tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042224243420942092024-02-06T19:19:40.115-08:00Jark HDjarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-16884782607247529972015-05-27T23:02:00.002-07:002015-05-28T00:39:01.752-07:00Jeremy Wade's Fishing Rod Travel CaseI have been getting into the show River Monsters with host Jeremy Wade. In this show he always travels with a green fishing rod case that looks well worn and obviously an old friend. I wanted to get something like this for carrying my rods and traveling with them on an airplane so I spent some time tracking this case down<br />
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<a href="http://www.singaporefishing.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/32671_ep606_005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.singaporefishing.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/32671_ep606_005.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div>
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No one has previously identified this specific case in my searching on forums and blogs. There are a lot of people that have detailed each of Jeremy's rods, reels, and fishing tackle. Jeremy even details some of his tackle in his own site presumably because <a href="http://www.jeremywade.co.uk/contact.html">he has been asked the question so many times</a>. </div>
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I thought it would be fun to do some research and identify Jeremy Wade's favorite fishing rod case. I did some google picture searching and first found the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Flambeau-Outdoors-Bazuka-Pro-Case/dp/B000EDTS24">Flambeau Outdoors Bazuka Pro Case</a> which is close to the shape of the case that Jeremy uses but not the right case.</div>
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<a href="http://www.flambeauoutdoors.com/images/products/fishing/full/6095.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.flambeauoutdoors.com/images/products/fishing/full/6095.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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Next I found the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sportube-Single-Travel-Ski-Case/dp/B000F61ZT4/ref=sr_1_2?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1432781913&sr=1-2&keywords=sportube">Sportube</a> that was really close to the shape and looks almost identical to Jeremy's green case. I realized he was using a case first designed for snow skis. This design allowed telescoping to different sizes depending on the length of the contents. This case from sportube looked very strong. What is missing on this picture is the large oval one can see from the first picture. Also the wheel assembly is different and there are two handles while the target had three handles. I went back to searching google image with some better search terms now knowing that skis were probably the hard case's design</div>
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I eventually found the right case. It is the KIS (Keep It Safe) 210mm (larger version) Ski Case. Notice the oval and the three handles. KIS is a UK company (where Jeremy is from) and they have gone out of business. The version Jeremy has is a fatigue green and is missing the transport wheel. KIS does have a smaller version that is designed without a wheel. These cases are available in the states on Ebay and at least 3 are currently being listed for 75-100 dollars. </div>
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jarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-2874699679980192492011-10-08T20:15:00.000-07:002011-10-09T03:47:17.579-07:00Hacking Digital Cable<b><i>Repost from article I did over at <a href="http://rocketcityhackers.com/">Rocket City Hackers</a></i></b><br />
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<b><i>Save money by using a QAM tuner to get HD local channels and anything else your cable provider left unencrypted (including your neighbor's on demand purchases)</i></b><br />
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I have been wanting to get rid of directv. The one thing that stops me is live sporting events, news, etc. My cable internet provider has recently readjusted prices from 56 dollars to 36 dollars a month for 12Mb/s download and 2Mb/s upload internet speeds. This made it somewhat reasonable to get cable internet alone without bundling in phone or digital cable. So with my "internet only" plan I can stream movies / TV from Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. This leaves me looking for a way to get at least HD local channels for free. There are two options: use an antenna for over-the-air HD or tune QAM channels over your coax cable.<br />
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<b>QAM Tuning, what is it?</b><br />
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Straight from Wikipedia,<b> <a data-mce-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAM_%28television%29" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAM_%28television%29" target="_blank" title="QAM">QAM</a></b> stands for quadrature amplitude modulation, the format by which digital cable channels are encoded and transmitted via cable television providers. So if you have a QAM tuner in your TV, computer, or digital cable box you can tune these channels. Cable companies can encrypt these channels so that only the digital cable box or cable card can decrypt these channels. I have not seen a good crypto attack published. It is either pretty strong or the ones that have figured it out want to keep their free digital cable.<br />
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<b>Testing your local cable provider for QAM channels</b><br />
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I don't have a QAM tuner in my TV so I will be using a Silicon Dust HDHome run to connect to my computer. I have the older version but this new Dual below solves some of the shortcomings of my tuner mainly having two coax inputs, one for each tuner while the DUAL uses an internal splitter. This also works out because I want to make a DVR of my computer and this is compatible with every program I would want to use.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvEA-Y47AIPAChYV_ZRDK3yxg1ouCzmLGHFnA1FaBdQoBRCWpE_Sgjd6sZ1DUFloHJkQGnjCLxJkteD0FcNw0O7tHP8paJD-vcq8_RPVzYNF5okhxD4b4Nj6Hhf0pelFI00GlcYHSSF5gj/s1600/HDhomerun_dual_rev3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvEA-Y47AIPAChYV_ZRDK3yxg1ouCzmLGHFnA1FaBdQoBRCWpE_Sgjd6sZ1DUFloHJkQGnjCLxJkteD0FcNw0O7tHP8paJD-vcq8_RPVzYNF5okhxD4b4Nj6Hhf0pelFI00GlcYHSSF5gj/s400/HDhomerun_dual_rev3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
I know from testing that my service provider blocks analog cable channels with a notch filter or band-stop filter either in my box or the box at the street. This article will not suggest or condone bypassing this filter to get analog cable for free because this is illegal. What you probably didn't know is that when you get cable internet you also get the higher frequency digital channels usually reserved for tuning with your rented cable box and corresponding digital cable plan. I have heard there is some law that says that if it is available over-the-air then the cable company has to leave the channels unencrypted. These signals are not blocked because it may be costly to have a filter that blocks digital cable and not cable internet, not possible, or they just don't care (winner).<br />
So in my case I plug in the HDHomeRun connected to my coax cable split from my cable modem and install the software. You put in info like zip code and provider to get the device set up. For the provider you want to choose digital cable because this is what we are after. The below screen is finding a QAM channel. On the Program tab 941:0 appears meaning this is not encrypted. You can then hit view and see the channel. In this case it turns out to be CNN HD which is the first channel I happened to find.<br />
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</div><div data-mce-style="text-align: left;" style="text-align: left;">So this was not normal, it looks like my cable provider was accidentally leaving various channels unencrypted. That means that I wanted to search for more than just my HD locals such as ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, FOX which were also there. You can manually seek or you can scan and see what is found. I came up with the list below. What is not shown on this list was Discovery HD which is one of my favorite channels. SCORE! More than this there is no copy protection on these recordings because they are completely unencrypted. In part two of this article I will tell you about options on recording these digital cable channels with MythTV or Windows Media Center 7.</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid_6A5ROAUt5k2FkH7tpunx9_jO2X21wH5wE-uAopYrb4gkrf7I73hpCZkEIKTVa6QxexPOBouMeXHT0edz0NxasIfSU1xS8sX5yHqMJafPn2rD_EovtdJCV5IfhLRmgmV2i2P9cABwWqi/s1600/digital_cable_channels.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid_6A5ROAUt5k2FkH7tpunx9_jO2X21wH5wE-uAopYrb4gkrf7I73hpCZkEIKTVa6QxexPOBouMeXHT0edz0NxasIfSU1xS8sX5yHqMJafPn2rD_EovtdJCV5IfhLRmgmV2i2P9cABwWqi/s640/digital_cable_channels.png" width="403" /></a></div><br />
<b>Double Bonus Time</b><br />
