[mythtv-users] Hauppauge in trouble with the FCC

[Brian Wood]

On Mar 8, 2008, at 2:18 AM, Brad DerManouelian wrote:

> On Mar 7, 2008, at 10:48 PM, David Brodbeck wrote:
>
>>
>> On Mar 7, 2008, at 3:34 PM, Brian Wood wrote:
>>> Does this mean it will be illegal to sell VCRs unless they are re-
>>> engineered to have an ATSC tuner? That'd be the end of $30 VCRs.
>>
>> I'd say digital TV is the end of VCRs, period, at least for
>> recording.  VHS is inherently limited to analog NTSC video.  When
>> there's no more NTSC, there's not much point anymore...
>
> http://videoexpert.home.att.net/artic3/256dvcr.htm


The $30 analog VCRs had their uses, other than the originally intended  
ones:

They were about the cheapest way to get an analog tuner, for example  
to demodulate analog cable signals. It always seemed stupid to me to  
buy an entire recorder to do this but, presumably due to ass  
production, it was the cheapest way to go.

They are/were a cheap way to log analog cameras, for example in  
security systems. I don't think security cameras are going to go  
digital anytime soon, if at all.

They could be used to record high-quality digital audio, using  
adapters that created PCM audio riding on faked horizontal sync.

They could be easily jeeped to use the timer functions for other  
purposes. Again it seems silly to buy an entire video recorded for  
this but they were cheaper than standalone digital timers.

You could risk letting a young child play with a $30 device, something  
you probably wouldn't do with your Myth system or digital unit.

Oh well, the end of an era. I well remember the first Beta unit I ever  
worked on, costing close to $2000 with the included Trinitron TV.

beww