In case you have not seen it.....Linux Media Center

[Thomas Charron]

On 3/25/07, Jon 'maddog' Hall <maddog at li.org> wrote:
> >   Analog is the word there.  :-)  I was referring to HD TV via
> > DirecTV.  And unfortionatly, the only solution which is coming out for
> > this is lead by Microsoft in a Microsoft/DirecTV partnership.
> Many years ago I told a friend of mine at IBM that Microsoft has no
> partners other than Microsoft.  He told me that I was just imagining
> things, that Microsoft was a good partner of IBM's.

  Not arguing in the slightest your points.  But unfortionatly,
because of the wonders of HDMI, the companies get to control what
people do.  Hopefully, when they release the CableCard for DirecTV,
people will be able to come up with non Microsoft solutions.
Unfortionatly, I have a feeling that much of the stream decryption
will happen in Windows.  This would be unfortunatly, and I really
wished DirecTV would have stuck with Tivo.  Again, unfortunately, one
of the reasons that they did NOT stick with Tivo is the fact that
Tivo's can and are hacked, and their precious protected content
exposed.

> Then Microsoft started "producing" Microsoft mice and keyboards, and
> when I pointed out that Microsoft was no longer just a software company,
> he just laughed (but it was a nervous laugh).

  Again, not saying your wrong.  But sometimes, the facts of life
suck.  And DirecTV is in the service of providing content, and
unfortunately, they just wont let people in.  And thanks to HDMI, the
door was slammed shut for people who may have other ways to do things.

  The day there is an HDMI input card for a PC, I'll be there to buy
it.  But they won't, because that would bypass the content encryption
used over HDMI.

  The problem is, someone needs to stand up and say 'this ain't
right'.  But this isn't going to happen, because when we want to do
something with content, we're pirates.  :-D

-- 
-- Thomas