Getting An MPEG-2 Stream From Digital Cable? 18
Alex Perez asks: "I recently moved to an area where AT&T was offering digital cable. I've subscribed to the service and I love it, but I want to find a way to get the MPEG-2 digital video (and some sort of audio) stream out of the decoder (It's a Motorola set-top box) and ultimately into my PC as an MPEG-2 stream so I can record shows in true digital. Technically, I know it's possible. Is this legal for personal use? I can make video tapes of my favorite shows, but the quality is unacceptable in my opinion. What are my options, here? Has anybody else attempted to do this? I'd love to find a way to get a digital video and audio stream, but I don't want to re-invent the wheel."
Re:Bigger issue... (Score:1)
But they have an effect on what white-market consumer products are available to you. For example, go into an electronics store and try to find a DVD player that has all the capabilities that a DVD player logically should have (e.g. firewire output). You can't, because DVD-CCA's CSS license prohibits it. It's not available, and it won't be available unless DMCA is overturned, or you build one yourself.
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Re:Is it really Digital? (Score:1)
Digital Cable Boxes (Score:1)
Re:Simple Answer : No (Score:1)
CableLabs' OpenCable project is establishing an open standard for digital set top devices in the US. In that design, the key management and decryption hardware are physically put on a removable PCMCIA card that you have to get from your local cable company. This is intended to allow the cable company to continue using an existing proprietary scheme. Some estimates of the cost to replace the existing headend equipment (a necessary step to change schemes) for a national cable company runs upwards of $1B, so the proprietary schemes are unlikely to go away any time soon. While we may eventually see digital tuners for PCs based on OpenCable, you'll still need that card from your cable company.
Much of the apparent paranoia here is a result of contracts with the big studios. As with DVD, they believe that we're all going to make those "perfect" digital copies of everything. So they require all of the encryption and the stuff that goes with it as part of the distribution agreement.
Re:Maybe this product (Score:1)
The digitizing those products do appears to be after the signal has already been converted to analog by the set-top box.
Digital->analog->digital is going to lose some quality, rather than the digital->digital that the question was asking for.
Re:Is it really Digital? (Score:1)
I've never had digital cable, so don't know the boxes at all, but my sat. receiver has digital audio/video outputs. For dumping to PC, I've been meaning to get a card with svideo inputs so I can ditch the $40 WinTV Go/coax job I've been using.
For the 7200 model displayer (echostar), I've got svideo and optical audio outs. Oh, and the usual coax and RCA outs still exist. For all the folks drooling over TiVo, both DirectTV and Dish/Echostar offer set-tops that have Tivo or TiVo-like functionality. At this point, I'd be an unhappy camper to have to give this up.
It's got a 17gb HDD, which can be replaced if you so desire. With the 17gb drive, I've so far managed to have 7 hours recorded, and then rewind through the 'cache' to what was on 7 hours earlier. I assume this means I'll have 14+ hours worth of space without swapping out the drive. I've only ever needed about 10 hours worth saved, so I have yet to hit my maximum.
Simple Answer : No (Score:1)
UK? (Score:1)
Re:Is it really Digital? (Score:1)
They have a tivo-equivalent called a DishPlayer. It comes out of the box being able to record 12 hours, but if you're into hacking you can swap the drive out for a 40gig drive and get 24. This records the "real" mpeg stream so it varies on how many hours you get, but it's the real satellite quality. It also has Dolby Digital out, etc. etc. etc. [dishnetwork.com]
No Problem - TV in MPEG 4 on our PC (Score:1)
Re:Bigger issue... (Score:2)
Re:Bigger issue... (Score:2)
You are right that it will only "become" illegal if he (or others) get caught. Attempting to do it is one thing, though - most likely he won't be "caught" if he is attempting to do such a thing (as long as he doesn't brag to wide/far about it, lest some upright tightwad decides to turn him in for the moral fiber of the country). However, if he succeeds (or if another succeeds), and he publishes how he did it, via an easily tracked source, the hammer will come down, and hard.
Jon Johannsen (sp?) should have had nothing to fear, since he wasn't even an American citizen - however, even he still had at least a little bit of fear put into him when he was taken down to the station for questioning (even though in the end he wasn't charged with anything). If you are an American doing this, you had better release the "how" portion as anonymous as possible lest retribution come your way...
That being said, let me state that I am all for this kind of hacking. Fair use gives us all the right we need, regardless of the UCITA or DMCA...
I support the EFF [eff.org] - do you?
Bigger issue... (Score:2)
Thanks to the DMCA (and possibly the UCITA), your agreement with the cable company may very well say that "decrypting" the MPEG output stream is a violation of your contract (aka, EULA). In fact, as devices such as the TIVO become more popular (or even integrated into the set-top box - I have COX digital cable, and under the "setup" mode of the box, one of the pages list the ability to have a hard drive attached), I can imagine that it might even disallow "recording" at the distributor's (like HBO) whim, based on signals embedded in the programming.
Unfortunately, no one is going to care until it is too late (probably, American society will wake up when it finds out it isn't allowed to record the next Superbowl because of NFL licensing restrictions)...
I support the EFF [eff.org] - do you?
Is it really Digital? (Score:2)
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Re:Is it really Digital? (Score:2)
The question asked here was about if the MPEG stream could be captured direct to a PC. Even if this could be done you wouldn't be able to capture things on the low numbered channels (like the Simpsons) since they're analog anyway.
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Re:Is it really Digital? (Score:2)
BUT... if dishnetwork has a tivo function... is it actually hardware-based, or does it just allow you to program shows to be taped to your VCR? I already have that built into my TV and it kicks ass...
Perfectly legal (Score:3)
Now there's just the whole technical problem. I imagine that there's a whole lotta reverse engineering required to pull an MPEG stream out of your coax, so good luck.
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Maybe this product (Score:3)
http://www.hauppauge.com/html/products.htm
It looks like it will do what you want.
I have used one of their old PCI WinTV cards for a couple of years, and I really like it.
And No, I don't work for them.
-Joe