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TV Brick - Open Source TV Streaming? 236

Posted by simoniker from the swap-channels-with-friends-in-other-countries dept.
Anders Jacobsen writes "Nexedi has released the TV Brick - an open source-based box for TV capture and streaming over the Internet. Primarily targeted towards Japanese families living in France (seeing that popular Japanese channels like Yomiuri TV and NHK Sogo are unavailable outside Japan), the idea is that is you plug one of these boxes to a TV antenna and a broadband connection in Japan, and the other to a broadband plug and a TV in France; instant 'magic' happens and all the goodness of Japanese TV is in your living room." We also covered the OpenBrick project a few months back.
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TV Brick - Open Source TV Streaming? More

TV Brick - Open Source TV Streaming?

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  • So the Japanese in France are saying (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 30, 2003 @02:48PM (#6332820)
    We get signal!!

  • Watch out (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 30, 2003 @02:49PM (#6332834)
    Thats not a brick, its a tentacle!

  • Market size (Score:5, Funny)

    by worst_name_ever ( 633374 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @02:49PM (#6332835)
    Primarily targeted towards Japanese families living in France

    Okay, now that is definitely what I call a niche market. Heck, why not go all-out and also market it towards Brazilian families living in Slovenia?

    • This is probably built for the CEO of the Japanese company just so that he can go to his summer home or something. I agree that this is one hell of a niche though :)

    • Re:Market size (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Andorion ( 526481 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @02:54PM (#6332891)
      I don't know if "targeted towards" is the right wording - there's a good chance that they were the inspiration for the product, but I doubt "Japanese families living in France" would be the only ones interested.

      ~Berj

  • Limited value? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by PhysicsGenius ( 565228 )
    Why would I want live streaming video from Japan in France? If it was to watch episodes of a TV show I liked, why couldn't I just download them from gnutella or the equivalent? That saves me having to watch commercials.

    Also, what about bandwidth? Compression of a stream is considerably less than what is possible for a pre-existing file. If everyone starts doing this, soon all bandwidth will cease to exist. And for what? A cheap parlor trick.

    But the worst problem of all is how to maintain community

    • Re:Limited value? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by shadowcabbit ( 466253 ) *
      Despite the obvious troll, there is a point nestled in there, and one which probably deserves a little attention (as well as a counterpoint). The above poster's comment asks whether or not this is a valid use of the technology when other methods of obtaining the shows exist-- as stated, gnutella, Kazaa, etc. The drawback comes when you consider the time factor. Rarely does a show get taped, digitized, and distributed within hours of its release-- there are, of course, exceptions, but not many. This make
    • If it was to watch episodes of a TV show I liked, why couldn't I just download them from gnutella or the equivalent?

      Can you really get that wide a variety of TV showes from gnutella? I've only seen a few geek shows (Buffy, Enterprise) - I haven't even found Andromeda. Secondly, between watching the shows live, or spending hours searching and trying to find a reliable source or wait 18 hours to have it drop right before the ending, I think I'd rather watch it live.
    • Those are at rental places dudes...

  • TV? Brick? (Score:5, Funny)

    by medscaper ( 238068 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @02:50PM (#6332843) Homepage
    TV...Brick...

    What a concept.

  • silly muggle.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Lord_Slepnir ( 585350 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @02:50PM (#6332848) Journal
    instant 'magic' happens

    I hope that I don't open a VNC window with you around. You'll probally think that I opened a portal to the other computer.

  • Primarily targeted towards Japanese families living in France...

    Is this really a significant market?
    • Is this really a significant market?

      Actually, yeah. Those and the Franco-Chinese as well. Slashdot user salimma [slashdot.org] actually has an interesting piece in his journal [slashdot.org] about some Franco-Chinese literature (Balzac, in fact (sp?)) he was reading as well.

    • Is this really a significant market?

