DirecTV-10 (a satellite) was launched in July 2007. It added capacity for 100 national HD channels.

Cable's solution for adding capacity is packet switching. This means that if you have two TVs in your house and one is watching Disney and the other is watching HBO, then the only channels that would be coming into your home would be Disney and HBO. With normal cable TV, all the channels are coming into your home all the time. With packet switching, your TVs (or using a cable box) actually send a request for the channels they want to watch and those are the only ones that are sent from the headend to your house.

This sounds logical and great, until you start thinking about TiVo and other video recorders that want to record 2 channels simultaneously (I know, how can someone watch that much TV, but remember that TV networks routinely pit popular shows against each other, forcing you to watch one or the other -- TiVo with dual tuners fixes that). The cable industry has fought tooth and nail against TiVo and against opening up their standards.

http://www.digital-cable-filter-scam...s/image001.jpg or http://www.greathometheater.com/images/cablecardm.jpg

You might have heard of CableCard. It was something that the cable industry was forced to do to allow us to watch digital cable without having to rent one of those prehistoric, klunky, slow, buggy, advertising-laden cable boxes. CableCard shrinks down the relevant guts of a cable box down into something the size of a credit card. With a CableCard, you can watch all the channels provided by your cable company on your TV, your TiVo, or (eventually) your PC without having to use a cable box. BUT, the CableCard standard did not include provisions for the packet switching above.

So TiVo is once again out-of-luck in packet switching neighborhoods, even after spending millions designing the TiVo Series 3 (with 2 cablecard slots), lobbying the FCC and their own marketing campaigns to get CableCard ratified.

The cable card concept is further crippled by only being avalible to OEMs... I can't build a HTPC with cable cards so it's worthless to me.

I'm surprised you haven't comment in the HTPC thread, my last post was a screen shot of my system recording 5 shows at once, three SD from my three PVR-150s and two in HD from my HDHomeRun (QAM). Very cool stuff. :TU:

Actually, Tivo has announced an SDV dongle that will allow this on the Series 3 and Tivo HD. It should be out sometime this year.

drfish,

I did not realize you were recording 5 shows simultaneously. Wow!

Enigma,

Awesome. Forgot it was called SDV. :)

Jeesh Morgan, call me doc... :o ;)

:D

Hey Guys at Prolific,

I just got an e-mail from YouTube. It seems that I used the song "Stray Cat Strut" without permission, however the copyright owner, UMG, has allowed me to continue using it as long as they can place advertisements on the video's watch page. What would you like me to do? Would you like me to change the music or just leave it as is?

The video's watch page? Meaning the YouTube page? Wouldn't that be up to YouTube?

I don't know. I'm just reiterating what was in the e-mail, but it makes a little sense. By allowing YouTube users to use their songs, UMG can place advertisements on those pages, maybe even for free or just paying very little. In return, YouTube doesn't have to pull millions of videos off the air.

I think there may have been a little mouse behind the screens... hehe

Cat Video Contest
 

Hey guys, is this contest still going on? I've found a lot of posts about it, but none of them are recent. Ditto the Serenescreen news page. I have some video footage of my little cat patting the screen, but will have to go to some trouble converting the digital video files from Quicktime to AVI before I can edit the film, so I'd like to be sure the competition is going ahead before I bother!

Sophie
:)

If the video is any good, I'll get you a free Key Code.

That's a lovely offer, Jim - however,I bought the full version practically as soon as I clapped eyes on it - I absolutely love it, and even now, months later, will just start it and gaze at the fish for a few minutes to relax and enjoy all the lovely colours and light effects. I've loved all the recent work you've been doing, and can't wait for the next surprise.

Anyway, back to the cat video. I'm having trouble with it because it was taken on my Panasonic Lumix camera, and is in Quicktime format. Windows Movie Maker won't accept it for editing unless it's been converted, and none of the pieces of free conversion software I've found have actually worked! It's too long at the moment, and would need to have the credits put on it, to qualify for the competition.

Of course, the forum members are most welcome to see the video as it is (I guess I could post it on here?) but I must admit I was lured by the thought of $100!! I want to know if that's still on the cards, so I know how much trouble to go to!