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When I was searching through these channels which will change on the whim of your cable provider, I noticed something. Every once in a while a new channel would pop up at the end of the range of channels such as 114-123 for example. When I actually tuned these transient streams I figured out that these where OnDemand choices that people were buying and watching on their digital cable boxes. They ranged from SD to HD quality. They also were being remotely controlled by the person's box who was watching it. The stream would pause, rewind, and stop as controlled. This made it slightly less fun to watch but if one stream paused you could usually find the same movie etc on another channel. Using this method I could see and record every new release that was out there. Word of caution, people rent some crazy stuff and you don't know what is going to show up so some parental guidance is needed starting around 9pm. Since I found this flaw I think the service provider upgraded the encryption of the OnDemand system for encryption because I have not seen a stream like that pop up recently.<br />
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<b>Try it yourself for free with no setup or hardware purchase!!!<br />
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So all you really need to try this out is a newer TV set with QAM tuners. You connect your coax cable to the TV set and look for scanning the digital channels. See what you find for free. Also there is another feature that the Silicon Dust HDHomeRun website provides. You can go <b><a data-mce-href="http://www.silicondust.com/support/channels/" href="http://www.silicondust.com/support/channels/" title="here">here</a></b> and put in your zip code and pull down your cable provider. Apparently silicondust samples (with consent in the app) the tuners that are deployed in your area and show what they are able to tune. You can basically find out what free channels your are going to be provided with no setup or hardware purchase. You can see beforehand if your provider encrypts as they should or left some gaping holes for you to find.<br />
<i>Thinking about a part two of this article where I will tell you about options on recording these digital cable channels with MythTV or Windows Media Center 7. Let me know in the comments what you think.</i>jarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-58850558444184377332011-02-24T11:26:00.000-08:002011-02-24T13:36:36.591-08:00Google storing Wi-Fi AP names and passwords?I just picked up a Motorola Xoom and noticed something odd when checking it out. I turned on the Wi-Fi for the first time after syncing with my Gmail account, that my home network (which I was not in range of) showed up. I also noticed that the Xoom connected to my local network at work. I found it odd because it was obtaining an IP address before I told the Xoom what to connect with and more importantly what the password was. I own an Android device (Droid X) and these networks it had as "remembered" were all the AP's I had connected to with my phone previously. I have allowed Android to sync my contacts and some application info. <br />
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The obvious implication is that Google was storing the names of the AP's that I had previously joined and more importantly the passwords that I had entered and saved on my Android phone. I have not read any information reporting this previously nor can I find similar stories when I do a quick Google search. Most importantly I don't remember authorizing storing of this data but who knows what fine print I overlooked in various EULA's. I don't know if this is specific to Android Honeycomb 3.0 or Xoom but this is the first time I have noticed such activity. I guess more testing needs to be done by others for verification. Let me know in the comments if you have seen this behavior before or can test on the Xoom or other devices. <br />
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Another observation I have made is that all the applications from my phone restored on the Xoom rather than just the paid applications. This is an upgraded Honeycomb 3.0 sync functionality because Android 2.2 only let one restore paid applications from the Android Market. This may mean that storing the AP names and passwords was part of this upgraded capability in Honeycomb. I then noticed that under settings and the privacy tab that they have added "Backup my application data, Wi-Fi passwords, and other settings to Google servers. The Droid X Android phone that I have under the same tab has "Back up my settings and other application data. This definitely confirms that Google is now backing up Wi-Fi names and passwords so uncheck this if you don't want Google to have this info. The problem I have is clearly they stored that information before from my phone without advertising this until it restored this data on my Xoom. Now I wish they broke out the options so I choose yes for contacts and no for passwords. Bad Google, ...again!jarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-35260810333121833562010-05-26T21:17:00.000-07:002010-05-26T21:18:54.817-07:00New Monoprice HDMI SwitchI have recently bought the <a href="http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10110&cs_id=1011002&p_id=6415&seq=1&format=2">Monoprice 4x2 True Matrix HDMI switch</a>. I was having some problems with my previous <a href="http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10110&cs_id=1011002&p_id=5312&seq=1&format=2">Monoprice HDMI switch</a> that I wanted to try to fix with the new device. I have a projector and a TV set so the 4 inputs and 2 outputs of the matrix switch is ideal.<br />
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I currently most often use a directv HR20 and a PS3. These are the sources that I typically switch back and forth from. I have a Samsung TV and a Mitsubishi Projector as the two different displays. I have a separate Yamaha amplifier and Logitech Harmony remote that I tie everything together with. <br />
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The problem I was having was that when I would switch from the HR20 to the PS3 it would hang up in the transition and then it would flash between a black screen to white noise with a loud audio as if tuning a channel on an older tv set that was not occupied. Between the flashes there was a greenish flash. The only way to get this to stop was to power off the matrix switch and turn it back on. This would happen maybe 1 out of 3 switch transitions so it became annoying. I thought it was my cheaper 50ft HDMI cable run to my projector initially. I then bought the amazing <a href="http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10231&cs_id=1023101&p_id=2751&seq=1&format=2">silver plated thick HDMI cable </a>from Monoprice again and still had the problem. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheZeEZZ3-kGGFjBCkSbIWT7pBR06RHkTDc9R7TdXVOwEfOQhjWemfiY1DOgXlBvHVEiuFlkZ9o0H7zdkLkBRao4m9rNkAo3Azcj0IjgKX6bn4o3yFGZ_nu0unvFs1OoQHtz6Y1kgnorz21/s1600/4x2+True+Matrix.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheZeEZZ3-kGGFjBCkSbIWT7pBR06RHkTDc9R7TdXVOwEfOQhjWemfiY1DOgXlBvHVEiuFlkZ9o0H7zdkLkBRao4m9rNkAo3Azcj0IjgKX6bn4o3yFGZ_nu0unvFs1OoQHtz6Y1kgnorz21/s320/4x2+True+Matrix.jpg" /></a></div>Monoprice then came out with a new switch that was HDMI 1.3c compliant and 12 bit deep color compatible so I bought <a href="http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10110&cs_id=1011002&p_id=6415&seq=1&format=2">this</a> hoping for an improvement. II connected the device to the sources and displays and had no initial problems. Now a couple of weeks have passed and my wife calls me to tell me that the PS3 is not working. The symptoms were a black screen that would appear on the projector or TV set. Nothing I could do would fix this. After a couple of days it randomly worked again. One day the switch stops working with the PS3 completely and that is the state I am in now. I will update this with my current status as I fix this problem. <br />
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<b></b>jarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-55387277723351932022009-08-16T08:27:00.000-07:002009-08-16T08:57:31.912-07:00What is a HDMI Matrix Switcher?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8RmkyvFo2az7yxKdrDilo14NLs_SfYhYQ8yPN5v7COD8h2bLEENsMlLlwb1m4j40eU94lNkO5F87IW3mtAtSWjOJX_AeTvIh3QzpVBOiTWx7XRR27Gf3inlfAFnteaS8sbTF2KPQiyYMt/s1600-h/53121.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8RmkyvFo2az7yxKdrDilo14NLs_SfYhYQ8yPN5v7COD8h2bLEENsMlLlwb1m4j40eU94lNkO5F87IW3mtAtSWjOJX_AeTvIh3QzpVBOiTWx7XRR27Gf3inlfAFnteaS8sbTF2KPQiyYMt/s320/53121.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5370589421338977682" border="0" /></a><br />Recently I have bought a HD projector to add to my living room setup. I am a fan of buying good quality hardware and I purchased the Mitsubishi HC5500 which has been working very well. I like to pay less for cables and switches so I don't buy name brands and have really loved accessories from Monoprice for that reason. I was looking for a solution on how to have the projector and TV connected to all of my HD sources. I first started out with a <a href="http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10110&cs_id=1011002&p_id=5081&seq=1&format=2">HDMI 5X1 switch</a> from Monoprice which worked very well for connecting my 4 sources but I still had to get up and switch HDMI cables between the TV and the projector. I then bought a <a href="http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10113&cs_id=1011301&p_id=5068&seq=1&format=2">HDMI splitter</a> which went from 1X2. This worked to connect to my switch effectively making it 5X2 which was what I wanted.