broadcasts like A&E, TBS, ABC, CBS, PBS and and so on and all it take one phone call and you can kiss the Copy Freely good bye.
@SHS Actually, there is a variation in the CCI flags depending on individual providers. One has no further to look than at the Verizon/Frontier switch. Even within the cable corporations, the flags may be different in different markets. Some of the things I have heard is that the cable guys say they just pass on what the providers serve up, but how can this be true with all these variations in different markets and cable providers?
@swoon
Some of the things I have heard is that the cable guys say they just pass on what the providers serve up,
That cable guy is full of hog wash becuases if that where ture PQ would look a hell of lot better then what being dish out.
Both cable and satellite corporations just convert the high quality transmit digital signals to much lower quality digital signals to save bandwith for carp a@@ 100s of VOD/Sport channel which even more crapee then live steam.
There heavily over compressed inducing artifacts into the image. Most end users are unfamiliar and overlook the mosquito noise, micro blocking, macro blocking, aliasing and pixelation.
@swoon
The cable guy who is saying they are just passing on what they are getting might be sort of correct. The signal might be collected via satellite by a centralized collection facility and then delivered via fiber to the regional cable company. In this case the signal on fiber probably already has the flag set. But every source I have says the signal comes off the satellite without a flag, so it is being set somewhere.
I'm thinking this is actually better for many HTPC users (myself included) who don't have a HTPC in a form factor that allows the installation of an internal PCIe Ceton card... This can go anywhere and be totally separate from whatever PC you want to use for recording, so if you have something really compact like a Zino HD and can't install a PCIe card, your DVR and HTPC can be the same box and the tuner can live elsewhere in the house.
@gadgetfanboy Remember whatever you want to use for recording has to pass the Windows Media Center Digital Cable Advisor tool. If this engineering request is granted, then this device will work like a clear QAM tuner and unless you're on FIOS will give you little more than you can get with a clear QAM tuner so investigate your cable co before you make a decision.
Also if you have switched digital video, the current method of using a tuning resolver will complicate where and how you use this. The tuning resolvers by Cisco do not seem very stable and often lock up and have to be restarted or the usb connection needs to be reset, etc.
This still isn't as plug and play as it should be.
Seems to me this product has a rather limited market. $250 and it's limited to recording shows that are marked Copy Freely. How many people are willing to pay $250 for that kind of limitation? I would be a lot more tempted to buy this if the more restrictive flags were limited to movie channels and the like but, at least on Insight, that's just not the case.
@arcasinky Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe you can record shows marked Copy Once if you're using Windows Media Center. The issue is that other recording software such as MythTV is not Cable Labs certified and thus cannot record shows marked Copy Once.
@kreg37 Yes. You're absolutely right. I sit corrected. I had blinders on and was thinking in terms of a MythTV setup. For something based on WMC, this is probably a pretty tempting product.
I've already said screw what their damn specs say. I pay for the cable, refuse to use their crappy DVR, and now just grab the content I want (and pay for) from other sources if it doesn't allow me to record on my own DVR. If I'm already paying for it, I should be able to watch it however I want.
No more of this bullshit juggernaut called CableLabs and DRM. They take my money already. Anything beyond that and they can shove it.
this is just the next cable scam..cablecard quadtuner, tru2way, they dont exsit , next joke setback tru2way...