I hate freaking TV networks

bztunk · Post by **bztunk** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 4:26 pm

You know, I used to think that the biggest advantage to digital TV was recording. There's barely nothing to do, really: just send the mpeg2 stream to a DVD or a hard disk.

Of course, the TV networks fucked that up.

So what do you need now if you want to record HDTV? Something big and ugly (PS3 style) like this:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070109-8576.html

WHAT THE FUCK???

And worst, you need a custom build system to get it - I guess the networks are scared that you use that on a non-drm'ed system.

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK

If I ever see a record, movie or tv executive in the street, he's going to be punched in the face.

Nightcrawler · Post by **Nightcrawler** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 2:27 pm

I refuse to upgrade my equipment to such locked down crap. However, thankfully, some brilliant minds will crack every stupid protection scheme or DRM method that comes along to give us our freedoms back.

If the TV networks have their way, it will become impossible to skip commercials, impossible to record anything they don't want to allow you to etc. A very bad direction to go in. TV Networks should not be given unchecked total dominance.

AntoineWG · Post by **AntoineWG** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 8:00 pm

The cutoff for the broadcast flag-ignorant equipment was June of last year so you can't really fault them for releasing something that requires such locked-down hardware and software.

I'll just stick to my locked down DVR from Comcast. Some shows can still be streamed off of it by firewire, but not much any more, but that's the channel's fault for setting the flags. There is an analog hole in the protection, though. Comcast states directly in the user guide that you can record off of the composite (and presumably S-video and component) output to a VCR (or PC).

I'm still not complaining. It's 120 GB of HD goodness and it's only $10 a month.