7 ms·

I'm kind of surprised we haven't seen any tuners on a stick, given the increasing trend of things that directly connect to HDMI ports. On the other hand, most

I'm kind of surprised we haven't seen any tuners on a stick, given the increasing trend of things that directly connect to HDMI ports. On the other hand, most "dumb" monitors don't seem to often include multiple HDMI inputs, so that might explain that.

windexh8er 11y ago
Tuners on a stick have been around for well over a decade (Hauppauge was probably one of the first consumer focused brands and still sells a myriad of tuners). The problem is CableCard (out of CableLabs, which is run by a consortium of all the providers) and it's amazingly restrictive licensing. This is part of the reason why you can't really get a tuner for things like MythTV... Well, you can - but even though things were relaxed for CableCards (since it was such a craptastic solution for everyone but the cable cabal as a whole) the providers still control the DRM. And so having a cable card on Linux without a relationship with the powers that be results in the bulk of non-public broadcast to be useless even with an "approved" CableCard on Linux.
- yuhong 11y ago
  I am talking about OTA ATSC tuners.
  - windexh8er 11y ago
    And like I said, plenty of those types of products exist to solve that problem... http://hauppauge.com/site/products/prods_hvr_external.html http://hauppauge.com/site/products/prods_hvr_external.html http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/ http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/ ...what I was describing is the problematic issue with CableCard and the DRM problem: the inability to run a trustworthy OS (i.e. non-Smart-TV-solution-that-spies-on-all-your-viewing-habits) to process encrypted QAM and the like... ATSC solutions are aplenty, some of the best are the Silicondust hardware.
- McGlockenshire 11y ago
  I was actually talking about the physical "on a stick" format, not actual tuners. I'm a proud owner of an HDHR and am eagerly looking forward to Silicondust's software DVR. My CableCard experience has been remarkably trouble-free for years, but I've also been using it with Windows Media Center. I couldn't ever get the HDHR working with MythTV. It has a long way to go as a product for end users, and hope it finds more success one day. I've worked (professionally) with the devs behind MythWeb and Schedules Direct, and I know they have some good talent available to them. Windows Media Center remains the best software or hardware DVR experience I've ever had, and it makes me very sad that Microsoft decided to discontinue it.

windexh8er 11y ago

Tuners on a stick have been around for well over a decade (Hauppauge was probably one of the first consumer focused brands and still sells a myriad of tuners). The problem is CableCard (out of CableLabs, which is run by a consortium of all the providers) and it's amazingly restrictive licensing. This is part of the reason why you can't really get a tuner for things like MythTV... Well, you can - but even though things were relaxed for CableCards (since it was such a craptastic solution for everyone but the cable cabal as a whole) the providers still control the DRM. And so having a cable card on Linux without a relationship with the powers that be results in the bulk of non-public broadcast to be useless even with an "approved" CableCard on Linux.

yuhong 11y ago
I am talking about OTA ATSC tuners.
- windexh8er 11y ago
  And like I said, plenty of those types of products exist to solve that problem... http://hauppauge.com/site/products/prods_hvr_external.html http://hauppauge.com/site/products/prods_hvr_external.html http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/ http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/ ...what I was describing is the problematic issue with CableCard and the DRM problem: the inability to run a trustworthy OS (i.e. non-Smart-TV-solution-that-spies-on-all-your-viewing-habits) to process encrypted QAM and the like... ATSC solutions are aplenty, some of the best are the Silicondust hardware.
McGlockenshire 11y ago
I was actually talking about the physical "on a stick" format, not actual tuners. I'm a proud owner of an HDHR and am eagerly looking forward to Silicondust's software DVR. My CableCard experience has been remarkably trouble-free for years, but I've also been using it with Windows Media Center. I couldn't ever get the HDHR working with MythTV. It has a long way to go as a product for end users, and hope it finds more success one day. I've worked (professionally) with the devs behind MythWeb and Schedules Direct, and I know they have some good talent available to them. Windows Media Center remains the best software or hardware DVR experience I've ever had, and it makes me very sad that Microsoft decided to discontinue it.