      Dunno, but I'm interested in picking one of these up! I'm in Japan about 6 months of the year (and am an American) and sometimes I'd like to catch something on TV in The States -- and as it happens, I have a house with cable there not being used while I'm gone, so... perfect!

      In other words, it's significant to me.

      Z.

  • heh (Score:5, Funny)

    by grub ( 11606 ) <slashdot@grub.net> on Monday June 30, 2003 @02:51PM (#6332853) Homepage Journal

    ..all the goodness of Japanese TV is in your living room.

    Heck, if that sentence fragment isn't enough to send everyone running out to buy a Brick I don't know what is.
    • The best part about Japanese TV is, you don't really need to know Japanese to understand it. It's primarily food and travel shows, with one person explaining what's going on while everyone else says, "Oooh," "Ahhh," and "Delicious!"

      You get cable and it's mostly American shows (and a couple of German) dubbed/subbed into Japanese. Hit the bilingual button on your remote and it's in the native language. I get Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, CNN, Fox, and Cartoon Network, among others.

  • Free satellite access! (Score:3, Funny)

    by indros13 ( 531405 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @02:52PM (#6332859) Homepage Journal
    So, if you just want to get access to a whole bunch of free channels, set this sucker up on the DirecTV display at your local Best Buy store and beam it to your home computer!

    "Turn on the Fun!"

    • Re:Free satellite access! (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Except when some halfwit changes the channel to Oxygen, you have to go back down to Best Buy and change it back to Spike Lee TV.

  • Excellent technology (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 403Forbidden ( 610018 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @02:53PM (#6332868)
    This is a great use for video capture.

    Now people can view foreign programs, use their computer+tv at the same time, as well as a number of other things and the TV execs can't do much to morally sway users against it as it would have all the commercials intact.
    • the TV execs can't do much to morally sway users against it as it would have all the commercials intact.


      No, but cable and satellite providers might have a little something to say. I'm not sure what Japanese laws are, but if people have to pay in Japan to get satellite or cable, the providers may consider this stealing unless it's explicitly being paid for. And, if the article ever stops being slashdotted, I'll read it to see if it mentions anything about this.

      • It's being paid for by whatever method is being used to feed the data into the Japan-based box. The example given is an antenna, so it's being paid for by commercial views.
        • Sorry to double-reply, but I just got through to the site. It looks like they cover this area:

          Because reproduction of home TV channels happens in a private manner within the same family, the use of TVBrick to watch home TV channels is compatible with international Copyright Law.
          • Sorry to double-reply, but I just got through to the site. It looks like they cover this area:

            Because reproduction of home TV channels happens in a private manner within the same family, the use of TVBrick to watch home TV channels is compatible with international Copyright Law.

            So what they're saying is that, for EVERY "family" that wants to view, say, Japanese TV in france, you need a SEPARATE STREAM from a SEPARATE BRICK, from Japan to France, to send their SEPARATE COPY of the (re)digitized signal.

        • Remember the canadian website which were streaming tv from the us? They got shot down so fast their ears were ringing. Copyright is the greedy monster that wants more.
        • In the US, it's quite illegal to rebroadcast media. I don't see how this is any different.
    • Now people can view foreign programs, use their computer+tv at the same time, as well as a number of other things and the TV execs can't do much to morally sway users against it as it would have all the commercials intact.

      Nope... the TV execs will already have a problem with this.

      Think of it this way, a "brick" in Atlanta beams the NBC affiliate to a viewer in Boston... same NBC shows with the ads in tact? Nope. The Boston NBC station shows Boston aimed ads in the local spots, the Atlanta based station s

  • Been there, done that (Score:4, Interesting)

    by sosume ( 680416 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @02:53PM (#6332881) Journal
    The process is really easy. Get a TV tuner card that is supported under your favourite unix-like flavour [openbsd.org], for instance a Hauppage BT 878. Open a remote X session and start the TV application. Voila. (maybe some reencoding should be done to get it all the way to france- 100 mbit works if you don't mind :)

    In other news, I wonder what a beowulf cluster of these would take for bandwidth..
    • I've tried this with my BT 878-based card when I was in school. SSH X Tunneling worked very poorly from the computer lab to the dorms: even though there was a 10 megabit link, I couldn't stream video much larger than about 80x60 pixels. The little window was also really color-distorted, and I couldn't get audio to work at all.

