A few months ago, it occurred to me that I am no longer a college student, I am an adult. That being said, I realized I should start acting like one. While transforming into an adult, I began to understand there is really only one major change, high-definition TVs. I researched TVs for weeks, until I finally chose a Samsung 1080p 40″ LCD which I will blog about in the coming weeks. Then, as most of you probably gathered from a previous post, I got a satellite with HD programming. Needless to say, it has been an exciting time, but in a weird way a sad time.
As some of you might know, HD channels are compressed, mostly into the MPEG2 format, although a push towards MPEG4 is occurring. Anyways, satellite and cable providers go a step further and encrypt the compressed MPEG2’s. This is where the problem lies. While MythTV has the capability of ripping over-the-air (OTA) HD channels from an antenna, it can’t rip from a satellite or cable signal. The cable and satellite providers obviously want users to use their hardware, and not 3rd party hardware. While this sucks, it is understandable on many levels. I think that there should be some way to get the compressed MPEG2’s from the receiver, but currently there isn’t.
Some of you out there might be thinking, “Why can’t you just rip the digital signal on the DVI/HDMI cable?”. That’s what I thought at first, but that is too much data. Since that data is uncompressed, it is just too much for a computer to handle quickly, like MythTV needs to be able to do. Wikipedia gives the follow explanation:
A HDTV camera generates a raw video stream of more than one billion bits per second. This stream must be compressed if digital TV is to fit in the bandwidth of available TV channels and if movies are to fit on DVDs.
Without further ado, I announce that I have deleted all my MythTV recordings and reformatted the box. I love MythTV and will always enjoy the year I spent with it, but it can’t compete in the HD age. I really hope that one day, with technology advances, or new laws, MythTV + HD will be possible. Unfortunately, I can’t wait until then and will gladly use Dish Network’s HD-DVR, even though I will always know MythTV is a better product. I still plan on completing my MythTV guide on my blog, but its priority has taken a dive.