Well, it has been two weeks since I have last posted onto this blog.  I really need to get into the habit of posting regularly here.

With my rediscovery of LinuxMCE I have been thinking about how such a system would work for me at home.

The Server would need to be powerful enough to do quick transcodes of existing content, and record/stream digital tv across the house to thin clients which would be connected to big screen tvs to computer monitors and the like.

It has been a while since I have done research into computer parts.  I have not really felt the need to do indepth research since I purchased my iMac in late 2007, but this potential project has got me interested again.

The DVB-T side of things would be easy.  There are a plethora of TV cards that would do the job and a large portion of those which are supported by LinuxMCE and MythTV in particular.

LinuxMCE directly supports the following TV Cards:

SD: Hauppauge PVR-150/250/500/USB2
HD: HDHomeRun (ATSC/QAM)

However, as LinuxMCE employs the MythTV backend to handle TV, a plethora of TV cards can be made to work.  Other popular cards

A popular solution for American users is the HDHomeRun.  This box allows you to stream digital tv over your network to computers where an antenna/cable point on the wall is unavailable.  The solution for me would be useless as at each of my antenna points on the wall there is no ethernet access, keeping in mind that the DVB-T version of the HDHomeRun is not supported by LinuxMCE.  MythTV in its latest versions supports it but there is still a lot of work to be done on it.

While the DVB-T scene is prosperous, one of the more interesting areas is the DVB-S Tuner Cards.  For the uniniated, DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) is the European standard for digital tv that is also employed in Australia, New Zealand and South-South East Asia among other places.  It is somewhat similar to the american ATSC standard, except that in the terrestrial profile DVB supports H264 broadcasts.  While DVB-T is used for terrestrial broadcasts, DVB-S is used for Satellite broadcasts.

The advent of DVB-S tuner cards with CI slots has caught my interest.  This would allow me to watch encrypted satellite channels on my computer.  You may be wondering, what can I actually subscribe to without the need for one of those proprietary set top boxes here in Australia.  There are three services which i can think of off the top of my head: SelecTV (EDIT: As it turns out, I was wrong.  SelecTV have stopped offering smartcard only solutions except to members of the Austech forum…), UBI World TV and Setanta Sports.  SelecTV broadcasts on the satellite that was once known as PAS8 (I think it is now called Intelsat 8), however the latter are found on the Optus D2 satellite.  SelecTV is like a Foxtel Lite without the decent sports coverage and the ability to BYO decoder, UBI World TV would appeal to those who don’t speak English natively and Setanta Sports is literally soccer heaven.

On the Optus D2 satellite there is a plethora of unencrypted satellite channel which range from Greek, Turkish and Arabic (i think) programming to religious channels.  I like the idea of being able to watch Setanta Sports in another part of the house to where our Foxtel box (a little bit on that later) currently resides while watching the English news channel Russia Today free to air

However, what about my poor Foxtel digital cable subscription? Foxtel like the majority of the world’s big pay television providers require users to use their proprietary set top boxes and PVRs, which often are underpowered and small (in terms of hard drive space) compared to our fantastic PC based media centres.  With these companies you are expected to pay for the privilege of posessing a PVR each month, which often people either can’t afford or grudgingly pay. These PVRs are great for those who are not very comfortable with using technology, and that’s about it really.

I do not see why there is an absolute need to force us to pay for these PVRs except as a money making exercise.  I wouldn’t know what it is like overseas but in Australia demand for pay per view movies isn’t that high, and not many people really use the active services that Foxtel/Austar provide.  I don’t see it being too mission critical for the majority of those who would want to connect foxtel directly to a DVB-S tuner card.  Hell, they’re not really going to care that much as long as they can tune in.  Besides, it wouldn’t matter too much for those who wish to use Foxtel Box Office as those with a standard set top box (like yours truly) can easily call Foxtel and place an order over the phone.

Here is an idea for Foxtel to investigate.  As Austar encrypts their channels with Irdeto 2 on the Optus C1 satellite, why can’t Foxtel give the opportunity for those who are interested to use their own equipment at the expense of being able to access on-demand/active services.  Offer an Irdeto smartcard for A$5, and don’t offer direct support for the equipment.  If Foxtel so desire, they can at least force the subscriber to keep the standard set top box connected.

That’s all fine for Satellite subscribers, but what about those who are only able to access Foxtel via cable due to their regulations? Foxtel has two options here.  They can either give access to the satellite system or offer TV cards for cable with a CI slot for their NDS Videoguard smartcards.

This would benefit everyone.  The subscribers with MCE systems can integrate Foxtel more tightly, and Foxtel receive more satisfied customers.

I am confident that Foxtel currently are losing subscribers because they are dissatisfied with their service. Offering customers a smartcard only option as an alternative to their $15 to $20 multiroom solution for a second Foxtel set top box may help to get customers back.

Think about it Foxtel, because it might just make you popular with the MCE user community of Australia again

It has taken me quite a while to decide what I wanted to post on my blog this week, but here it is.   I probably should have written this earlier, but the idea came to me after reading an article posted on Stuff.

Recently a story has been brought to my attention from a teenager from New Plymouth, New Zealand, Kyle Wadsworth who I have known from the Outrageous Fortune Fan Forum for a year or so now.  He first mentioned the issue on his blog.

Kyle attends the New Plymouth Boys High School who recently ran a charity event (a ‘mufti-day’) to support a charity called KidsCan as part of a TVNZ Telethon event (much like our Good Friday Appeal).  According to him the school decided to distribute the majority of funds amongst it’s school sport and IT programs rather than to the charity that it promised to give to itself.

The issue has caught the attention of many people, which is mentioned in the news article:

Commenters have joined Kyle’s chorus and he said he had received messages of support from as far away as Australia and from fellow-students to Telstra Clear executives.

The school has responded to this issue rather poorly. A response from the school was mentioned in the news article:

“While it was usual school procedure to give $200 after each fundraising day to a charity, it had been decided to give $500 this time. “The kids know that, they’ve been told that.”

Mr McMenamin said the school council would not be giving more of the money raised to KidsCan as it was “just not an issue”.

To rebut the first point, Kyle claims on his blog that the statement was:

INCORRECT TOTALLY. I’m sitting here in my class, and these guys had no idea! One said “They never tell us that s***, I didn’t know until I read it this morning”. Students had no knowledge at all that not all funds were donated.

Second, it is an issue when the school is going behind the back of contributors who were under the presumption that the money was going to charity.  How did the school even get the right to keep 4/5 of the money raised for themselves? Are they so low on funds that they need to do such a thing? Whatever happened to their allotment of Government Funding? NB: I do not know how much funding the school received from the Government, but based on what happens here in Australia even the elite schools get funding of some sort…

The school has a responsibility to the students involved to give a larger portion of the money to charity.  It is a matter of human decency, which these school directors seem to lack.  I sincerely hope that this issue is resolved for the sake of those involved, and that by me posting this it will increase the exposure of this.