      This is clearly where re-encoding comes into play, but it takes a beefy PC to encode to DivX or another good-quality codec on the fly. And good luck finding a 100 Mbit link between

    • Re:Been there, done that (Score:4, Funny)

      by Abcd1234 ( 188840 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @03:38PM (#6333272) Homepage
      Hmm... so you say you might need to encode the video due to bandwidth limitations. Well, that throws out using straight X (what you're describing) (and, no, compressing the X protocol is not sufficient... it doesn't meet compression requirements AND it introduces latency for which you'd have to compensate).

      So, we'll have to encode the video at the source and decode at the sink. Oh, and then there's audio. We gotta transport that, somehow, too... sending it in the raw would be silly, since bandwidth is still an issue. Well, we'll encode and decode that, too. And while we're at it, we might as well write some software to set up the transport pipe, enable the capture device, encoders, decoders, etc, etc...

      Oh, wait, I've just re-invented the TV Brick...
      • it introduces latency for which you'd have to compensate

        There is no need to "compensate for latency" if all you are doing is watching video.

        Note also that there are a number of X-extensions supporting image and video decompression on the display. So, sending a video stream through the X protocol to the display can actually be quite reasonable.
        • Like what? I'd love to use my laptop as a bedroom tv. Tried it through SSH , too slow even on 100mbit. There isn't a null cipher, which I think would help. Blowfish works a lot better than 3des, but not good enough. I only want it on my lan anyway. So what can I do to make this work? Got a link?
          • You probably have neither the server software nor the X extensions to be able to do this the X11 way. My point was simply that, in principle, it's quite feasible to use X11 for video streaming through the X11 protocol. In fact, it's a shame that people haven't built more software to do this because it would be much cleaner and nicer than the DRI hacks and viewers people are kludging together right now.

            In any case, the simple answer to your question is: use VideoLAN [videolan.org].
    • Ugg, remote X display of video. That sounds like it would be terrible for any reasonable res video. Why not just setup a streaming server which was designed to deliver video as effeiciently as possible?

    • Re:Been there, done that (Score:3, Insightful)

      by anewsome ( 58 )
      Someone please mod this clown down as a troll. He obviously has never tried this and has no clue what he is talking about. X windows displaying a full screen moving TV picture over a broadband connection? Yeah, I'd like to see him try that.
    • Just one problem... you have to use *nix...

  • Poor name choice? (Score:4, Informative)

    by ... James ... ( 33917 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @02:55PM (#6332896)
    How long until they get sued by these guys:
    VBrick Systems [vbrick.com]

    Seems like it's essentially doing the same thing and, to me, the name seems awfully similar...
    • How long until they get sued by these guys: VBrick Systems

      Or these guys [lucent.com]

      The names are similar, and they have money.... That is all it seems to get some larger corps knickers in a bunch now a days.

  • That is a great idea (Score:5, Interesting)

    by JazFresh ( 146585 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @02:55PM (#6332897)
    especially for expatriates. I've lived a few countries and I'm always miffed that I'm missing out on some TV shows I grew attached to in those countries. Now I'm moving from the US soon and so I'll miss out on HBO's The Wire. I'll have to wait for the season to end and for it to come out on DVD before I can see what happens!

    The alternative is to get friends to tape the shows and send them over/digitise them (an imposition on them) or waste hours of time trying to get net copies. And neither of those options are helpful if the show you like is esoteric.