<br /><br />Then some logistics of this particular setup came up and was not exactly what I wanted. The projector I have is 1080p and the tv I have is 720p. When the splitter negotiates the HDCP handshake and gets the resolution info back from both of the displays it picks the least common denominator of the resolutions (as far as I can tell) and sends that back as the resolution that the display can support. So I would have to watch things in 720p when both were connected. Of course you can set the source to be whatever resolution you want and one display would work then the other would not.<br /><br />So then I was browsing Monoprice yet again and realized I could have bought what is called a <a href="http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10110&cs_id=1011002&p_id=5312&seq=1&format=2">matrix switcher which is a 4X2 HDMI device</a>. The beauty of this device is that you can choose what source goes to which display or effectively split to both displays. It can even support one source going to a single display while a different source goes to your second display simultaneously. I didn't know such a device existed so I thought I would pass this on as a lesson I learned. I still like the other stuff I bought for use other places but could have forgone the purchases.<br /><br />This solved my resolution problem because I can choose a single display to send the source to so it does not reduce the resolution based on the other display. This would still be a problem if I used it as a splitter but since the projector and tv are in the same room I don't really have a problem. This has an IR port for control so I just integrated this matrix switcher into my Logitech universal remote activities.jarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-30461172079941468422009-01-22T20:43:00.000-08:002009-01-22T20:47:07.012-08:00Vudu Inc. Customer Service Report: GreatVudu Inc. makes the Vudu set-top box that streams up to 1080p movies to your TV. The box works amazingly well, but more on that later. I wanted to share with you my brief and satisfying encounter with their customer service. Recently Vudu has had a sale on their box going from $299 to $99 dollars so I bought one being a long time fan of the capabilities.<br /><br />The Fedex delivery man got lazy and put on the tracking number that he could not find my house in the middle of the suburbs of a small town. I called Fedex and demanded the money for shipping back as I still did not get my package on the 6th day. The said they could only talk to the company who had the shipping account which was Vudu of course. I sent an email off to Vudu not expecting much of a response. I got this back the next day.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Thank you for contacting VUDU. I can certainly appreciate how you feel regarding this issue. I've had a couple of incidents with Fed Ex myself. Although we are not responsible for Fed Ex's actions, in a gesture of appreciation for joining the VUDU community, I will credit your account the cost of shipping ($9). Please send me a notification when you've activated your VUDU box and I'll add the credit on for you. Welcome to VUDU!</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Best regards,</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Jimmy Houn</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">VUDU Customer Care</span><br /><br />This made my day. I finally got the box and have started reviewing it. I have no trouble at first but eventually I start to have some choppy playback. I have rented a couple of HDX movies by now and none of them are playing correctly. I sent another email to customer support and get another positive response.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Hi Jark,</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">I think the problem here is a software glitch, possibly a codec issue. We have not had any widespread issues with playback of HD or HDX content. Please reboot your box (unplug it) and then try the playback of those movies. I've credited your account for $19.96 for the cost of the HD and HDX rentals. </span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Best regards,</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Jimmy Houn</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">VUDU Customer Care</span><br /><br />Well the advice worked and I have not had any playback problems with the Vudu box. Now I get to rent even more movies with the 20 dollars back in credit. So I want to thank Vudu and Jimmy Houn for doing an excellent job and let anyone who sees this to expect good things from them. I will review the Vudu box after I have had some time to really experience it.jarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-69072962525614451442009-01-18T10:13:00.000-08:002009-01-18T18:00:24.122-08:00SageTV HD Theater<div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">This is a video of the SageTV HD Theater HD200 accessing Hulu that I found on <a href="http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/01/09/video-hulu-on-the-sagetv-hd-theater/">EngadgetHD</a>. You can <a href="http://www.sagetv.com/hd_theater.html">buy it now</a>. <br /></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.jarkhd.blogspot.com/"><br /></a> </div><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" id="viddler" height="347" width="437"><param name="movie" value="http://www.viddler.com/simple_on_site/fe37540f"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"> <embed src="http://www.viddler.com/simple_on_site/fe37540f" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" name="viddler" height="347" width="437"></embed></object>jarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-60254845698442233482009-01-13T23:32:00.000-08:002009-01-14T19:47:03.795-08:00Media Center Extension for Firefox using ZViewer BetaWhen I was following the coverage for CES on the <a href="http://www.zeevee.com/">ZeeVee device</a>, a QAM local broadcaster, I noticed they were giving away their software for free called <a href="http://www.zeevee.com/products/zviewer">Zviewer Beta</a>. This software was developed to make a nice interface for when one streams the pc to the HDTV. The ZeeVee application <span style="font-weight: bold;">does not</span> need the ZeeVee box to run. Better yet this was built on top of <a href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/?from=getfirefox">Firefox 3 </a>which you can download a stand alone installer or just install the extension just as any other Firefox plugin.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidnaAl31Z7EwjMDjPyatWpXwVl6AK9BfId5nNk0pqCQelpeF09vlMvEKt5_s1F0LiJk4qVhkp8IuWk-LWCpiegiiQGRRl8CZLHPagnwigCVXvn-cioZk8gmfIWip2MF8numgqH7w2sekdM/s1600-h/Picture+33.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 261px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidnaAl31Z7EwjMDjPyatWpXwVl6AK9BfId5nNk0pqCQelpeF09vlMvEKt5_s1F0LiJk4qVhkp8IuWk-LWCpiegiiQGRRl8CZLHPagnwigCVXvn-cioZk8gmfIWip2MF8numgqH7w2sekdM/s320/Picture+33.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291054664822166498" border="0" /></a><br />Below is a list of the plug-in bundle that is installed<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu9c6yfgFHAaH6eNI5JhbNJ2zX8C-q21_CvragvS8vRAntG3YcC4Q6P0FqzCThHayw3BFt4b5u3pandwBIR7l1t-52tUxPUCgbEogXTphmxv401aE1x_n-KNow56RGp87Y98SXu079B43q/s1600-h/Picture+35.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 261px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu9c6yfgFHAaH6eNI5JhbNJ2zX8C-q21_CvragvS8vRAntG3YcC4Q6P0FqzCThHayw3BFt4b5u3pandwBIR7l1t-52tUxPUCgbEogXTphmxv401aE1x_n-KNow56RGp87Y98SXu079B43q/s320/Picture+35.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291052445396777538" border="0" /></a><br />When the install is finished (6.8Mb) Firefox needs a restart and then the launching icon is in the upper right hand corner. Below is an example of what the UI looks like. Of course one can full screen Firefox. Another advantage of running as a Firefox plugin is the ability to run this extension in a tab. As you can see from the screen shots I am running Windows XP in a virtual machine and taking screen shots of that because my main system is a Mac Pro.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTAGz_4sio7HRDp710O9LqJ02ciglkSwrWnUyiIp43XrezkGCo9NDNdAixxYBNqsNFKZf8cpuK9X2wO8YlJocBhN23AU2UHMQwhWh3_zBfdxkYPptOkAxT0TrKgQHch3ko4hTbRV2WyYsA/s1600-h/Picture+38.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 261px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTAGz_4sio7HRDp710O9LqJ02ciglkSwrWnUyiIp43XrezkGCo9NDNdAixxYBNqsNFKZf8cpuK9X2wO8YlJocBhN23AU2UHMQwhWh3_zBfdxkYPptOkAxT0TrKgQHch3ko4hTbRV2WyYsA/s320/Picture+38.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291056232071482050" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaG4hBM_XvMt-JgUHTsmqPlbXk5jC5jhJ94O_L367CCcMXiWHP2Dt6oF0ml-y9BsHjxuilrczwG-8AJ_KKnZjlQCgNrQvByrKIwHQ9BrRLEqpCDudRiQAoymTpNVdX-LxxU78xFu01K99h/s1600-h/Picture+41.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 261px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaG4hBM_XvMt-JgUHTsmqPlbXk5jC5jhJ94O_L367CCcMXiWHP2Dt6oF0ml-y9BsHjxuilrczwG-8AJ_KKnZjlQCgNrQvByrKIwHQ9BrRLEqpCDudRiQAoymTpNVdX-LxxU78xFu01K99h/s320/Picture+41.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291061998225515250" border="0" /></a>This highlights one of the weaknesses of the program. As of yet this will only run on Windows with Firefox 3. Because of the platform choice of Firefox, one would expect other OS's to be supported in the future.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGZFp5Nt8p-0lwaEjnIw-jRUn-Kj_l44lPrhM7dsink9L8nL3cK3fhdDgGgxTNeaLEjkGnPWSEMkH0T8PubjOSuA0RT2x8S8oJ91MXYbwX-7OviqxKWgIvfA6k8ZN18H-zN1UQiB0XWefs/s1600-h/Picture+44.