[mythtv-users] Was: 5C - DOH! Now: Set Top Box Passthrough/Converter Solution Device

[Bob Sully]

Date: Fri, 11 May 2007 10:13:23 -0500 (CDT)
From: jedi at mishnet.org
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Was: 5C - DOH! Now: Set Top Box
        Passthrough/Converter Solution Device

> On 5/11/07, Joe Borne <joe.borne at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Well, my posting about the PYRO AV device really did stimulate
>> discussion.
>> I'm glad to see that.
>>
>> Several people have contacted me off-list in order to offer help and
>> options in creating the device to translate DVI/HDMI/Component video
>> into a
>> usable ieee1394/mpeg2 signal. I have also opened discussions with a
>> couple
>> of hardware vendors.
>>
>> In particular I intend to focus on the creation of an external box that
>> will translate several HD formats. Specifically we are looking to create
>> a
>> device that can accept DVI, HDMI, and Component video formats and output
>> them in VGA, Composite and ieee1394(via mpeg2). Only the ieee1394 output
>> would be HD (as of now). This combination seems to represent the best,
>> most
>> marketable product. Obviously the market just to solve the MythTV STB
>> problem is too small to persuade any vendor. So a device that translates
>> into multiple outputs would appeal to the broadest range of consumers.
>
>
> You call DVI, HDMI, and component video "formats" but they are really just
> transport mediums.  In no particular order, they can carry mpeg-2 and

>>He's just talking about making a universal switchbox.
>>
>>The cost would probably outweigh the value.


Perhaps.  But I don't think it needs to be "universal".  Our problem is
simply getting the HD signal from the component outs from the STB
converted to a digital stream that Myth can use via firewire (and I'll bet
that Myth isn't the only application (Linux, Windoze or otherwise) that
couild benefit from this).  One could certainly design something that
changes "anything in Column A" to "anything else in Column B", but THAT
would be prohibitively expensive.


>>It's got to have he output hardware onboard because it's not
>>attached to anything else. It's not a "card". More than anything
>>else it looks like something akin to a macrovision descrambler.
>>
>>Something that could descramble encrypted HDMI and ATSC would be
>>quite cool and rather useful and probably very illegal.


Again, we don't need to do that.  Whether what we NEED to do (as above) is
illegal or not is hard to say for sure (I'm not a lawyer)...I would have
thought that simply playing a DVD that I'd paid for on a Linux box would
be quite legal, but M$ and Hollyweird don't seem to agree with me.  This
is a similar issue - being able to view content that we've paid for in the
format that we've paid for.  One would think that's a no-brainer, but that
may not be the case, here in the good old U.S. of A.

Nonetheless - I'd be the first to buy one of these devices when they
become available, as long as it's not insanely expensive and the output
quality is equal to (or at least close to) the 1080i that's coming out of
the STB.

$0.02 worth...
Bob





-- 
________________________________________
Bob Sully - Simi Valley, California, USA
http://www.malibyte.net
http://www.malibyte.com