    I had thought about setting up a Tivo (esp. now that you can manage Tivo via the web) and pulling the data off it, but you need a big upstream link for that, plus a 'co-lo' in a friend's house. But at least it's not so much of an imposition.

  • Must control fist of death...... (Score:4, Funny)

    by TJ6581 ( 182825 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @02:56PM (#6332901)
    I'm not entirely sure what that website sells but I know that I want to punch the crap out of it.

  • Working on this device (Score:5, Interesting)

    by .Bruce Perens ( 150539 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @02:56PM (#6332906) Homepage Journal


    I did some work on this device - although, admittedly, my involvement ended a few months ago. The article doesn't mention the biggest problem we had working on it - the lack of a real "tv standard" on the internet. Consider that the stream may have originated from either a PAL, NTSC, or even something else (though we concentrated on those two only) and on the fly conversion between those two to a PC codec of sorts is not something trivial. Basically frames need to be discarded dynmaically in order to sync with the given display unit. Unlike other conversion devices, we didn't have the luxury of selectively removing/doubling frames based on what looks the best, we had to do it on the fly with streaming data. Basically what we did was sacrifice a small amount of compression for the sake of image smoothness, allowing us the freedom to guess the appropriate frames to manipulate. I'd say I'm about 95% happy with the results, but if you know what to look for you can see the artifacts. But it is open source, so improvements will be implememnted over time.

  • Here's what you're missing on Japanese TV (Score:5, Funny)

    by mr_majestyk ( 671595 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @02:56PM (#6332910)
    This page [geocities.com] provides an overview of some typical Japanese TV shows:
    * A game show in which a grandmother has to answer questions about pop culture in order to prevent her grandson from being catapulted into the air by a bungee machine.
    * "Guess what's on your head!"- a game show in which contestants try to guess what type of insect or reptile is crawling around on the top of their heads.
    * A show called Super Jockey in which people with products to promote (usually beautiful women) play a game where they have to change into a skimpy bikini before a curtain drops which will reveal them if they haven't finished changing, and then they have to sit in scalding hot water. For every second they manage to stay in the water, they are allowed to promote their product for one second
    • The poor Geocities page is overloaded. Here's the Google cache:

      http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:DjSPfHvc4_U J: www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Bunker/5921/psycho.html +%22super+jockey%22&hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=UT F-8

    • Re:Here's what you're missing on Japanese TV (Score:5, Insightful)

      by SuperBanana ( 662181 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @03:32PM (#6333220)
      Here's what you're missing on Japanese TV

      And you know what? All of the stuff you listed sounds pretty damn funny, and certainly original.

      That's two qualities the American media seems to find desperately hard to achieve, probably because they spend too much time trying to spit out something that will appeal to absolutely everyone, which of course is impossible.

      So as a result, we have 5 billion sitcoms about a middle-age couple with 2.5 kids, a dog, and an SUV. The husband is a passive-aggressive jerk always getting into trouble with the missus because he's a moron, the wife is a no-bullshit woman, and the kids are very young, quiet and never say a word(very realistic). The other half of the primetime lineup are murder crime shows convincing the american public that they're going to get murdered or blown up by the zillions of terrorists running around(as a side note, anyone else notice that crime shows seem to be the place to break the public in on more and more invasive "crimefighting" technologies? Joe Q. Public sees all that wonderful technology at work- it's instant, always catching the bad guy, etc...it's like Ashcroft's personal heaven.)

    • Re:Here's what you're missing on Japanese TV (Score:5, Funny)

      by Kunta Kinte ( 323399 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @03:41PM (#6333301) Journal
      A show called Super Jockey in which people with products to promote (usually beautiful women) play a game where they have to change into a skimpy bikini before a curtain drops which will reveal them if they haven't finished changing, ...

      I don't know if you were trying to put down Japanese television, but that "Super Jockey" show idea has me desparately searching for a friend in Japan I can ship a brick too.

