Re: Anybody's machine working most of time?

"Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ou-dnRV5yfy1evLfRVn-3A@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<snip>
> However, the nature of the problem is completely different from the
> areas of evolutionary improvement that you discuss.
>
> The primary reason that no MCE system has (or will have) component
> or RGB (or SCART) inputs is fear that people will use them to create
> high quality copies of copyrighted works. "Fair use" used to provide
> ample justification for high quality consumer recording, but the DMCA
> has shifted the balance of power significantly toward media distributors
> and away from media consumers.
>
Well if that is really the case then I think we are all wasting our time
even entertaining the MCE concept. What on earth is the point in a product
that sets out to guarantee inferior quality through its use and at
considerable cost too.

In the UK, Sky offers the Sky+ service, which allows direct recording of the
MPEG bitstream coming straight from the satellite. Watching a recording is a
bit-perfect match of the original broadcast. There is zero loss of quality.
The box outputs RGB, s-video and composite, plus digital bitstream audio
including DD5.1 for films. It will record two programmes at once from its
EPG while playing back a recording if required.

The unfortunate thing is that Sky's pricing policy for this sucks. They want
you to pay for the box and then pay £10 per month just to be able to use it.
Unlike Tivo, where the monthly fee pays for the EPG, the Sky EPG is already
provided as part of the basic channel subscription. You are effectively
forced to pay £120 per year just to use your PVR. Also the basic Sky+ box is
a bit constrained by a 40GB disk. End user upgrades are possible at risk to
warranty, or there is a far more expensive version with a 160GB disk. There
is no option to pay a one-off fee instead of the monthly.

Of course, as a PVR it offers none of the additional features of an MCE PC
but it does prove (in the UK at least) that fears of copyright theft need
not impede the enjoyment of high quality time-shifted material. If it wasn't
for the stupid monthly fee I would have adopted Sky+ a long time ago. With
an Xbox already installed under the TV I could have used any crappy old PC
to serve the rest of my media - music and photos - and my existing DVD
player for DVDs - without anywhere near the expense and aggravation of an
MCE setup. My Pronto has served me well for tying together all the disparate
components with minimum effort.

But if I installed a digital tuner card in my MCE PC then I could capture
the mpeg bitstream from the broadcast in much the same way that Sky+ does.
The problem is that our digital terrestrial service offers almost no
channels of any entertainment value (for me at least). So I can keep Sky for
its great channel choice but suffer a quality drop, or get higher quality
recordings of things I don't want to watch. It's a bit of a rock and a hard
place sort of thing. Either way there can be no rational argument (in the
UK) for deliberately hampering attempts to record high quality video for
time shifting. Please give me RGB capture!!!!!!

Next year we will start to see HD content coming from the Sky platform. I'm
not sure of the implications of that for my MCE PC. I shall probably have to
consign it to the rubbish bin as there will be no suitable PCI cards to
accept the HD broadcast. So I'll have to adopt Sky's own recording solution
or accept recording in the SD domain only. That should look lovely on a
1920*1080 flatscreen (NOT!)

If MS cannot ensure that MCE recordings are at least 95% as good as the
original material then I think it will ultimately fail. Maybe in the US that
will not be a problem due to the broadcast options available but for Sky
users (UK and Europe) it will be a disaster for MCE.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Anybodys machine working most of time?
    ... The primary reason that no MCE system has component ... ample justification for high quality consumer recording, ... Watching a recording is a bit-perfect match of the original broadcast. ... Unlike Tivo, where the monthly fee pays for the EPG, the Sky EPG is already provided as part of the basic channel subscription. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
  • Re: UK Sky and MCE
    ... >If I get Sky Digitalthere will be a special Sky box that ... Can I plug that box into a MCE machine, ... channels at the same time and also watch an existing recording. ... can record one channel and watch another channel live at the same ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
  • Re: Using Sky+ with Media Center
    ... Sky+ obviously has inputs and only one coming out. ... allowing you to watch one programe whilst recording another ... If MCE will not record one program whilst watching another from ... deal with one programme at a time from Sky+ through one TV tuner card. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
  • Re: Media Centre - any god in UK
    ... I only got it because of the ease of recording vdeo ... > Sky+ for recording TV and satellite channels? ... Sky receivers and two video cards in your PC you can't do this with MCE ... always) The MCE EPG is updated far less frequently - so doesn't get ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
  • Re: AVC-3610 Dual tuner -- how to toggle between signal feeds?
    ... As before, the STB on input 1 set up properly -- MCE saw the picture, the ... left seeing input 2 [direct cable through VCR]. ... Using the electronic programming guid, I started recording what I ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
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