Most tuners double in function. They record a stream of video and audio and they can change channels on cable. This will not be possible when digital is enforced, unless you have a set-top. With set-tops and video capture cards (sic: tuners) you won't be able to record 1:1 quality due to DRM. DRM will also prevent legal drivers being made by the community, and most channels will not work directly with tuners. I agree on ZFS bit, though it's a worthy investment if you have the cash to get an Areca SATA RAID controller with 8, 16, or 24 ports, stuff an oversized case with cheap 500gb disks and use ZFS for the snapshot feature. Alternatively, cheaper way is to go with straight SATA2 card, so you can hook up more than standard motherboard allows, packing disks and using ZFS for all its glory. Whole setup will cost around $1500 for 4TB with gigabit and other goodies.
Tuners are an issue on non-Windows/Mac systems due to DRM and scope of design. (IE: to keep reverse engineering by design so as to help Microsoft hold on to customers) James On Sat, Jun 21, 2008 at 3:30 PM, W. Wayne Liauh <wp at hawaiilinux.us> wrote: > > I originally worked on porting MythTV to Solaris > > about 1-2 years ago but OpenSolaris was still very > > fresh and XSun for Solaris 8/9/10 wasn't sufficient > > for the port back then. Many people have Xbox 360 and > > Playstation 3 units, but a few limitations exist on > > expanding these units or require more expensive > > hardware purchases instead of today's inexpensive > > COTS parts. > > > > What started as the "ultimate gaming rig for > > OpenSolaris" spawned a "ultimate set-top box for > > OpenSolaris" project. We just got the SoundBlaster > > X-Fi card registered under HCL and now Nvidia has > > provided beta drivers for the GTX 280 video card. > > Slowly, more device drivers are being added to the > > Sun repository which makes things a bit easier than > > before. > > > > So, a bit of hardware engineering gives us a nice > > two-tuner set-top unit design and a review of MythTV > > for OpenSolaris. > > > > This subject has to do with desktop engineering and > > multimedia software applications dealing with TV > > recording/playback/editing using OpenSolaris-based > > distros. > > > > I'll get back to this once SongBird is officially in > > the Sun IPS repository. :o) > > > > ~ Ken Mays > > > > > > ------ > > What is MythTV? > > > <snip> > > Thanks a whole bunch for taking this initiative. In a sense, > OpenSolairs/"ZFS" is what the doctor would order for MythTV. Conversely, > MythTV can become the best marketing too (for educating the general public, > or at least the elite part thereof) for Solaris. > > I will be more than happy to participate and do the testing, when anything > solid comes out. In the meantime, I have a couple of quick comments: > > 1. Will it become possible to develop MythTV on an even slimer OpenSolaris > LiveCD, such as MilaX and SchilliX? However, I have no problem with 2008.05 > & subsequent versions. > > 2. My own experience is, since I have a digital setup box (Atlantic > Scientific), the TV turner cards are of no use for me. What I need are a > video capture card and and an IR blaster. Perhaps, if it seems impractical > to provide Solaris drivers for tv turners, we can focus our interest simply > on plain video capture cards? Of course, drivers for tv turners would still > be much preferred. > > 3. In running ZFS, is it possible to "turn off" any of the hard drives? > HD movies typically take 6 GB of storage per hour. I imagine we will need > a lot of hard drives, which, collectively, will consume quite a few KWhrs. > Perhaps we may eventually need a mini-Thumper for Myth(HD)TV? :-) > > > This message posted from opensolaris.org > _______________________________________________ > desktop-discuss mailing list > desktop-discuss at opensolaris.org > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://mail.opensolaris.org/pipermail/desktop-discuss/attachments/20080621/6e2d2f4f/attachment.html>
