[Cialug] OT: In home video distribution

[Nathan C. Smith]

How proprietary - or what brand even, is the DVR?

We seem to be lacking standards for how to do what you want to do.  Lee's response may be the industry solution but it was cryptic to me.

Are the TVs already in place?  We are starting to see TVs (Samsung, LG) and Blu-ray players with Ethernet jacks for internet video (YouTube) and  Netflix.

TiVo DVRs allow you to move programs between machines - still requires a DVR at each television.  Then there are media extenders and stream players like popcorn hour and the Western digital device.

The biggest problem, IMHO is not only are there technical issues but also DRM and copyright issues so that even if a thing is technically possible the hardware may make it prohibitive.  I have a friend who bought a "mother throw-down" HP Windows Media system for HD and because of these types of political-DRM issues never was able to take advantage of all the audio and HD technologies the box offered.  He spent a lot of money and time trying to do it legally and the "right" way.  He is switching to iTunes and AppleTV with EyeTV.  

Hijacking the analog output of the DVR may be the least troublesome solution in the end.

-Nate

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cialug-bounces at cialug.org 
> [mailto:cialug-bounces at cialug.org] On Behalf Of Tim Perdue
> Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 9:39 AM
> To: Central Iowa Linux Users Group
> Subject: [Cialug] OT: In home video distribution
> 
> I wondered if any of the other geeks have found a good 
> solution to in-home HD Video Distribution.
> 
> I have a HD DVR in the basement and would like to pipe this 
> to my other HDTVs scattered around the house, but only have 
> an ethernet jack available at each TV, not HDMI or Component 
> wiring. I do have a HAVA (slingbox like), but that would 
> require a PC at each HDTV in order to view the output.
> 
> What would be nice is another hava-type box that can receive 
> the stream and put it on the TV. I haven't pulled up anything 
> like this on google yet.
> 
> Having an electrician out to run component jacks everywhere 
> is a possibility, but it would be slicker to do something 
> over ethernet.
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