    • Ah... Super Jockey! I lived in Tokyo for a awhile and every Sunday was *glued* to my television at 3:00PM to watch Super Jockey. My absolute favorite episode had a guy with his legs up in the air, a brick on his crotch, and a man with a sledgehammer trying to break the brick. Hysterical.

      It's things like this that make me want to pack up the family and head back...

  • Japanese TV (Score:5, Funny)

    by Scrameustache ( 459504 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @03:00PM (#6332945) Homepage Journal
    Yes, I wouldn't want to miss the latest in cruelty TV [3web.ne.jp] if I moved away...

    Can you win this box in a contest? ;- )

  • Two problems for average US consumer (Score:5, Interesting)

    by irving47 ( 73147 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @03:00PM (#6332946) Homepage
    1. MPAA who?
    2. A lot of cable modem users are getting bandwidth limits imposed on them. Some companies (like cox) are limiting home users to 3 GB per month down, 1 up... How many hours of this TV Brick thing would that be?
    • Re: Question 2:

      Well, we (http://www.americafree.tv) webcast MPEG4 video at 340kbps. At that rate, 3 GB is 20 hours per month, which is more than most people watch on-line (us, at least).

      BTW, I have COX and routinely upload 10 GB or so per month and have not been limited _yet_.
    • 2. A lot of cable modem users are getting bandwidth limits imposed on them. Some companies (like cox) are limiting home users to 3 GB per month down, 1 up... How many hours of this TV Brick thing would that be?

      The Cox limits [cox.net] are 30GB down per month, 2GB max per day, and 7.5GB up per month, 1GB max per day.

  • The magic of open brick (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mbone ( 558574 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @03:00PM (#6332948)
    This is an application of open brick [openbrick.org], a really cool Linux based appliance. I think that the tiny market (Japanese in France) is not such an issue - more that this has the potential of leading to the commoditification of Linux and open source - not on the desktop, but as cheap single use hardware apps.

  • I wonder how long it'll take before... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Kjella ( 173770 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @03:03PM (#6332982) Homepage
    ...some court finds that this is a circumvention device on the broadcasting rights that are limited to Japan, and declares this illegal. Any slashlaywers care to comment? ;)

    Kjella

  • some more info (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 30, 2003 @03:04PM (#6332994)
    Since it looks like they are currently watching Japanese television and have no bandwith for a Slashdotting, here is more info from the site:

    TV Brick Systems > en > affiliate > TV Brick Systems > Personal Multimedia > TVBrick
    Home Server

    TVBrick: it's like Home! Watch all Home TV Channels from abroad by connecting to
    your Home TV antena from abroad.

    Features

    TVBrick is a Home Server designed for International Families who must stay abroad
    and who need to keep a tight relation with their Home country and family.

    Current Features:
    * View all Home TV channels from abroad
    * Connect to the Internet by Wireless network when you stay at Home
    * Improve communication with your family when you stay abroad

    Future Features
    * Talk by Internet Phone with your family for free
    * Share digital snapshots of life abroad with your family in your Home country

    System

    In order to watch Home TV channels from abroad, a TVBrick Home Server appliance must
    be installed at your Home in your home country and connected to the broadband
    Internet access of your home family. It becomes then possible to watch all Home TV
    channels from abroad by connecting to your home TVBrick either with a standard PC or
    with the optional TVBrick player. A password will be required to connect to your
    home TVBrick in order to make sure that only people of the same family can access
    Home TV channels. Because reproduction of home TV channels happens in a private
    manner within the same family, the use of TVBrick to watch home TV channels is
    compatible with international Copyright Law.

    Easy Setup

    Using the TVBrick appliance is very easy: remote users connect to the TVBrick secure
    home page with a standard PC and Web Browser which can be operated anywhere in the
    world. It is also possible to connect with the optional TVBrick player which
    includes a joystick based user interface similar to a video game. Once the TVBrick
    home server is connected to family broadband Internet access and to television,
    there is absolutely nothing to change.

