Thread: Windows MCE DRM

I've had some problems with restricted content on my analog cable tuner. What is odd is it is fine on the shows but it is getting flagged by a commercial. I can fast forward through the offending commercial but it is still annoying. Every once in a while a rerun of According to Jim being recorded off digital cable by a hdhomerun can't be recorded because of restrictions, but it is just a rerun, so I don't mind too much.

I am exploring mythtv and am really liking the recording via firewire from the cable box without a tuner. The whole idea of one or more backends doing the recording etc, and one or more frontends interfacing is awesome. It lets you set priorities on tuners and stream live tv. It has a UPnP server built in and can act as a server for diskless clients. You can change skins and add plugins to give you as much or little functionality as you want. I does things natively that takes much work to get mce to do, if it is even possible (commercial skip, play and stream any video format, stream live tv to any client, play back recorded tv without drm interfering.) It doesn't require much as far as system requirements. I am running it on an old sp13000 and it is working just fine. Oh, and it is free. The operating system and all the encoders, all the plugins, and the software. The only thing that may cost money if you choose it is the guide provider. ($20 a year plus whatever you may want to donate to any of the various developers).

I haven't switched over the house yet, but I am getting very close. I know there are other people having the same problem over at thegreenbutton.com. I have dumped windows as an operating system on my laptop and am ready to switch over the other computers (as soon as the wife lets me...)