[mythtv-users] Upgrade from 0.26 to 0.27 broke firewire

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Tue, Jul 1, 2014 at 9:59 PM, Peter Bennett (cats22)
<cats22 at comcast.net> wrote:
.....
> Instead of putting more time into firewire, is anybody investigating HDMI
> capture? There are HDMI capture cards available now and I have seen a couple
> with Linux drivers. They seem to be expensive.

The (uncompressed) HDMI data rate is quite high.
Not really a great solution for most.  You would
want to (re) compress the content to H.264 (or
something), which is where the costs go up (and
usually, the quality goes down; Taking the
compressed stream and converting to HDMI output,
and then taking the HDMI and converting to
compressed video can never improve the quality).
Better to get the raw (usually already compressed)
source content.

> I know that would not work if
> the HDMI was encrypted, however Comcast has the small "adaptors" with HDMI
> output and I wonder if they use encrypted output.

For simple values all of the majors (including
Comcast) use encryption (HDCP) on their HDMI
outputs (and various other forms of encryption/protection
on their DLNA/DTCP-IP, and OCUR devices).  If your
fantasy is recording the premiums, you need to take
that up with Time Warner and CBS (they have to
change their DRM requirements) or lobby your
congress critters for changes in laws/regulations.

For Comcast, you should look towards an OCUR
(CableCARD) tuner, which is (usually) cheaper
than a STB with firewire, with a payback in
about 12-24 months (depending on the OCUR device
you purchase, and your local franchise device
and CableCARD rental costs).