[mythtv-users] So, how does the SlingBox Pro HD do it?

[Marco Nelissen]

>http://us.slingmedia.com/page/hdconnect.html says:
>"The HD Connect Cable lets you watch your home televisions high 
>definition programming by connecting your HDTV source to the Slingbox 
>PRO. The HD Connect Cable has component video and stereo audio inputs 
>and pass-through outputs, and is compatible with HDTV video services of 
>up to 1080i resolution."
>
>The Slingbox Pro is $199; the HD Connect cable is another $50.  So, 
>internally the Slingbox is taking a 1080i component input and converting 
>it into something that can be broadcast over the Internet.  In this 
>message board we've discussed how it costs kilobux to take uncompressed 
>HDTV and convert it into MPEG-2; even if Sling isn't converting to 
>MPEG-2, they're still doing _something_ at < $250.
>
>Anyone know the internals of what's going on?

I'm just speculating here, but since it captures component, which is
analog, it's fairly easy to reduce the size on the fly by capturing
at a lower horizontal resolution. Capturing 1920x1080i at 320x1080i
would give you 1/6th the original image size for example, and therefore
1/6th the raw datarate. You could probably reduce it even further by
dropping every other scanline, but even 320x1080i gives you a low
enough datarate that it could be processed either in software or by
fairly low-cost custom hardware.