HD-3000 out and NOT sold out
Slashdot reports that the pcHDTV HD-3000 is shipping, and it’s already sold out. The HD-3000 is a tuner card for over-the-air broadcast HDTV with Linux-only drivers. It’s the successor to the card at the heart of my Myth HD PVR, a full-featured personal video recorder unencumbered by the broadcast flag. The catch is that these cards must be made before July 1, 2005, when the broadcast flag outlaws their manufacture. Let’s hope pcHDTV steps up production. See EFF’s intro for more information on why, and for more information on the options.
Update: The cards are not sold out. The website’s been updated and more cards will be shipping shortly.
They seem to be in stock again (as of 6pm PST). Who knows how long they’ll last
Comment by Anonymous — November 8, 2004 @ 5:57 pm
So, the way I understand the post-5 JULY 2005 TV world is this:
Taping/recording/archiving of any kind will be technically impossible and a Federal crime.
It will now be a Federal crime for me to tape “Lost” for my wife when she’s working late.
If I wish to tape new Battlestar Galactica series because I’m busy, I’m just SOL. It will be impossible and illegal to record any TV broadcast or signal in any way at any time for any reason.
That about sums it up.
So, there really is NO reason at all to buy an HDTV. In fact, I think it’s time to boycott TV altogether. If 20 or 30 or 50 million Americans would boycott both TV manufacturers and Hollywood, they’d have to stop interfering with our fair-use rights.
The cable/satellite providers should have banded together and told Hollywood to, ah, shove it. After all, Hollywood needs the “distribution channels” more than the cable companies need content. Just as with OPEC, if the consumers band together we can dictate both price and functionality.
Instead, the masses continue to much contentedly as part of the great bovine herd. Before my 4 year old hits puberty “freedom” will be something only her parents and grandparents remember.
So, basically, through strong-arm tactics and bend-over by the FCC, the “Betamax” decision has been de facto overturned.
One day Americans will wake up and realize you don’t need TV, you don’t need movies, you don’t need music. You can live without them. Then we’ll have the pleasure of watching one network, studio and record company after another go Chapter 13.
They’re killing the golden goose. In fifty years, TV will simply have disappeared. That’s my prediction. Maybe sooner. I hope so.
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