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 261px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGZFp5Nt8p-0lwaEjnIw-jRUn-Kj_l44lPrhM7dsink9L8nL3cK3fhdDgGgxTNeaLEjkGnPWSEMkH0T8PubjOSuA0RT2x8S8oJ91MXYbwX-7OviqxKWgIvfA6k8ZN18H-zN1UQiB0XWefs/s320/Picture+44.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291062004459100914" border="0" /></a>This is drilling down into the menu system which looks really good. Hulu is well supported.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiqMlTp2RKqfu_Uoqx5KvHYrw1wfXaNDRp76R-AEyiSt_SghvGAKSJlwKY7miMVV_KoRqKPBDjFgPW6X8D6K-yxFBUg9GpKwUJbsXhDJ1j74pTNUhSHFPQ8nYdjttviR-OdWGy8FicqzcB/s1600-h/Picture+43.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 261px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiqMlTp2RKqfu_Uoqx5KvHYrw1wfXaNDRp76R-AEyiSt_SghvGAKSJlwKY7miMVV_KoRqKPBDjFgPW6X8D6K-yxFBUg9GpKwUJbsXhDJ1j74pTNUhSHFPQ8nYdjttviR-OdWGy8FicqzcB/s320/Picture+43.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291062004355624130" border="0" /></a>One of the better things about the software is the unified search function over all of the streaming media. This works well. I would like to see a step further with integration. Right now when you choose a show it takes you directly to the webpage of the episode and starts it streaming. It would be nicer if it integrated the stream similar to the way <a href="http://boxee.tv/">Boxee</a> does this.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsptbrjeCsJi0kW-6hOqD7AYv9cBcLhSh9C9g4qPuFXstalpz6Dij6WPTnsjm03ofePjZ1b4zwD2FQKBj8cC5ZZwEA6_APok5S7GCEbkyS7tHjNtrcu0eOK_RmR9WHFNlNtCwiqDKBvIJw/s1600-h/Picture+47.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 261px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsptbrjeCsJi0kW-6hOqD7AYv9cBcLhSh9C9g4qPuFXstalpz6Dij6WPTnsjm03ofePjZ1b4zwD2FQKBj8cC5ZZwEA6_APok5S7GCEbkyS7tHjNtrcu0eOK_RmR9WHFNlNtCwiqDKBvIJw/s320/Picture+47.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291065395615563682" border="0" /></a>Local media folders are supported.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHhkMm0Po27GSexuUiBDsGDCzQI3wZTf5xL2BXra5IynpQKjdQPRdubrpj1L-PQ19-oebasi95RdvDza3dTksdDc-8pDs7ukXTRAZoPEmPBlkjznjGEnHAuuauD4sn8n0CaJMA1q3mun2R/s1600-h/Picture+40.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 261px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHhkMm0Po27GSexuUiBDsGDCzQI3wZTf5xL2BXra5IynpQKjdQPRdubrpj1L-PQ19-oebasi95RdvDza3dTksdDc-8pDs7ukXTRAZoPEmPBlkjznjGEnHAuuauD4sn8n0CaJMA1q3mun2R/s320/Picture+40.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291061998317024114" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZX6iZgZSBozFQ4PUxOz8XqF-Hq3MnmnXtCTPOY4fgE-w0SyIQtQ-5Oxmgqr827dR7EGT183CjcGN1QSH-0ub1hEr0LZ8d6DokVkImN2MMT8-uCgukx6x3E6wa3-WyJzZg9ny_J4EJDWJm/s1600-h/Picture+42.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 261px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZX6iZgZSBozFQ4PUxOz8XqF-Hq3MnmnXtCTPOY4fgE-w0SyIQtQ-5Oxmgqr827dR7EGT183CjcGN1QSH-0ub1hEr0LZ8d6DokVkImN2MMT8-uCgukx6x3E6wa3-WyJzZg9ny_J4EJDWJm/s320/Picture+42.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291062001266643170" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5satXwGy6lc7SYJAVIAziCQsje-3He5pmRQLXVyHMQ6A8lNm99i75NHJWmgNFKMlRuQII_6Anl-bNO58YyTOqJHIUEUdZw8w5yvHLpMVOp5CQISdiq2lojMqJqqzji-SnWE6E3z4QNjOG/s1600-h/Picture+45.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 261px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5satXwGy6lc7SYJAVIAziCQsje-3He5pmRQLXVyHMQ6A8lNm99i75NHJWmgNFKMlRuQII_6Anl-bNO58YyTOqJHIUEUdZw8w5yvHLpMVOp5CQISdiq2lojMqJqqzji-SnWE6E3z4QNjOG/s320/Picture+45.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291063055002372754" border="0" /></a>And the result of is beautiful layout with automatic screen shots of random parts of the movie.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji0jADgN4gSHFcPKG6mYPP-mYC6BtPs0sUWOJ43hstoRTOSwpYP3yjdxRQf-fIMtFNOizgEDZWMr6s4W6j0J_8K8M4gFoZ1WIZICEEGoYhDwlHh6RWcDX7M1mY4m3QMbsogSOqgOxehkHo/s1600-h/Picture+46.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 261px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji0jADgN4gSHFcPKG6mYPP-mYC6BtPs0sUWOJ43hstoRTOSwpYP3yjdxRQf-fIMtFNOizgEDZWMr6s4W6j0J_8K8M4gFoZ1WIZICEEGoYhDwlHh6RWcDX7M1mY4m3QMbsogSOqgOxehkHo/s320/Picture+46.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291064008884150962" border="0" /></a><br />Supported Applications<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw7Fin1qPKIK19MqFYhWiWtMb5M2Ej6RQPO7q1h3tPUtQANjfkx9SDgd8zMAtCU2ByiiBCo3B746GEpmZU_L4Ct7A6BesV69tyGWf8pKNFy_Y2J3MPSWO4uWBLVi49Q0C5pkRa7qHCtbtk/s1600-h/Picture+39.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 261px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw7Fin1qPKIK19MqFYhWiWtMb5M2Ej6RQPO7q1h3tPUtQANjfkx9SDgd8zMAtCU2ByiiBCo3B746GEpmZU_L4Ct7A6BesV69tyGWf8pKNFy_Y2J3MPSWO4uWBLVi49Q0C5pkRa7qHCtbtk/s320/Picture+39.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291060992857494354" border="0" /></a>This application is great for organizing your streaming experience all into one interface. It feels very lightweight and well thought out. The interface would be well used on a media center pc as a 10ft display for all of your streaming television watching.jarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-28231873966881978782009-01-11T22:11:00.000-08:002009-01-11T22:21:31.051-08:00Vudu Box Back to $299 and Out of Stock<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpXGPQpGpvdpdEPdpkbXjebSm7Mbwhxo2bRmztzxpBa0CBdxyoRZXidNQbTUNzS6BmMzQ7fUjGmq-walKkvemu1vRVm4P0PlpQuSDg_LvjGorLR1lA0ea1G2gZYZqkvwsiTM5Z6qT5nnFr/s1600-h/Picture+32.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 209px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpXGPQpGpvdpdEPdpkbXjebSm7Mbwhxo2bRmztzxpBa0CBdxyoRZXidNQbTUNzS6BmMzQ7fUjGmq-walKkvemu1vRVm4P0PlpQuSDg_LvjGorLR1lA0ea1G2gZYZqkvwsiTM5Z6qT5nnFr/s320/Picture+32.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290287773142220066" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Vudu recently dropped their box price from $299 to $99 dollars during the holiday season. I was able buy one of these during the sale and will be getting it tomorrow in the mail. I guess their promotion went well because their website is showing that they are out of stock on the box itself and everything is back up to normal prices now. I was a bit apprehensive about buying a potential paperweight if the roomers were true about them shutting down. I think this may be a good sign that they just picked up a couple more subscribers. If they go out of business I will have some fun trying to hack the box. It at least has a 250GB hard drive that is probably a laptop drive. After review of this box I will put my thoughts on the Vudu box here.jarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-73900956878323653532009-01-11T12:25:00.000-08:002009-01-11T22:58:52.073-08:006 Best DVR Applications according to pole at LifehackerThis <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5128408/six-best-dvr-applications">Lifehacker article</a> lays out the 6 most popular DVR applications as shown by their recent pole. I thought it was worth a read. They really need to update the screenshots for MythTV. They are so much better looking than that now! Here are some better screen shots of MythTV. This is the theme I use. Article <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5128408/six-best-dvr-applications">Link</a> where you can now go and vote for your favorite. Go MythTV!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgad9EuKuQXcju0dVnRqENLGt1qLq7v9IiQ1AxN4mW2CknoZEjUFI0-HYOFPZLFEjQUwPmnfTuVxfDV6YlsY4okLg1m68rzZDN2avz2Xoc2FDaW51m2ENpn_G7bJXeMSdi3i56ge7MTYAHj/s1600-h/widescreen_theme.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 181px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgad9EuKuQXcju0dVnRqENLGt1qLq7v9IiQ1AxN4mW2CknoZEjUFI0-HYOFPZLFEjQUwPmnfTuVxfDV6YlsY4okLg1m68rzZDN2avz2Xoc2FDaW51m2ENpn_G7bJXeMSdi3i56ge7MTYAHj/s320/widescreen_theme.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290136612530671234" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMYtiCZMsd_TRThCzGHZTFansWx-xMD9NPAERSeRsIiPbUKmPU4Fpxu3aWURngs3Nxw1SqzVwY8ZLDPYHlX55nmEcUykUDAYvsu4JbFUaW1j0ceKhX_7Wq0s0aqFFNSuOJd0FIotg7zJA_/s1600-h/mythtv_frontend_8.04.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 241px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMYtiCZMsd_TRThCzGHZTFansWx-xMD9NPAERSeRsIiPbUKmPU4Fpxu3aWURngs3Nxw1SqzVwY8ZLDPYHlX55nmEcUykUDAYvsu4JbFUaW1j0ceKhX_7Wq0s0aqFFNSuOJd0FIotg7zJA_/s320/mythtv_frontend_8.04.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290136753152037538" border="0" /></a>jarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-47381061715134010752009-01-10T20:23:00.000-08:002009-01-10T20:37:18.511-08:00Windows 7 Media Center<a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Click here to block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-03336819427979131 visible" href="http://www.viddler.com/simple_on_site/ebd1e78c"></a><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" id="viddler" height="347" width="437"><param name="movie" value="http://www.viddler.com/simple_on_site/ebd1e78c"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"> <embed src="http://www.viddler.com/simple_on_site/ebd1e78c" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" name="viddler" height="347" width="437"></embed></object><br />This video from Engadget HD intrigued me enough to download the beta for Windows 7. I am going to put it on a drive and play with the media center part. In the video the media center interface is being accessed through a touch screen.jarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-89293858763836603972009-01-08T19:59:00.000-08:002009-01-11T13:04:15.005-08:00The Analog Hole and Recording HDMI with HDCPI wrote a little while ago on recording HD using what is called the "analog hole" in my previous <a href="http://jarkhd.blogspot.com/2008/03/hauppauge-hd-pvr-mythtv-and-analog-hole.html">post</a>. Since this article has been popular I wanted to revisit it and update it for 2009.