[mythtv-users] XBMC + Myth = ?? Was:Comcast Cable encrypted channels

[Brian Wood]

On Wednesday 05 August 2009 09:47:22 Alan Marchiori wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 9:31 AM, Brian Wood<beww at beww.org> wrote:
> > On Wednesday 05 August 2009 09:24:13 Alan Marchiori wrote:
> >> > It also makes it possible, or at least easier, to delete commercials.
> >>
> >> ***sshhh*** don't say that; now they'll be shut down for sure.. :)
> >
> > PlayOn has already taken a step in that direction, they reduce the audio
> > level by 50% for what PLayON determines is a commercial.
>
> call the lawyers!
>
> > I understand that part of the Boxee/Hulu squabble was that Boxee had the
> > capability of eliminating, or at least identifying, commercials, though I
> > ted to not believe anything I hear about that dispute.
> >
> > The funny thing is, most people I talk to are perfectly happy to sit
> > through the Hulu commercials, they are few and short, and some are
> > actually cute. It's the 2 or 4 minute infomercials we see on commercial
> > TV that seem to really bother people.
> >
> > But we're getting WAY OT here :-)
>
> Eh, that's my job (going OT).  Anyhow, I was just thinking if it would
> make content providers happy I would be happy with a "must watch" flag
> of some sort in myth that didn't allow you to skip the commercials (in
> online content from sources like hulu).  Better yet, I assume the
> stream provider can/does track exactly how much video each user
> watches so they could enforce this on their end something like "you
> must watch xx minutes of commercials per xx hours of video".  Then
> when myth hit this limit (the content provider would disable the
> stream until you come back in balance with their commercial policy)
> myth would switch to the "commercial" stream and play that until the
> policy is met and then switch back to the content stream, repeat,...

In the case of PlayON all the provider would know is that the file was 
streamed continuously to the PlayON server, which buffers the entire program, 
so you would not know what the user did with it (paused, shuttled etc.) after 
PlayON had transcoded and re-streamed it.

>
> This would work only if it was not possible to record the stream.  If
> you recorded the content when no one was watching it really wouldn't
> make anyone happy.

It's always possible to record the stream, all they can do is make it more 
difficult.


-- 
Brian Wood
beww at beww.org