[mythtv-users] Any new updates/version of MythTV in sight?

[jedi at mishnet.org]

> Reza Naima wrote:
>>
>> I'm trying to help by finding a developer to write FPGA code to encrypt
>> HD video on the fly to mpeg2/mpeg4 so we can build our own HD video
>> capture system... but it seems a bit obsurd that I have to go to such
>> extremes to do what tivo does now...
>>
>
> This isn't an easy problem to solve.  Most realtime-HD encoding hardware
> costs a fortune.  However, I think that it will be comercially available
> reasonably soon.  I'm not sure it will be practical using an FPGA
> anytime soon - an FPGA will always be a lot more costly than a chip
> built using the usual methods.  You really need something analogous to a
> DSP.
>
> One problem with all of this is that HDTV processing is pretty
> hardware-intensive.  You need hardware to encode HD on the fly.  You
> need blessed hardware to talk HDCP (or you need to crack it) if you want
> to be future-proof.  That means that all the MPAA/Comcast/whatever needs
> to do is convince a judge that your custom-made board is an infringement
> tool and now you won't be able to make them on any scale to make it

    Well, take the encryption out of the equation and you've got
very legitimate legal use of an on-the-fly HD compression system:
everyone that wants to make home movies. It's just not practical
to expect the average consumer to wait for their movies to transcode.
So there's plenty of commercial demand for this as well as consumer
demand for it.

    It's just a matter of the technology getting cheap enough.

    Realtime transcode from HD DV to h264 certainly would make me
more interested in having an HD digicam.

> profitable.  Once general-purpose CPUs can process HD on the fly then
> you can just post your code on TPB and nobody can really do anything
> about it.  You could also try to get it to work on consumer-accessible
> hardware with multiple uses (general purpose FPGA boards if they work,
> GPUs, etc).  The key is that you need to put the controversial stuff in
> software which is easier to distribute.

    AMD is releasing products along these lines (GPU as CPU). The first
iteration looks like it will cost and arm and a leg. This too will
probably eventually make it's way into $300 desktop PC's.

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