[kwlug-disc] Future of [Rogers] PVR (wrt HDMI)? Black boxes? MythBuntu?

[Daniel Agar]

On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 19:10, unsolicited <unsolicited at swiz.ca> wrote:
>
> Daniel Agar wrote, On 09/16/2009 3:39 PM:
>>
>> It requires a bit of trial and error as there isn't a channel scanner
>> available for these. It can be very finicky until properly set up. For
>> instance, if I try to access a channel utilizing the broadcast flag
>> I'll get absolutely nothing output through firewire, and if I don't
>> change back to a valid channel within a few seconds the firewire
>> connection craps out and I have to hard reset the SA3250 to
>> reestablish a connection.
>>
>> That's why I'm also currently investigating an antenna solution. I'm
>> getting really tired of my recordings of Lost or The Office failing
>> randomly because someone decided to flip the broadcast flag this week.
>> If you're serious about recording from a rogers HD box, you should
>> look into getting a Hauppauge HD PVR.
>
> Given what you said regarding randomly failing recordings, can you explain
> how the HD PVR would help? e.g. Is it able to react to the broadcast flag?
> Or ???
>

The HD PVR encodes the analog component output to h264. The broadcast
flag only applies to capturing digitally. This is an analog loophole,
at least until they start disabling component output. Recording via
firewire from a rogers box would actually be a pretty nice solution if
this broadcast flag didn't get in the way. I don't know why they give
me such a hard time, I'm just trying to make use of the content I pay
for! The end result will simply be me switching to an antenna and tv
available online.