[mythtv-users] prebuilt pvrs for developers benefit?

Jarod C. Wilson jcw at wilsonet.com
Wed May 5 18:56:50 EDT 2004


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On Wednesday 05 May 2004 11:57, Chris Petersen wrote:
> > I could help some. I was the CEO of a biotech startup
> > here in the SF Bay area. (We actually worked up on
> > Columbia St in Seattle.) I could help get the legal
> > structure in place, float a draft of a business plan
> > to interested players and *might* get some support
> > from some local VC that are always interested. It
> > might be cool to see how it would work in Seattle as a
> > pilot and then move it around to other cities if it
> > made sense. Let me know if you have interest.
>
> Not sure how much VC or legal structure would be needed for a small
> scale venture.  Legal advice for dealing with CSS and such would be
> somewhat of a concern, but we can get around that by just not providing
> that feature for DVD playing.

I think you'd end up having to leave out mp3 playback, unless you want to hear 
from Thompson Multimedia, and some of the MythVideo playback parts may be of 
questionable legality for resale in the US... :-(

Of course, if we're just selling the hardware and instruction time, maybe we'd 
be in the clear. Its up to the purchaser to install what they will.

> I've checked with one of the owners here, and SiMech would probably be
> able to provide hardware (we're semi-competitive price-wise - better
> than retail, not always better than places like newegg, but definitely
> convenient), and possibly room to offer the class (there are security
> issues here, but can think about those later).

How about hardware to maintain an in-lab apt/yum repo with all of the 
necessary goodies?

> There are several logistical issues, though....
>
> Minor hardware questions...  Do you do PVR-250 type cards, or software
> cards?  What about HDTV?  What motherboard/enclosure do we go with?
> Etc...

I'd say stay away from HDTV for now. Stick to PVR-250s and either an nForce2 
micro-ATX board or an EPIA. I'd be more inclined to go nForce2, because EPIA 
boards are neither cheap nor expandable.

> And more importantly, though many people have analog cable, a LOT of
> people in the $1000-for-a-PVR-and-class bracket will have digital or
> satellite setups (hence the HDTV question).  This means that they'll
> need an IR Blaster type thing or USB/Serial interface to their box,
> which means we'd need to know what kind of box everyone has, and know
> how to interface with each one, without the ability to test anything
> during the class itself (unless we can somehow find a location that has
> one of each type of TV service).  This is the biggest issue I can forsee
> at the moment.

Yes, that could be a definite problem... I see a few legal issues that would 
have to be worked out, along with the array of input sources that would have 
to be covered.

- -- 
Jarod C. Wilson, RHCE
jcw at wilsonet.com

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