DStv recording (without a PVR) not allowed: MultiChoice

[Mike Hoxbig]

I would love to see you download the amount of tv the average household watch, through the internet, for 'cheaper' and with less hassles....

It's called SickBeard, and no manual intervention is required. When I get home every day my stuff is ready and waiting for me to watch via my media player. You can add CouchPotato too for good measure. It may cost a little more, but internet access is something we need anyway, with or without DSTV.

 

[K3NS31]

snip///

Also I have since found a lot of perfectly legal content that isn't even aired on DSTV.

Ya, I was saying exactly that earlier. You can literally spend hours on Youtube watching good stuff and only be scratching the surface.

 

[Rouxenator]

The way multichoice behaves is not in alignment with the evolution of entertainment. Lets recap :

Way back when you had to wait for the bard to come traveling to your village and entertain you with crappy tunes containing all the latest news and gossip.

Then they built arenas and theaters and you had to physically go there and watch live shows if you wanted entertainment.

After that they found ways to reproduce entertainment and screen it but still you had to physically go and see it at a theater.

It became more easy when entertainment got beamed directly into your home, but still you had to be there at a given time to see a broadcast.

Then you got the ability to record these broadcasts and watch it when it suited you. This was back in the 70's and multichoice is still struggling with this concept almost half a century later.

The final step is breaking the dependency on broadcasting and getting the content you want to watch when you want to watch it. This is nothing new actually, its been going on for years on the internet.

But multichoice is going backwards it seems, pretty soon you'll have to go to multichoice approved screening theaters for your entertainment and maybe in a few decades time there will be multichoice bards going from door to door...

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

Seriously, my er friend, has the whole thing automated. New episodes download every weekend (but could download as soon as they're out if he had proper uncapped), they get automatically moved into the right folders, episode names and cover art applied, and added to the XBMC database. All he needs to do is add the show to his downloading app (flexget), and to the sorting / indexing app (Sickbeard); which gets done once.
Even PVR isn't that easy.
Oh, did I mention it also tells you when new eps are airing as well as when new seasons are starting etc.?

Even XBMC is a bit of a mission to get working properly IMO, especially the remote etc. My 'friend' has almost exactly the same setup, but instead of using XBMC he has a WD TV Live connected to stream from the final location. Sorting, cover art etc. is automatic as you mentioned, and SickBeard supports WD TV Live metadata natively, so it pulls it automatically when it gets the video.

 

[Rouxenator]

I used to have a WD TV Live for two years but sold it yesterday. Bought a cheap HP SFF Core2Duo PC and it now runs my torrent downloads and XBMC. I find it a lot easier than the WD

 

[The_Unbeliever]

But multichoice is going backwards it seems, pretty soon you'll have to go to multichoice approved screening theaters for your entertainment and maybe in a few decades time there will be multichoice bards going from door to door...

Something like this oke?

 

[Rouxenator]

Exactly what I had in mind... just the more multichoice branding on his shirt.

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

DSTV on-screen info:

WD TV Live on-screen info:

 

[K3NS31]

Even XBMC is a bit of a mission to get working properly IMO, especially the remote etc. My 'friend' has almost exactly the same setup, but instead of using XBMC he has a WD TV Live connected to stream from the final location. Sorting, cover art etc. is automatic as you mentioned, and SickBeard supports WD TV Live metadata natively, so it pulls it automatically when it gets the video.

Hey, whatever works for people, y'know. I just like the infinite expandability of XBMC (movies, music, tv, pics, Youtube, Ted Talks etc.), plus I quite enjoy tinkering with it.
I think we can all agree that all of the aforementioned are streets ahead of DSTV.

 

[zamicro]

“One word of caution, however,” Schönwetter added. “This does not mean that users can develop work-arounds for their PVRs in order to store their movies [or other content] on a different medium.”

Why? I would like him to elaborate on this. Especially after this:

If I am "time-shifting" and playing back content from my PVR while re-recording it on some other device (for whatever reason) if that second recording is still for personal use, what is the problem? What is a "work-arround"? Breaking some trivial encryption or modifying MY purchased device?

If I am "time-shifting" and playing back content from my PVR while re-recording it on some other device (for whatever reason) if that second recording is still for personal use, what is the problem? What is a "work-arround"? Breaking some trivial encryption or modifying MY purchased device?