<br /><br />One of my main reasons for building a MythTV was so that I could record HD and SD programming and then do anything I wanted with it. No DRM, no expiration dates, and no hassles. At the time I was also worried about the broadcast flag and I wanted a system that would totally ignore anything similar down the road. I have succeeded in building a system that records HD over cable with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAM_tuner">QAM</a> and records SD from basic cable. The current trend is to have a set top box or DVR provide the premium HD content that I currently don't have the ability to record. This set me searching for a solution that allows me to record the premium HD content and have the same freedom I have with my current recordings. I also don't want to go buy a special computer with altered bios in order to support cable card recording with Windows Vista Media Center such as Dell and others <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/11/atis-tv-wonder-digital-cable-tuner-hands-on/">provide</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Recording Component HD using the Analog Hole</span><br /><br />This was the reason that I got excited about the <a href="http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html">HD-PVR</a> made by <a href="http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html">Hauppauge</a>. This device is designed specifically to record the analog component HD signal from a cable box or DVR which cannot ever have any copy protection.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEapVukkUfDIdenV57uesi23S4P-DnctEUsEOzKlRpB7d3VeSmZp9GDAVAkSjEZ6cJshjOOR8Gw8dArOHFzPifwugDN3bmn_B7YfGlt4XaV62XYcv97WDq9lhA7Fy7vHko7gbkN8FgOAQR/s1600-h/hd_pvr_front_medium.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 176px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEapVukkUfDIdenV57uesi23S4P-DnctEUsEOzKlRpB7d3VeSmZp9GDAVAkSjEZ6cJshjOOR8Gw8dArOHFzPifwugDN3bmn_B7YfGlt4XaV62XYcv97WDq9lhA7Fy7vHko7gbkN8FgOAQR/s320/hd_pvr_front_medium.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289156426919417330" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd1h25VtcyoxLMVhUBbPHCcDilUW5AD-gBF0J6qyfExMyDsKQOuQGmiUmZpxpzmheIABHCqv29NV4nupOTsWkaocxiNXL_QNkoDcWWye36GUYzQLibdHHuyZYZuUuvTae0klL6liw-kkSZ/s1600-h/hd_pvr_rear_medium.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 176px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd1h25VtcyoxLMVhUBbPHCcDilUW5AD-gBF0J6qyfExMyDsKQOuQGmiUmZpxpzmheIABHCqv29NV4nupOTsWkaocxiNXL_QNkoDcWWye36GUYzQLibdHHuyZYZuUuvTae0klL6liw-kkSZ/s320/hd_pvr_rear_medium.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289156659318438162" border="0" /></a>The cable company's only recourse would be to turn off or degrade the component HD which would render all HD TV's that were not HDMI with HDCP pretty worthless. I will not put it past them but it would take time to do without alienating customers. Look at the long drawn out analog TV cutoff that may be extended yet again by Obama.<br /><br />There are very early drivers for the HD-PVR to <a href="http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Hauppauge_HD-PVR">work</a> with <a href="http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Hauppauge_HD-PVR">MythTV</a> but I am waiting for these to mature into a beta release before I go down this road. SageTV and BeyondTV both offer support for this and I have read the results are excellent.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Recording HDMI with HDCP</span><br /><br />That leaves one thinking of a fool-proof method of recording HDMI with HDCP which is explicitly what the HDCP encryption guards against. There is one solution that I first read about at the MythTV wiki. One can accomplish recording any HDMI source with HDCP including a Blueray or cable box by the use of two products. The <a href="http://www.curtpalme.com/HDFury2.shtm">updated HD Fury II</a> that can be bought here connected to the Hauppauge HD-PVR.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkHWG0lWoYnVZAy1c32fN8Qioz159KbqgLlpicJAIjlmQFQFnb2WNlx-Z1H4nvSXf9qERaJwdOhsR2OuLeGMHDrR53k4SzmUv4smK2lofPt-7NLhEuS5QHwqGbC-GB9HSbsAPi3w3b5RZv/s1600-h/HDFury2_inside1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 199px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkHWG0lWoYnVZAy1c32fN8Qioz159KbqgLlpicJAIjlmQFQFnb2WNlx-Z1H4nvSXf9qERaJwdOhsR2OuLeGMHDrR53k4SzmUv4smK2lofPt-7NLhEuS5QHwqGbC-GB9HSbsAPi3w3b5RZv/s320/HDFury2_inside1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289154559009031266" border="0" /></a> The HD Fury 2 is designed to allow older TV's, projectors, monitors display HD content from an HDMI source protected with HDCP which these devices can not display. The Fury works by communicating with the HDMI source one would like to record and does the handoff to satisfy the HDCP encryption. Instead of immediately displaying this decoded stream like a TV would the Fury outputs this now analog stream to component or VGA. Once this stream is converted from HDMI to Component then it is analog and has no encryption. One would then connect the component cables to the HD-PVR to record this digital stream at a very high quality.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">This solution works with Windows, Mac, and Linux</span><br /><br />As of right now the HD-PVR can be used with Windows with the included software, SageTV, and a beta version of BeyondTV. For the Mac, Elagato has a beta version of eyetv that supports the HD-PVR. Linux can use the <a href="http://hg.jannau.net/hdpvr/">alpha drivers</a> that allow this solution to work with <a href="http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Hauppauge_HD-PVR">MythTV</a>.<br /><br />At the time of this post <a href="http://www.curtpalme.com/HDFury2.shtm">HD Fury II costs 250 dollars</a> and the HD-PVR is around 200 dollars bring the total cost to 550 dollars. This is a hefty price tag but may be worth it for people like me that want to record premium content in HD but want to have control of the hardware and the recording.jarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-23042682898819474802009-01-05T19:28:00.000-08:002009-01-05T21:18:12.005-08:00My Roku Netflix Box is now in HD<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9kIhKeAi9ClH4i0kdLqoxa1l8jnmD3UqLq7kUaoo_ReAU4x3xbXeV_HBffNgaicY-eZyuFGICkjFRlFpLuMP5XI5WirZ4rBAHWHJ22U7_THMIJtK4Gr9e4zeEw1Z1xVcwprXGgLiMQ5Vh/s1600-h/home_content_back.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 199px; height: 123px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9kIhKeAi9ClH4i0kdLqoxa1l8jnmD3UqLq7kUaoo_ReAU4x3xbXeV_HBffNgaicY-eZyuFGICkjFRlFpLuMP5XI5WirZ4rBAHWHJ22U7_THMIJtK4Gr9e4zeEw1Z1xVcwprXGgLiMQ5Vh/s320/home_content_back.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288045703026358562" /></a><br />Last night I got the 1.5 firmware update on my Roku Netflix Box. The new interface shows clearly that they plan to add new channels to this interface which was confirmed by the announcement today that Amazon on demand is coming to the box. I must have gotten used to the font on the old interface being stretched because now the font looks entirely too skinny.<br /><br />The quality is as good as an upconverted DVD which is excellent for streaming media. My connection is through the wifi and has no appreciable lag to show for it. Most movies are now starting up with all four stars and doing that quickly. It seems that they fixed the glitch I read about last month or just bought a truckload of bandwidth. <br /><br />I am starting to love this Roku box as it is becoming the digital swiss army knife of streaming. When all of the major networks have a Roku channel I will be even happier!jarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-52945542030713474292008-03-10T08:05:00.000-07:002008-03-10T08:18:14.478-07:00New Version of MythTV .21 ReleasedV.21 of MythTV was released the 8th of March. Release notes are <a href="http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Release_Notes_-_0.21">here</a>. It has been a while since the last update and the developers have gifted us with many changes. Most exciting to me is the addition of volume groups. This means that MythTV can be set up to manage and record on multiple drives without using RAID or LVM. This means less complexity and the ease of adding or removing a drive depending on your storage needs. Mythweb has been improved and features added like a streaming window you your recordings that can be played in the browser. Another claim is that the frontend memory has been reduced by 75%.<br /><br />When this is added to the source repositories I will do a review on all of the changes and improvements to give you my take.jarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-7703724895833880002008-03-05T08:50:00.000-08:002009-01-08T22:20:53.557-08:00Hauppauge HD-PVR, Mythtv, and the Analog HoleUpdate to this article <a href="http://jarkhd.blogspot.com/2009/01/hauppauge-hd-pvr-mythtv-and-analog-hole.html">here</a><br /><br />I have been eagerly following a piece of hardware from Hauppauge called the HD-PVR because it records HD from component video in 1080i and 720p with a hardware encoder. I first read about this device from the Snapstream blog <a href="http://blogs.snapstream.com/2008/02/07/more-on-the-hauppauge-hd-pvr/">here</a>. The analog video out of most HD set topped boxes and HD players has been called by the industry as the "Analog Hole". This is because the signal from the component output is not encrypted or protected from recording such as HDCP protects the HDMI digital connections that are becoming the standard recently. There is some sample video and frame capture from these forum threads found at this<a href="http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/dev/320067"> link</a>. Here is a single frame captured by the device showing the great quality that can be recorded from the component inputs.