[mythtv-users] Uh-oh... pcHDTV slashdotted

[Wendy Seltzer]

At 7:39 AM -0500 11/9/04, Cory Papenfuss wrote:
>>The flag is a single descriptor in the PSIP data.  It really is 
>>just a flag. Easy to ignore.
>>
>	... but mandated to NOT ignore after July, '05.  Also, it's 
>mandated to make it "difficult to circumvent."

For devices manufactured after that date.  There is no mandate to go 
back and "fix" devices already in the field.  Samsung appears to be 
overreacting in its choice to downgrade existing settop boxes (unless 
those boxes deal with something other than over-the-air broadcast TV, 
as elsewhere it might be governed by contract).

>
>	Although everyone professes that it does not prevent you from 
>recording your TV shows, there has yet to be a standard (AFAIK) on 
>how these new "flag-compliant" devices will talk to each other.  To 
>me it sounds like a huge cluster fsck that horribly abuses Joe 
>Consumer.  "Oh no, sir.  If you connect to the Panafonic XB-9000 
>receiver, you'll need the XJ-DVI cable.  The older model XB-8500 has 
>been compromised, so the XI-DVI cable doesn't work anymore.  You'll 
>need to purchase an adapter box to go from XJ-DVI to XI-DVI."  etc, 
>etc... ad nauseum.

Precisely.  There's no guarantee that "authorized recording methods" 
and "authorized output methods" will talk to one another.  Some are 
even designed not to talk with other equipment, or even with other 
users of the same equipment.   Not very user-friendly.

--Wendy
-- 
--
Wendy Seltzer -- wendy at seltzer.com || wendy at eff.org
Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School
http://wendy.seltzer.org/mythtv/