+1. This seems contradictory at first glance.

 

[sycogrim08]

With every system there is a loophole.

What these people don't realize is that if DSTV are saying that PVR is legalized, then essentially speaking any form of recording is legal from a point that if you own a TV license, you are allowed to record any TV show, Movie, etc... and not be charged for piracy. I confirmed this with a lawyer friend not too long ago and if they want to charge or sue you for even downloading you can wave your TV license around and state that you simply download it as you do not wish to watch TV ads, and you want to be able to watch your shows any time anywhere without having to set aside time from other commitments.

The law cannot take you down on those simple grounds, that only certain places are allowing people to record without being charged with digital piracy. Technically speaking if piracy is piracy, then DSTV should be sued for millions as they're allowing citizens to freely download/record using their equipment.

 

[mutasa]

There are plenty of DVD recorders available in SA

My friend where have you seen them on sale , the last time i looked for one i was told by a Makro salesman that they are no longer selling them cos no one imports them any more , the reason being that Monochoice made a deal with all leading electronics manufacturers not to import them in the country .

 

[alloytoo]

I would love to see you download the amount of tv the average household watch, through the internet, for 'cheaper' and with less hassles....

Well obviously one doesn't download news, weather and sport.

But a 60gb allowance will allow you to watch conservatively 4 hours of Telly a night. (172 42' minute shows) in Avi format.

MP4 and MKV improve that.

I use XBMC to access my media.

 

[Nerfherder]

My friend where have you seen them on sale , the last time i looked for one i was told by a Makro salesman that they are no longer selling them cos no one imports them any more , the reason being that Monochoice made a deal with all leading electronics manufacturers not to import them in the country .

You think some one with that much insight in to the business world would be working at Makro ?


I'm not saying its impossible... I'm just saying that a more likely explanation is that they made a loss because of them and don't to take the risk again.
Personally, if I was a big company like Samsung or Sony I would make it a personal vendetta to make sure that there were recording devices in SA that are better than the DSTV PVR, because in reality those devices actually cut in to their market a bit.

 

[alloytoo]

I used to have a WD TV Live for two years but sold it yesterday. Bought a cheap HP SFF Core2Duo PC and it now runs my torrent downloads and XBMC. I find it a lot easier than the WD

My old P4 HT is loaded up with Hard drives and serves as my media server, I've got a Lenova core2duo in the lounge running XBMC and a netbook in the bedroom also running XBMC.

It's quite robust, the sprog can watch a movie in the lounge, the Mrs a tv show in the bedroom and I can play Doom3 on the old P4 simultaneously with no noticable degradation in service for anyone.

 

[mutasa]

You think some one with that much insight in to the business world would be working at Makro ?


I'm not saying its impossible... I'm just saying that a more likely explanation is that they made a loss because of them and don't to take the risk again.
Personally, if I was a big company like Samsung or Sony I would make it a personal vendetta to make sure that there were recording devices in SA that are better than the DSTV PVR, because in reality those devices actually cut in to their market a bit.

If dvd recorders where ( are ) available , no one will buy their PVR, everyone will buy the dvd recorders and record their programes ,and some enterprising brothers of mine from west africa will then burn the recorded programmes onto dvd's and sell them in the streets for 10 bucks .

 

[mutasa]

Wrong, I can still record with no hack needed.

If you have a decorder with RCA out for video and audio , if you plug those cables into a vcr or dvd recorder Audio in and video in you should be able to record . I have a sony dvd recorder and i can record the free to air channels i pick up with my dstv decorder .

 

[Nerfherder]

If dvd recorders where ( are ) available , no one will buy their PVR, everyone will buy the dvd recorders and record their programes ,and some enterprising brothers of mine from west africa will then burn the recorded programmes onto dvd's and sell them in the streets for 10 bucks .

Thats the same crap attitude that multichoice had.

Do the maths: @ R40 per day's worth of TV that means that you would have to spend R1200 a month on copied dvd's to get a similar type type experience.

DVD recorders posed no threat to MC, they also did not have the EPG so I doubt "everyone" would have gone for the DVD recorder.

Hard drive recorders on the other hand.... and you can still get those.