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6b_WjM9ZAp20nzPmjtRIBVZYoU9Yokvaz24RUz-JIkIx_eieb-mCKLScQZMozYIWZw-y_pRxNHvzxlFfnCcWver8w2MO2q0jJCUuzqRl26IJ2AAIiovUODiNAKkEq5ZHYkCGXfn93MlJy/s1600-h/hd-pvr_frame.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6b_WjM9ZAp20nzPmjtRIBVZYoU9Yokvaz24RUz-JIkIx_eieb-mCKLScQZMozYIWZw-y_pRxNHvzxlFfnCcWver8w2MO2q0jJCUuzqRl26IJ2AAIiovUODiNAKkEq5ZHYkCGXfn93MlJy/s320/hd-pvr_frame.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5174303675082396754" border="0" /></a>I think it is a smart move by the powers that be to push digital (HDCP encrypted) signals are so much better than analog, but the truth is that they are very close if not identical.<br /><br />The other big problem I have foreseen is that the 2009 analog cutoff is quickly approaching. This means that analog over-the-air is going away which is no great loss since over-the-air and Clear QAM HD is much better and DRM free. The part which worries me is my own opinion that Cable providers are also going to follow the lead and phase out the analog cable channels and reclaim that huge bandwidth that they take up and instead have more internet capacity or on-demand programming. Think about it. Everyone would have to have a digital cable box rented from the cable company and the cable company would be able to sell services on the reclaimed bandwidth; it is a win-win.<br /><br />So cable boxes and cable cards will be the only way to tune the new channels and you can be sure they are well protected against copying and being used on the consumer's own terms. So far Cable Labs is restricting cable cards to PCs with Vista and a specialized bios and they will never allow Linux and Mythtv to use the Cable Card intentionally. So this analog hole will be the only way to record HD from digital channels that would otherwise be protected by strong encryption that can be dynamically keyed and protected.<br /><br />This HD-PVR and devices like it would be the only way to record digital cable with Mythtv until the analog hole is closed sometime in the future. I hope there is a strong market for the device and other similar devices come on the market. Here is a release about the device from CeBIT I found today on <a href="http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/news.phtml/13212/14236/hauppauge-launches-pmp-recorder-twin-tuner.phtml"> Pocket-lint</a>.<br /><br />"The new Hauppauge HD-PVR is a plug-in USB stick with a built-in H.264 HD encoder to view and record HD video on a PC. The package also includes software to create HD disks for playback on a Blu-ray player. The new HD-PVR stick can encode 720p and 1080i HD sources at up to 13.5 Mbps on the fly to the PC's hard disk. "<br /><br />So officially the HD-PVR will first support Vista and XP but linux drivers could be an option from Hauppauge. Since this device streams over USB someone will make this work with Mythtv eventually. This device solves a problem I have been worried about for a while now. I may even get digital cable!<br /><br />Update to this article <a href="http://jarkhd.blogspot.com/2009/01/hauppauge-hd-pvr-mythtv-and-analog-hole.html">here</a>.jarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-11165022555456478322008-03-03T07:34:00.000-08:002008-03-03T09:19:00.748-08:00Everex gPC Mini, The Perfect Mythtv Box?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3g8X5heWulvbtiwnxEsNd0IVEIaz1cf4FrUtgKYUZCAh-97fvT_wrwkOm3lQvJ4ThQrfgVPX0aYrG1gJ8MUMwoiMfWIGT5iVAM0bIZ631wkONjIOoelBpz8PoiQWhdk6o4aAbh0SR26EZ/s1600-h/everex_gpc_mini1.jpg"><br /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3g8X5heWulvbtiwnxEsNd0IVEIaz1cf4FrUtgKYUZCAh-97fvT_wrwkOm3lQvJ4ThQrfgVPX0aYrG1gJ8MUMwoiMfWIGT5iVAM0bIZ631wkONjIOoelBpz8PoiQWhdk6o4aAbh0SR26EZ/s1600-h/everex_gpc_mini1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3g8X5heWulvbtiwnxEsNd0IVEIaz1cf4FrUtgKYUZCAh-97fvT_wrwkOm3lQvJ4ThQrfgVPX0aYrG1gJ8MUMwoiMfWIGT5iVAM0bIZ631wkONjIOoelBpz8PoiQWhdk6o4aAbh0SR26EZ/s320/everex_gpc_mini1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173541806484567634" border="0" /></a>I found this hardware today on Digg.com and I immediately thought of a Mythtv frontend. This has the power to be a frontend and backend but hard drive space would be the limiting factor there. USB hard drives would be fine for this form factor and they do work with Mythtv. This mini pc will be very efficient and help offset some of it's cost by energy conservation. I know the full desktop that I currently use for Mythtv takes up much more power than this pc. My budget does not allow the 500 dollar price tag, but it will be interesting when the price on this hardware eventually falls. The Everex Cloudbook laptop is priced around 400 dollars but does not have the higher end specs that this gPC does.<br /><br /> Most sources I have read say that Newegg will be selling the gPC on March 1st but I have not seen it as of today the 3rd.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin-mrBt2WZ7pH2DjHusVu9mXNboqckEQe-6NDNFVsJnrjS9TkjteNKXW51pSSd3jlDgRdWo-1FEbhgk4OJtXOvazOwbCSHWBpTMdZDWozfuXRfNusVj9F2isNXoEZ2YNSCz9wu0m1DWZig/s1600-h/everex_gpc_mini2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin-mrBt2WZ7pH2DjHusVu9mXNboqckEQe-6NDNFVsJnrjS9TkjteNKXW51pSSd3jlDgRdWo-1FEbhgk4OJtXOvazOwbCSHWBpTMdZDWozfuXRfNusVj9F2isNXoEZ2YNSCz9wu0m1DWZig/s320/everex_gpc_mini2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173541952513455714" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Everex gPC Mini Specs</span><br /><br />1.86GHz T2130<br />512MB<br />120GB<br />6.7" x 8.9"<br />1.65" thick<br />gOS Linux<br />DVI, S-Video, FireWire, 4xUSB, Gbit LAN, S/PDIF, Card Reader<br />Intel GMA950 video, DVD burner<br />$500jarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-36189884212082910262008-02-20T14:40:00.000-08:002008-02-21T21:17:52.860-08:00An Open Letter to Netflix: Instant Viewing Hard Limit of 4 ComputersI recently emailed this letter to publicrelations@netflix.com about the negative experience I have had with their 4 computer limit on "Instant Viewing"<br /><br />"To Whom it may concern,<br /><br />I recently have run into your 4 device limit on computers (or installations on the same computer). I had no idea that this was a limitation. I have called and discussed this with your customer support and they have told me about this limitation put on Netflix from the content providers. The customer representative has assured me that "anywhere Netflix could, they wrote this information". This of course refers to the Terms of Service and other fine print areas scattered throughout. This is not a good solution! I am a computer savvy user and I have never heard about or read about this fixed limitation of your service. Why not let the user know about this limitation on the Browse Instant page letting them know to be careful about which computers to activate? Maybe a count of the numbers that are active and some kind of name given at activation that would identify them. Being completely above the board in this area would make it seem like Netflix was on our side looking out for the user. I would not have felt the animosity towards Netflix after blowing away multiple activations on computers that I have reformatted not being aware of this.<br /><br />Other Suggestions<br />1. Netflix would be much better off would propose that you first try to work a solution involving an ability to reset these activations through a call to customer service. This would be similar to the way that Apple's Itunes has 5 computers that are active at a time but can be reset in case of a hardware failure etc. The user would then have to reactivate all computers at that point and then choose the 4 he or she wanted to be active.<br /><br />2. Another way that may help users like me is to offer the ability to deactivate a computer before it is reformatted or sold so that one would not loose an activation. This would probably not be against copyright holders wishes. One could even limit the 4 activations down to one with this ability offering tighter control of the copyright holders content. Just be sure to offer a reset in case of a hardware failure in this case to ward off more angry callers.<br /><br />Thanks for your attention, "<br /><br />So if you ask really nicely they will offer a one time 5th and final activation on your account. This would not be repeated in following years. The count does reset Mid-January of each new year no matter when an account was started. The customer support representative mentioned a couple of other tips. Ghosting the Windows drive and restoring does allow one to effectively transfer the activation onto new hardware. He also mentioned that if one got another membership that that would give them 4 more activations. This might be a temporary fix if you are out of luck. You could buy the 8.99 one at a time for this. He mentioned that if one tried to activate a bunch of computers through 2 week trials etc. that the fraud team would investigate this behavior.<br /><br />Please let me know in the comments of any of your experiences and tell your friends about this!