From owner-freebsd-multimedia@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Oct 11 18:28:41 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1E66D16A620 for ; Wed, 11 Oct 2006 18:28:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rick@kiwi-computer.com) Received: from kiwi-computer.com (megan.kiwi-computer.com [63.224.10.3]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 6914D43D8B for ; Wed, 11 Oct 2006 18:28:27 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from rick@kiwi-computer.com) Received: (qmail 26694 invoked by uid 2001); 11 Oct 2006 18:28:24 -0000 Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 13:28:24 -0500 From: "Rick C. Petty" To: Dieter Message-ID: <20061011182824.GA26289@keira.kiwi-computer.com> References: <200610111717.RAA26251@sopwith.solgatos.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <200610111717.RAA26251@sopwith.solgatos.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i Cc: freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org Subject: Re: New port: pvrxxx for Hauppauge PVR150/500 X-BeenThere: freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: rick-freebsd@kiwi-computer.com List-Id: Multimedia discussions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 18:28:41 -0000 On Wed, Oct 11, 2006 at 10:17:01AM +0100, Dieter wrote: > > The first thing we need is good tuner support in BSD. Nothing against the > Hauppauge PVR150/500 cards, but IIRC they are analog-only cards. Analog > broadcasts are going away soon, so we need support for DIGITAL tuners. And how do you propose we write drivers for these proprietary tuners? Last I checked there were very few digital tuners available, and most have DRM protection. Even finding cards which have linux drivers is quite difficult! And "soon" isn't very specific. From what I've read, most countries won't stop broadcasting analog for 3-10 years from now. I wouldn't exactly call that "soon". Fortunately/unfortunately, analog's here for awhile. Besides, the pvrXXX port goes a long way from the only FreeBSD-supported video tuners (i.e. bt848). This is a significant step because the pvr cards provide MPEG-2 streams which is undoubtedly a major improvement over the bt848's raw streams. Also, this was a significant step since, for the longest time, many of these cards were only available in linux. Now some people are planning to dump their current myth boxes in favor of BSD. Making linux drivers work in BSD is often nontrivial. Kudos to usleepless, et. al. for their efforts! > The second thing we need is video output support, including at least XvMC. > > MythTV is 3rd priority at most. IMO, having myth working in BSD will help those who favor BSD to convert their current myth boxes. I think that's more important than supporting video output, since a lot of people who care about HD or digital quality have working solutions. Anyway, these "priorities" don't necessarily dictate what gets done first. People working on a feature (like AFS, HDTV tuning, or VMWare 5) shouldn't be discouraged because other people have different priorities. -- Rick C. Petty