    World Class Technology

    TVBrick uses the Linux Open Source / Free Operating System developped by American,
    European and Japanese engineers. The TVBrick appliance is based on the OpenBrick
    platform (www.openbrick.org). Because it includes no fan, no hard disk and no moving
    parts, TVBrick is 100% silent and can be operated 24 hours a day. This is a major
    difference with other Home Servers: the use of TVBrick when you stay abroad will not
    disturb your family asleep because TVBrick simply makes absolutely no noise.

    Service

    NipponBrick TV is sold online by Nexedi (www.nipponbrick.com). After ordering and
    paying your NipponBrick TV home server, Nexedi will ask you some information about
    your broadband Internet connection in Japan. In case your family in Japan does do
    not use yet a broadband Internet connection in Japan, Nexedi will assist you to
    subscribe to a high quality broadband Internet Connection. Nexedi will then
    configure your NipponBrick TV home server in our laboratories and test it. Once it
    is fully tested, we will ship it by UPS World Wide Express. Your family in Japan
    will then receive your NipponBrick TV home server by Takkyubin, UPS partner in
    Japan. Nexedi native Japanese staff will then call your family in Japan to assist
    them connect your NipponBrick TV home server to the Japanese TV network and to the
    Internet. Nexedi will test connectivity to make sure your NipponBrick TV home server
    is fully operational. Our international staff will then contact your family abroad
    to provide assistance how to use OpenBrick, either with your personal computer or
    with the optinoal NipponBrick TV personal view. Our international staff can speak
    the following languages: Japanese, Engl

  • Kill Your Television (Score:5, Funny)

    by sulli ( 195030 ) * on Monday June 30, 2003 @03:05PM (#6333004) Journal
    When I think of "TV Brick" it's usually in a different context. [turnoffyourtv.com] (replace hammer with brick) Generally after watching yet another Laci Peterson [washingtonpost.com] segment on CNN.
  • "Primarily targeted towards Japanese families living in France..."

    Secondarily targeted towards slashdot readers with WAY too much time on their hands...

  • Tab A? (Score:5, Funny)

    by orthogonal ( 588627 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @03:15PM (#6333076) Journal
    Primarily targeted towards Japanese families living in France

    Yeah, reading and following the setup and assembly instructions is gonna be no problem.

  • Quality? (Score:2, Informative)

    by ad0le ( 684017 )
    I can't imagine that the quality of a TV signal across a DSL connection could obtain reasonable enough framerates for cross-country viewing. What about censorship legalities of people receiving signals that are not allowed in their country. Networks are gonna have a field day with this one.
  • I would love this!!

    I watch quite a bit of BBC America programming, but I would love to be able to see NEW episodes of shows, instead of the reruns I see now.

    Unfortunately, there are probably waaay too many laws this technology would be breaking. :(

  • 3 Major Markets (Score:3, Interesting)

    by randomErr ( 172078 ) <.ervin.kosch. .at. .gmail.com.> on Monday June 30, 2003 @03:32PM (#6333222) Journal
    Everyone is carpin that this targeted for a narrow market. It could have some very large scale appeal. Here's 3 I came up with:

    1. Home video at Work - Watch Opera on your home cable at work.

    2. Video Survaliance - Watch what your wife and pets are doing while your at work.

    3. Pr0n/Underground Video - Watch what your wife and pets are doing while your at work.

    Enjoy cheap digital TV from the comfort of your couch, not scrunched over your computer.

    You could also setup a video broadcasting station for less $2000 and no experince.

    Keep LDTV alive! - Low Def TV for the underground!

  • Japanese people have enough bandwidth (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 30, 2003 @03:37PM (#6333259)
    Keep in mind that for a few years already Japan has straight-to-the-home 100MBit Optical Fiber Internet Access. And it's cheap. The initial installation fee is about $300. After that, it only costs 60$ per month.