<br /><br />*********************<br />Update<br /><br />Netflix response<br /><br />Thank you for your suggestions and we've passed them on to the product<br />group.<br /><br />Regards,<br />Netflixjarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-68831246348424458342008-02-12T19:55:00.000-08:002008-02-12T20:22:07.125-08:00VMWare Mythtv FrontendI just built a really fast machine with a Core 2 Quad Intel processor. I saved a wishlist from Newegg of the specifics of the machine <a href="https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Wishlist/PublicWishDetail.asp?WishListNumber=8053866&WishListTitle=JarkHD+Machine">JarkHD Machine Wish List</a>. I keep one windows machine to play pc games and this was my new machine for gaming. I have been annoyed that I could not watch Mythtv from my Windows box. I have tried the alternatives to watching Mythtv on Windows and none of them work well at all. I thought finally I will be able to make a frontend for Mythtv on a virtual machine with this new beast. I have tried this in the past and always blamed the machine for the 1 frame per second performance. I used the free <a href="http://www.vmware.com/products/server/">VMWare server 1.0.4</a> and made a Ubuntu 7.10 virtual machine. When I installed and configured Mythtv-Frontend I tried an HD show I had recorded. Once again the frame rate was terrible so I tried a SD show with the same results. (It was a little better) I noticed that the CPU usage was close to 75% which I have never witnessed with this machine. I have tried this same setup with the VMware tools installed and have had no luck. The conclusion I have come to is the video driver can not keep up with the frame rate needed to watch Mythtv. This same problem is true of the PS3 which lacks a driver for the video card. Maybe VMWare will accelerate the graphics more and this will work in the future.jarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-54852444664996156302008-02-08T12:38:00.001-08:002008-02-08T13:20:38.778-08:00Mythtv: Upgrading Ubuntu 7.04 to 7.10 with the Update ManagerI wanted to write a quick note about my upgrade experience to Ubuntu 7.10. Flawless! I saved any of the config files that I had changed for some reason unless they were frivolous. This was the first time I have used the automatic upgrade for a major version change. I have it in my head that when you change OS's, and sometimes when it has just been a long time, that it is better to format the drive and start fresh. Of course this assumption was because of Windows and the ugly registry. The only thing I had to fix was to re-install ffmpeg that I had built with divx and xvid functionality. Basically I went to the source folder and I did a make install again. This cleared it right up.jarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-307179218830642642007-07-16T08:12:00.000-07:002007-07-16T09:30:11.743-07:00Separating the MythTV Frontend from the BackendThe services of MythTV are divided into two major groups; the frontend and the backend. The frontend is the GUI that one sees when you are watching the content and choosing what to watch. The frontend has themes that change the look of the interface. The frontend also renders the video that is displayed which is not insignificant when it comes to high definition content. Some MythTV plug-ins are also a part of the frontend that extend functionality such as browsing weather or playing music. On the other side the MythTV backend is the brains behind the scenes. It interfaces with the MySQL database and the capture cards to schedule and record the content. The backend sends the data that the frontend displays and provides the schedule information that it has received from the selected data services company. See <a href="http://jarkhd.blogspot.com/2007/06/zap2it-labs-retires-sept-1st.html">Zap2it article</a><br /><br />The frontend and the backend typically run on the same computer in most setups I have seen and used. This makes the setup straight forward. MythTV has an excellent network code that allows the very efficient communication between the frontend and backend even on separate computers. This is put to the test with high definition content with a very high bit-rate but performs admirably on wired gigabit ethernet. I know what you are thinking with wi-fi but this is too much bandwidth for A/B/G wireless LAN when it comes to HD. Standard definition does work with my wireless. There are reasons and advantages to separating the frontend from the backend. The most obvious reason is to divide and conquer the tasks. Commercial flagging and compression to Xvid on the backend will not make your HD content playback choppy if they are on different computers.<br /><br />In my case I wanted to have a central server that was located in my office running the backend. This was most convenient for my cable drops in my house and it allowed me to use this computer as my main office computer as it was the most up to date computer. I wanted to watch the MythTV in my office so I also put a frontend on it but I also wanted to watch the content on my main TV in the living room. I made a frontend computer with relatively good components that were as silent as possible. I used an overclocked AMD FX-55 with an Artic Cooling CPU fan that was very quiet. I used a Nvidia 7600GS video card that was passively cooled for no noise. I used the bare minimum of hard drive capacity because nothing was recorded on this computer. I used an off brand case with large 120 mm fans to be as silent and efficient as possible. Finally I put a creative sound blaster Audigy sound card to have good sound. One other thing I did was to not plug in any of the blue LED's that would flash and turn on with the case because I did not want the distraction of these watching TV. The simple power on / off LED was all I needed to see. I could make all of these decisions based on the specialized function of the computer being a frontend only. One thing this really helped with was cable clutter. I could have a single power cord, audio cable, network cable, and video cable coming out of the frontend computer which helped make the system look very clean. No coax from the wall and splitters opon splitters to the multiple tuners etc.<br /><br />Setup<br />The preparation for separating the frontend from the backend is making the MySQL database that MythTV uses accessible to the LAN.<br /><br />sudo nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf<br /><br />You need to comment out the bind-address line like so:<br /><br />#bind-address = <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://127.0.0.1/" target="_blank">127.0.0.1</a><br /><br />Then you can restart your computer so that this new parameter is passed into the MySQL database as it initializes.<br /><br />The frontend box is just a base install of Ubuntu 7.04 that has been fully updated. Instead of installing Mythtv from the application manager you search for mythtv-frontend. When you install this package all of the packages needed for just the frontend are installed.jarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-44023334198197081742007-07-07T18:49:00.000-07:002007-07-09T13:20:13.825-07:00Ultimate Mythtv Remote<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxZ8kVl-X7Bb0Ez43ppbONmkOwCmBfIDxTkQ_c9LoI7HkwPwSUIfPqPyeKvwLPiKAoCNlDp8gH6yxKj_wYERgM_gigmO3e3quDWbRXoQI6AyksbkN8MEdFV6n20qXjymvJmAYH4i9tJ1z6/s1600-h/nokia.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxZ8kVl-X7Bb0Ez43ppbONmkOwCmBfIDxTkQ_c9LoI7HkwPwSUIfPqPyeKvwLPiKAoCNlDp8gH6yxKj_wYERgM_gigmO3e3quDWbRXoQI6AyksbkN8MEdFV6n20qXjymvJmAYH4i9tJ1z6/s320/nokia.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5084637943487170386" border="0" /></a><br />I bought a Nokia N770 from the recent Woot.com offering. I had immediately envisioned a wireless remote scheduler for my Mythtv backend in the other room. Using Mythweb allows for one to schedule and manage the recordings on the Mythtv. If you have Mythtv just use the application manager in Ubuntu to search and install Mythweb. This install is insecure as in it allows anyone on the LAN to access and change your Mythtv recordings etc. Use on a private LAN or take some mesures to secure the accessibility.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Lc86s83A0OY5wT5VMyoTRLlobSFtr3SsNThKs2OIKJyXWPJahCS1ppH8HOvhpq6Sb0_TiO93w-3vPbkSYycksZUxAWwSZThmbY8g1Il0o9CKZYomhq4I9zj7MJM1t-h1pUhLZnFU_dsg/s1600-h/nokia2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Lc86s83A0OY5wT5VMyoTRLlobSFtr3SsNThKs2OIKJyXWPJahCS1ppH8HOvhpq6Sb0_TiO93w-3vPbkSYycksZUxAWwSZThmbY8g1Il0o9CKZYomhq4I9zj7MJM1t-h1pUhLZnFU_dsg/s320/nokia2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5084644080995436386" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Mythweb seems to be perfect for use with the Nokia's 800 x 480 native resolution. I just put the IP address of the computer with the \mythweb and load the webpage. This would presumably work just as well with Apple's new IPhone. I think the screen of the Nokia 770 is slightly more high resolution than the IPhone but it would work.<br /><br />I also found an application that will stream video and audio to the Nokia 770 called <a href="http://gmyth.