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ReplayTV

Zap2It Guide Data

Posted Sun, 2007-07-22 00:00 by matthew

A colleague at work told me on Friday that Zap2It was closing up its API. They had threatened this very action quite some time back claiming that too many were using the free service for commercial ventures. At the time, I was skeptical--however I have been proven wrong. It appears that as of September 1, the listing service will be locking up access.

Many opensource DVRs, like MythTV, have traditionally made use of this free service to the opensource community. It seems that folks from this community are working on a solution. Members of the ReplayTV community are also working on a solution to feed WiRNS and it appears that DVArchive won't be affected by this decision.

Daylight Savings Time Rant

Posted Fri, 2007-03-09 04:53 by matthew

Today I updated our ReplayTVs for the new daylight savings times. It comprises a rather convoluted process of erasing the ZIP code on the unit and then putting the ZIP back. This got me thinking about the insanity of Daylight Savings.

Part of the 2005 energy bill in the US was to add an extra four weeks to DST. Millions of dollars have been allocated to see if it saves energy. This very kind of study has been done several times before and it has been proven that it doesn't conserve energy. Add to that when there is an hour more of sunshine, folks are more likely to head out in the car to do things in the evening, well it undermines the whole concept of energy savings. Retailers love it, because folks tend to go out shopping more during DST.

The Deathknell of TiVo

Posted Wed, 2005-02-23 14:14 by matthew
I wouldn't count them out yet. But an interesting article was posted on engadget.com. Stock value has plummeted, DirecTV seems to be abandoning the platform. It is a shame really. The only three DVRs that ever seem to have had decent software are disappearing--ReplayTV, UltimateTV, and TiVo. With all the really cheap DVR options coming out of the satellite and cable providers and a consumer base that really doesn't know the difference...well, the writing is on the wall.

Coverting ReplayTV MPEGs to QuickTime

Posted Sun, 2005-02-20 03:11 by matthew
I'm working on a little project that involves converting old audio and video tapes into an Internet friendly format. I captured the video using a ReplayTV and pulled the MPEG file locally using DVArchive. The challenge is that ReplayTV MPEGs have a slightly off format that makes them impossible to open up in QuickTime. The solution was to reencode the file using ffmpegx, a great little piece of shareware.

Video Capture

Posted Tue, 2005-02-15 03:34 by matthew
It seems like my homelife ends up overlapping with my professional life. About 4 or 5 years ago my brother, Alec called me up and asked if I wanted a ReplayTV. I was pretty clueless about what he was talking about--I vaguely remembered the contraption at his home--and said, "Uh sure." Turned out that he had gotten a larger capacity one through some corporate swap out.