[mythtv-users] Some notes on Google TV

[Brian Wood]

On Monday, November 15, 2010 03:36:01 pm Brad Templeton wrote:
> > I don't think you will ever see that. What Netflix does not want is
> > your being able to make a recording of the content, and Linux,
> > being open, will of course allow you to do that. They want a
> > "protected path" for the video all the way through, including the
> > OS. The Linux-based devices that can do Netflix apparently use a
> > proprietary chip to handle the DRM.
> > 
> > (Actually I'd guess Netflix couldn't care less if you record
> > things, but the studios who own the material do seem to care, and
> > thus won't make material available to Netflix unless they comply
> > with their wishes)
> > 
> > That's the reason I allow a Windows machine in my garage. It's
> > running PlayOn (which requires Windows), and exports everything
> > (including Netflix and Amazon VOD) as a UPnP server.
> > 
> > Of course there is nothing preventing me from recording the
> > component output of a UPnP player with an HD-PVR, but I guess they
> > haven't figured that out yet.
> > 
> > But why would I want to record something I can watch any time I
> > want to? Let Netflix store things, and save me money and power.
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> 
> Of course they are trying to close the analog hole.  And while
> recording is nice because it gives you a real mpeg on your disk, the
> downside is that the quality is going to be lower, and also lower
> per gigabyte. Generally the best thing to do is to record the
> pre-compressed encoded stream if you can, and not to transcode.
> 
> However there are many reasons to enjoy having an open recording,
> even of something you can fetch any time.
> 
> a) You can't watch it any more if you cancel your netflix
> subscription b) You can use Myth's "Speed up with adjusted audio"
> which is one of my favs c) You can do commercial elimination -- a
> feature coerced out of other PVRs.  However, I believe there are
> alternates to make this possible in the GTV situation.
> d) You can extract clips and screen captures for fair uses (which I
> have actually done a few times.)
> e) You can watch without using up a lot of your internet connection
> f) You can copy to your laptop and watch on the plane.  (Of course
> DVDs also allow this.)  Or in remote locations or on your phone.
> 
> This is a good list, but at the same time not enough to win over many
> users.   I do expect the speedup with audio correction to show up
> eventually in commercial players.   Commercial elimination is a
> tricky one.  TV Networks will use what pressure they can to block it
> from commercial products.  It can be done on DRM players through
> crowdsourcing, I think, even without access to the video stream -- if
> you can FF in the stream.  As you know, with many online sources
> today like Hulu the commercials can't be skipped.

They can't be skipped, but in their present incarnation they would be 
incredibly easy to detect and flag.

> 
> But otherwise I agree, why spend disk space on a copy.  For me, I
> almost never watch again anyway.

Your list is good, I started to think of exceptions as soon as I said I 
didn't need to store things.

For one thing, the available programming from Hulu or even Netflix might 
change, something that's available today might not be next week.

Your point about bandwidth usage is certainly valid. I already sometimes 
have to throttle other applications if I want to watch a streaming 
source, and always make sure I have sufficient available B/W to receive a 
VOIP call.