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page">GMyth</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlsSt_fnmYic4lXcoUhAOSgQzlRY2kB3yDXdYPXxzvHqGhuhTzTPY1pNdUKZ4aD0MNFu7tP8yjOPbxXNkmtwH6QX971SRNF09p5d0oPp36nKRzFLmHpEBB1qLEyCxwHM3oumWsjx9WxaNz/s1600-h/nokia3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlsSt_fnmYic4lXcoUhAOSgQzlRY2kB3yDXdYPXxzvHqGhuhTzTPY1pNdUKZ4aD0MNFu7tP8yjOPbxXNkmtwH6QX971SRNF09p5d0oPp36nKRzFLmHpEBB1qLEyCxwHM3oumWsjx9WxaNz/s320/nokia3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5084644806844909426" border="0" /></a>jarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-9765394891529892402007-06-23T14:23:00.000-07:002007-06-25T07:00:16.394-07:00Making your PS3 into a HD TivoI have been doing some research on what else I can do with my <a href="http://jarkhd.blogspot.com/2007/06/hdhomerun.html">HDHomerun</a> and thought it would be perfect for use with the PS3 turning it into a HDTV recorder. Since the tuner lets you stream from the LAN without installing any drivers or PCI cards it will work with the PS3 as long as you have some software that will tune it. I got the idea from this blog <a href="http://ps3mods.blogspot.com/2007/01/mythtv-for-ps3-turn-your-ps3-into.html">PS3 USB Tuner</a> where the person got some drivers for a USB capture device and used them to turn his PS3 into a PVR using Mythtv. This is possible because Sony has allowed alternate operating systems to be put on the PS3 like most flavors of Linux. The cell processor is a PowerPC core so most Linux versions are compatible that have a PPC version. I like the ease of use of Ubuntu so I found this guide to get Ubuntu on the PS3. <a href="http://news.softpedia.com/news/Ubuntu-7-04-on-PS3-52699.shtml">Ubuntu on PS3</a><br /><br />The next challenge is to install Mythtv on Ubuntu for PS3 either from source or pre-compiled binaries (which I don't know if they exist). Since the support for the <a href="http://jarkhd.blogspot.com/2007/06/hdhomerun.html">HDHomerun</a> is built into Mythtv that would be all that was needed to have a Mythtv Box. Given that the 80 GB drive is small under Linux you could just plug in a number of USB harddrives to store the HD content<br /><br />The biggest problem in this setup is that Sony has not granted access to the video card in the PS3 for fears of open source developers making games for the PS3 that would edge Sony out of the game development. I find this funny given all the games that are out there for Linux are pretty basic. So what if I play Tron on the PS3; I don't think that will stop me from buying Madden. This means that the video card works but does not help with rendering. Without a good driver for the video card I have read that HD playback is choppy. This is a problem now but it may be resolved in the future by reverse engineering or Sony relenting. There is a petition to Sony to open up the Video Card <a href="http://digg.com/linux_unix/Petition_to_Enable_the_PS3_RSX_Under_Linux">Petition</a>. This still does not leave out the PS3 from becoming a Mythtv backend that would be great for turning the HD into Divx or Xvid given the processing power of the Cell. Look at what the Cell processor is doing for research <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/fun.games/09/18/playstation.folding/index.html">Folding at Home</a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif"><br /></a>jarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-57067907992335714722007-06-20T19:02:00.000-07:002007-06-20T19:17:59.653-07:00Zap2it Labs Retires Sept 1stSad Sad Day<br /><br />Posted from labs.Zap2it.com; Zap2It is the provider of free tv listings used in Mythtv extensively.<br /><br /><h2 style="margin-top: 0pt; font-style: italic;"><strong style="color: red;">IMPORTANT MESSAGE:</strong></h2> <p style="font-style: italic; font-family: courier new;">For several years we have offered a free TV listings service to hobbyists for their own personal, noncommercial use. In October of 2004 we posted here an open letter saying the future of Zap2it Labs was at risk because of certain growing misuses of the Zap2it Labs data. Unfortunately this misuse has continued and grown. These misuses, combined with other business factors have led to the decision to discontinue Zap2it Labs effective September 1, 2007.<br /><br />We thank those users who have honored the terms of the agreement, and we suggest you consider the many TV listings options offered by the commercial licensees of TMS TV listings data.<br /><br />If you would like to discuss how to license TV listings for commercial use, please let us know by e-mail (<a href="mailto:labs@zap2it.com">labs@zap2it.com</a>) and include your company name, telephone number and the best time to reach you. We will respond to your inquiry as soon as possible.<br /><br />We anticipate this decision will generate discussion and invite you to respond via the Zap2it Labs forum. We will do our best to respond to relevant questions posted on this forum in a timely manner.</p><br />Back in 2004 the Mythtv crowd would scrape xml data from free sources which is slow and inaccurate at times. Zap2It started offering free data service and this was very good! I want to somehow convince them to rethink things. I have submitted a comment in their forums offering a small monetary payment. This would have to be a tenth of what Tivo service offers or something in that range. Digg the article in My Digg Dugg links to raise an internet buzz about the issue so that they will reconsider or offer an alternative.jarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-73717621342644616262007-06-15T07:01:00.000-07:002007-06-15T07:51:26.464-07:00Installing Mythtv on Ubuntu 7.04The last time I installed mythtv on Ubuntu I used Ubuntu 5.10 and compiled mythtv from source. My wife went away for the weekend when I started this project and when she came back she claimed I had not moved at all still configuring and installing. I have recently built a new media center pc so I had to reinstall Mythtv so I thought I would try the latest Ubuntu, Feisty Fawn. I could not believe how streamlined installing Mythtv had become. <br />The steps were to install Ubuntu from the live disk. I then set up the nvidia video card proprietary drivers. Then I opened up the Synaptic Package Manager and searched for "mythtv". Since I was setting up the frontend and the backend of Mythtv on the same computer, I selected mythtv package and installed. Synaptic first installed all of the prerequisites for Mythtv then installed mythtv. In the process a random password is given to you in a prompt that is the MySQL database password. Make note of this. It also puts this password in the setup for Mythtv. The backend setup is now an icon in the administration tab. You can start this setup and configure the Mythtv backend. The front end icon has been put under applications. This covers the installation which is essentially one step. Later I will go into the setup and configuration of Mythtv in a later article. This assumes you set up a regular desktop with the frontend and backend all on the same computer. See the <a href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MythTV_Feisty_Backend_Frontend_Desktop_O">howto</a> from Ubuntu.jarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-604222424342094209.post-90007942140615192462007-06-14T04:51:00.000-07:002007-06-14T05:28:05.045-07:00Getting HD over Cable with Vista Media CenterGetting your HD over the air is great. You don't have to pay anything to get a perfect picture on your HDTV. Depending on where you live, however, can mean you get poor reception. Weather can effect this signal. My neighbor has a problem with planes flying overhead on there way to landing at the airport! I bought the HDHomerun so that I could tune the unencrypted local HD channels that most providers do not scramble called clear QAM. I had basic cable already but did not want to pay extra for digital cable, and extra for other HD channels.<br />I now wanted to use Vista Media Center to record the channels. Vista is setup only to work with over-the-air HD so there is a little work to be done mapping the QAM channels to the ATSC channels so you can watch these new channels and get program guide data. Someone has made this an easier task by making a remaping GUI. You can download this <a href="http://www.oshinetworks.com/HDHomeRun/QamMapper/">here</a>. You can unzip this into the C:\Program Files\Silicon Dust\HDHomerun directory. You then right-click on the QAMmapper.exe and pick run as administrator.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQuQNJt4KuvsIbEYrwR0MXPch-DispbFA3uS4EvLIEOTY_glwzzqAuc7cvRtzEVh-SeN1o7yW8QpOKLkFi_JiOP8n2xxd7CqhGe-3a412iHhppQJ5uHQjjLr6RrthITuzIr5FJSvkbXbrX/s1600-h/qammap1.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQuQNJt4KuvsIbEYrwR0MXPch-DispbFA3uS4EvLIEOTY_glwzzqAuc7cvRtzEVh-SeN1o7yW8QpOKLkFi_JiOP8n2xxd7CqhGe-3a412iHhppQJ5uHQjjLr6RrthITuzIr5FJSvkbXbrX/s320/qammap1.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075891915073146050" border="0" /></a><br />You pick the options of MCE and Full scan and you should see what HD channels you can pick up. I got the five major networks and checked them. Then you can assign virtual channels and physical channels. In order to get the guide to work you have to choose these two channels to be the same as the ATSC channels that Media Center has for you area. You can open an XML filed called ATSCChannels.xml in <span class="postbody">C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\EPG\prefs </span>and find these virtual and physical channels if you have already scanned for HD channels in your area. <span class="postbody">Then you save the remap file and go to Documents\QAM Mapper and copy the </span><span class="postbody">atscprefs.xml that you just made to the prefs directory above.<br />Now you can manually setup your channels and scan for digital channels and should find the new QAM channels as if they were ATSC channels. This will then assign guide data to the channels and you should be able to watch and record them.<br /></span>jarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901497333974616363noreply@blogger.com2