THSCC Forums

I believe that the local telephone service has to maintain a connection to your house for you to use 911. With some creative wiring, you can have one plug remain for emergency use, even with the power out.

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In need of car.

David, you are exactly correct in that it is a copyright violation and that it will come under attack. I'd even go so far as to say it's Just Plain Wrong(tm) because of the simple fact that broadcast TV is only free because they can advertise to you, so folks distributing copies of shows like this with the ads already removed is just wrong. It can't lead to any outcome other than loss of free broadcast TV -or- the TV companies will find a way to stop it.

The problem with the latter, however, is that bittorrent file sharing is almost unstoppable. Given the basic premise of how it works, there is no central site to "shut down" to make it go away. www.tvtorrents.tv is really just a handy place to find the .torrent file, which just tells you where to get started as far as downloading from some peer on the 'net. That could just as easily be shared via an email list, FTP site, web server (like we see now), or any other means of simple file dissemination. By itself it isn't illegal since there's really no file there...

Once you start the download, you are really just downloading from people who are "ahead" of you in their download (they don't even have to have the whole thing, they just have to have more than you have and you start downloading the chunks they have already gotten while they are still downloading from someone else who is "ahead" of them). Obviously ultimately someone has to have the whole thing, but stopping that original source before it gets it out to other sources will prove fairly impossible.

Personally, I don't think people should clip the ads before they upload. Then the TV industry is likely to get less annoyed by it. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that ultimately the only real solution may be for them to *allow* this kind of sharing as long as you *do* leave the ads. Anything else is piracy, which it already is, but would be a little easier to discern, anyway.

Well, *ultimately* perhaps we'll be able to get advertised versions of shows for free and then subscribe to the show without ads. I'd pay for several shows on TV right now, especially if I could get them "on demand" with no commercials.

That would be really nice if I could also integrate it into the MythTV system I was talking about earlier so it exists on one "server" in the house and I could watch at any time on any TV in the house.


--Donnie

I do something similar to this right now - I download Star Trek: Enterprise from tvtorrent in HD since our local UPN doesn't broadcast HD. So a better version is available on the internet I'll keep doing so until someone tells me to stop!

Anyways, I use a D-link Media Server (320?) on my downstairs HDTV. It plays mpgs and mp3 as well as shows photo albums from my server upstairs, wirelessly.

The D-link is a little flaky (can you say rushed to market?) but as an early-adopter I'm happy with where the technology is going. I have stopped burning things to watch to DVD since getting the D-link.

BTW, if anyone has one of these and is disappointed by the remote control performance, try a radio shack universal. Works MUCH better than the crappy included remote.

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

Interesting you mention that device. I was thinking of trying one of those. Incidentally, are you running the latest firmware (1.04)? Looks like they've been doing a lot of bug fixing (and even feature adding).

It's annoying that it requires a Windows server, though. All my MP3s live on a proprietary server in the house (which does export via SMB, hmm) called the AudioRequest:

http://www.request.com

There are probably better (ie. cheaper and just as robust) solutions *now*, but there weren't back when I got this (and it's integrated into my whole house audio system, which is nice). I'll bet with the D-Link server software I can point it at this device as the repository, but it will be hella-stupid for it to have to move the file over the network once just to stream it as audio again to the wireless client. But then again, I don't listen to MP3s via the TV much, nor care to. I would like to automate the downloading of TV stuff via torrent, though, and would prefer to do it on a Linux box. Hmmph. Looks like there's some work happening to use Linux as a server on this thing...


--Donnie

So how do you digi phone people deal with having more than one phone in the house?

Connect the VoIP adapter to a phone/basestation and distribute additional handsets around the house?

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Not spectacular just decent.
I'm not sure what I'm driving.
Maybe an ITR in DS.
Or half-assed STX prepped 330.

That's one route. Another solution is to completely disconnect your house from the street service and just plug the box into any outlet. All of the other outlets will be connected to the voip service.

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In need of car.

That (disco-ing the outside phone line) is what we did as well. It works great, with 1 caveat. We have an alarm with a phone dialer that expects to be the first device in line to the outside. Now it appears (electrically speaking) to be just another handset. We called up the alarm folks and they set us right again, but I believe all they had to do was swap the "phone in" and "phone out" wires. They (CPI) also said that they needed to change something back at their main office because, to their system, all Vonage calls appear to be coming from New Jersey (Vonage HQ). I don't know anything more about that, but we've done several alarm tests since then with no probs.

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Carl Fisher

Be Cool to the Pizza Dude:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4651531

Just a quick update...I got the D-Link DSM-320 and gave it a try. My review is posted here:

http://p214.ezboard.com/fdsm320frm2.sho ... =139.topic

I'm a little more critical than Mike. I think the unit still has potential if they get the firmware just a *bit* better, but I'm still not incredibly happy with it. Whoever is uploading the shows he is watching may be using a little bit different encoder than the one downloaded show *I* tried used, which could explain why he may not be seeing the sound sync problem I have.


--Donnie

I am still looking into this, but there is something that can't just be quantified by any type of research on TWC or Earthlinks site...

I am looking to ditch my Verizon homephone bill, but because I have DSL, I would have to switch to Cable Modem. I am a satisfied DirecTV customer, so I don't want to do the full dive and ditch Verizon and DirecTV and go cable 100%. It looks like I can just do the Cable Modem via TWC or Earthlink and then switch my Verizon phone over to Vonage. All standard stuff.

But my last problem is that with my current DSL, I use an ISP with a pretty liberal "Acceptable Use Policy" (AUP). Basically, they have no problem with me running my own server (Web, Email, etc.) at home via a static IP. I can deal with the dynamic IP with Cable Modem (don't want to pay extra for static even if it is available). But from the little bit that I have read on the TWC or Earthlink Broadband AUP, they don't want me running a server at home. I am sure they would rather set me up for some type of expensive "business" plan for that. But this is just a "hobby" server as well as where my personal email goes. I think they even don't want connections to be active all of the time.

I am interested in how this really works out in real life. How much do they enforce this part of their policy? Do they generally look the other way if you are not sending massive QTY of email or serving up tons of web traffic. Or do they actively look for ANY violation. Anyone using TWC or Earthlink Broadband AND have a home server setup? I don't want to make the switch and then have TWC or Earthlink bring the hammer down on me.

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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.

My cable connection is active all the time, and I have never had the IP address change on me. Even when the power goes out, I get the same IP address back.

I have also hosted stuff on a home PC and have never received any nasty letters.

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In need of car.

A coworker of mine has hosted a home web server for 2 years on RR cable. He says he has had ~3 IP address changes over the last 6 months or so at his new house, but otherwise has had no issue. Keep in mind, however, that his site is fairly private and contains just personal stuff (vacation pictures, etc...), so he doesn't get much traffic besides just family visits. YMMV, though.

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Dustin Fredrickson
-- I'm a nobody --