This will be of value only if you have the relaxed DRM update AND your service provider doesn't set all the CCI flags so you can't transfer the recordings.

Seems rather cumbersome, why not just use Media Center/

John

I would love an FCC regulation that any service offered by a Cable Co had to be available to cablecard customers. If they were to lose their VOD and PPV, they'd come up with a two way 3rd party solution pretty fast.

Ben,
Did the one Cisco 1520 work for two ATI Tuners?

Also have you received that sample Ceton PCIe x1 4-tuner card sample you asked for at CEDIA? Would love to see your screen shots with set-up along with the TA.

Out here TW doesn't charge for TA, and they don't install them. You pick them up and it's up to you to install it. I have one standing by for MC and one running on a TIVO so I need to know if I need to pick up another one.

Thanks

John

You're right, that's why Comcast requested and received a waiver to by pass this requirement for the DTA distribution. The FCC has the power to modify their rulings much like extending CP for transmission towers.

Ben concerning Clear QAM HD, as they say the devil is in the details. The answers to your questions were correct, but your assumption was incorrect.
First the FCC has made no differentiation between SD and HD only Digitial vs NTSC.
Second the mandatory rule applies to any station that request that the cable system carry it's signal within it's broadcast area. Now if the station requests compensation for carriage, then it loses the mandatory status. If you do a google search of Engaget HD you'll find stories where cable systems have either threatened to drop or dropped OAT stations from their line-up when the station demanded more compensation that the cable company was willing to give.
But the bottom line is this: Comcast provided the DTA to any subscriber who requested it for free and once the boxes were in place and available and the waiver granted, they would be within their rights to apply the privacy coding to the channels. Will they? Who knows. If they do, then the FCC would have to fine them and then they would have to go to court to get the fine overturned--much like the wardrobe malfunction during the Super Bowl Half Time show a couple of years ago.

If you ask your FCC contact if a cable system is even required to carry a local station that demands compensation, I think you'll get a different answer. Also here, as we learned as fire spread up Mt. Wilson to the antenna farm for all of Los Angeles, the cable companies don't receive the local stations OTA and the stations would not go off the cable systems here if the transmitters went down, but all the rabbit ear viewers would lose their signals.

Probably should revise that headline to include Local channels. You don't mean to imply that Discovery HD, A&E HD, etc are all going to be available on clear QAM HD.

It would really be nice if you guys found a way to monitor the output. This was pretty terrible filled with distorition and way too loud--even if it's podcast which seemed to make it ok for some in the chat.

A point to remember when you are talking about film (and film stocks). Just because a movie is edited "digitally" doesn't mean that the movie has been put to a digital form and taken back to film.

In many cases, the negative is telecined to a SD video for editing and then thru a lot of magic and tracking files (key numbers, time code, etc.) the original negative is cut and the movie printed. In fact in printing and color correction many, many "first trial" prints are made silent for the cinematographer and director to approve color corrections and density.

Then the negative is printed to an intermediate from which dupe negatives are made to strike the prints you see in a theatre. In some cases a "digitial intermediate" might be made in which case the selected pieces of negative are rescanned at 4K and then a DI is made from which dupe negatives are printed.

There are some pure digital pictures (like Pixar) but hi-res scanning and DIs are expensive. On the other end, many documentaries which are shot with HDCAM are edited electronically and then a run to a film recorder.

If you want to know more (I doubt you do), I would be happy to fill you in. I have spent my working life making movies and tv shows on both film and tape and was among the first to shoot film, edited "digitially" (we call it non-linear) and go back to film. Some of the tv movies in the early 80s just telecined to 1 inch tape and then conformed that tape and were forever locked into SD.

He got it to work almost. His mini had DVI and wasn't HDCP and he could see a picture, but aside from that, it worked. (Don't know if he got sound but probably not if he couldn't display a picture).

Cablecard recordings as part of the DRM require a full DHCP from the tuner through the computer to the video card to the display or the medai center extender. If your mac has DHCP it would be interesting to see if it matches the Cablelabs OCUR requirements.