    And you thought DSL and cable modems were fast.
    Wow, America is still so far behind. They've only just started trials for fiber-to-the-home(FTTH) in Silicon Valley recently. $2400 install fee + 75$ month I think.

  • Legal? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by bc8o8 ( 683988 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @03:48PM (#6333363)
    How long do you think it will be before the Cable Companies convince the govt to make this illegal??

    Think about it. If you could set this up on one system, and have hundreds of people access it (which if it's not possible now, it soon will be) then why pay for cable?? Find a server somewhere that plays some shows that you like, and watch them from there.

    I'd be willing to bet that within 6 months of the first one being sold in the US the Nexedi will be in court.

    It's a shame though, I could have some fun with this!!
  • Does it drop frames and skew time or could i expect to get all the siezures that the anime creators intended?

  • 9FPS?? (Score:5, Informative)

    by indole ( 177514 ) <fluxist@gmail.cSLACKWAREom minus distro> on Monday June 30, 2003 @03:55PM (#6333411) Homepage

    From the FAQ [tvbrick.com]:

    How good/bad is the image quality?

    The sound quality is very good. The image quality is poor. This is due to the fact that international Internet connectivity is not yet fast and stable enough to transmit high bandwidth streams. TVBrick is now tuned to provide a sub-VHS quality image at 9 frames per second.[emphasis mine] ...This is expected to change within 2 years.
    Oh yeah, this is a real viable alternative.

    • From the FAQ:

      How good/bad is the image quality?

      The sound quality is very good. The image quality is poor. This is due to the fact that international Internet connectivity is not yet fast and stable enough to transmit high bandwidth streams. TVBrick is now tuned to provide a sub-VHS quality image at 9 frames per second.[emphasis mine] ...This is expected to change within 2 years.:

      Oh yeah, this is a real viable alternative.

      Have you ever seen SSTV - Slow Scan TV - on Short Wave? This a boone my friend for

  • ROFL (Score:2)

    by Bruha ( 412869 )
    The proxy server could not handle the request GET /.

    Now that's just funny.
  • Can I get an on CD distro of OpenBrick like I can get Knoppix?
  • I wish someone would hook this up to a KU satellite and make it public. There's a lot of content that flows across there that's copyright clear. Heck there's even copyright clear stuff on DISH network satellite, a bunch of the stuff on Free Speech TV [freespeech.org] is available for noncommercial copying/viewing, like Democracy Now! [democracynow.org] and Indymedia Newsreal [indymedia.org].
  • I live in Denver which has pathetic (read: none) support for over the air HDTV from anywhere but downtown.

    I use the Dish network for a few HD channels, but I think what I need is an HDTV brick that sits in LA or somewhere with decent broadcast HDTV, and then streams that back to my house on demand. I'm tired of fighting with Dish to get a CBS feed, and would love to just bypass them...

    When people start selling shows on demand instead of channels, then we'll see some interesting changes in TV. In particu
  • COOL! I was going to do the same. Now, I can just use it and debug it (if necessary). As an immigrant in the US, where it is impossible to get any decent foreign TV, and the quality of the news sucks (especially when it comes to heavy biasing , to promoting whatever government agenda and to the total lack of independence), it am very glad that I can access different programs. Not that the programs of my coutry be that incredibly better, but they are of reasonable quality and allow me to be part of my orig
  • Imagine if ALL the media companies in Japan somehow saw the light and not only tolerated swapping of media over the internet using this device, but encouraged it -- I would be enticed to buy the device myself and brush up on my Japanese just to watch interesting shows. My children would easily pick up the language by watching the tele, and eventually more people would know how to speak Japanese -- this would bring tremendous economic benefits to Japan as a whole. I'm telling you, the Japanese are planning w
  • ...by giles, the author of Peercast Click here to get peercast [peercast.org]
    You also need NSV video plugin for Winamp Click here to get Winamp [winamp.com]

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