dtivo as education tool

[smokeman]

I am the network administrator for a k-12 school district. I have been using/hacking my dtivo(sat t-60) since the begginning...
I am very impressed with how far projects such as tivoweb have come. I want to ask the community if you feel the tools are in place to implement a dtivo into a school network, and allow teachers to schedule recordings for use in class, then extract the streams to a video server that they could access with their classroom pc's, or burn to videocd, or dvd...

I see the biggest problem with doing this on a broad scale is finding the series one equipment. Series 2 is what is being sold out there right now...which is not ready for hacking.

Also, I am unclear on the current status of copyright law, as it applies to classroom use. I know in the original copyright act, that a clause for education use is in in there...but, is it truly legal right now, to allow teachers to record shows, and show them in class...
without permission from the broadcasting channel?

[BubbleLamp]

Originally posted by smokeman
I am the network administrator for a k-12 school district. I have been using/hacking my dtivo(sat t-60) since the begginning...
I am very impressed with how far projects such as tivoweb have come. I want to ask the community if you feel the tools are in place to implement a dtivo into a school network, and allow teachers to schedule recordings for use in class, then extract the streams to a video server that they could access with their classroom pc's, or burn to videocd, or dvd...

I see the biggest problem with doing this on a broad scale is finding the series one equipment. Series 2 is what is being sold out there right now...which is not ready for hacking.

Also, I am unclear on the current status of copyright law, as it applies to classroom use. I know in the original copyright act, that a clause for education use is in in there...but, is it truly legal right now, to allow teachers to record shows, and show them in class...
without permission from the broadcasting channel?

Better go check with your school district lawyers before you go any further. I'd bet money they won't go for it.

[smokeman]

I know it is legal to use shows, such as shown on discovery channel, etc... for educational use,
although I am wondering what the current copyright law is on the amount of time you can keep such a recording.

The discussion I hope to start here is more...what state are the various projects at that would allow this to be more automated...

I am hoping to start a small company, to aquire dtivo's, put the pieces together, cush as larger hard drives, turbonet, tivoweb...

then, put together a second "video server" that works together with the dtivo, and downloads the shows, and guide info for what has been recorded. This would be the start of a video library of educational programming.

Also, I am not talking hacked subscriptions, but all fully subscribed, directv, and tivo subscriptions...


Is the dtivo there, or should I look at other devices, such as that new replaytv that is networkable...?

[superzap]

Look into networked S2 TiVos with the HMO option. This world be great publicity for TiVo so maybe they would help.
http://www.tivo.com/4.9.asp

[captain_video]

I'm wondering if there may be ramifications regarding the use of a DirecTivo for gathering recordings for the purpose of distribution to a wider audience. You may have to see about getting a DTV subscription similar to that required for public places, such as a sports bar that uses DTV as a source for displaying programming to their patrons. I would think that as long as you limit the program material to programs culled from educational channels such as PBS or The Discovery Channel then you may not run up against any such issues. I would, however, second the suggestion to check with your legal department to ensure you avoid any potential legal issues down the road.

[rd001]

Essentially, the legal restrictions are likely to be no different from your present use of VCRs.

Your idea is outstanding. Since most large school districts and educations service bureaus pay licensing fees for their video libraries, you might want to start looking at a video server that stores your video library. It's doable now and you can eliminate the ongoing investment in tapes.

Even a single DTivo could be a nice asset. There are also some video cards out there that can do captures by schedule much like the Tivo can. You might look into ATI Radeon 8500 All In Wonder. I've done some of that before and on, say a 2GHz P4, you can get good frame rates and it can record directly into mpeg formats on-the-fly. No reprocessing and instant availability to any PC on the network or to burn a CDR/DVDR. I very much like the AIW cards, only the newest ones (8500 AIW & 9700 AIW).

A Tivo is arguably better but will probably take more processing and expertise than some of the nicer combo video-tuner-capture cards out there.

[FredThompson]

The standard Cable in the Classroom notice says the limit is 30 days. The older copyright law had provisions about copying video but I don't remember them, sorry, most of that was about photocopying printed material (Xerox case which came before Sony case.)

The suggestion to use computer capture cards for what you want is probably a very good one. Image quality won't be as nice unless you get really expensive cards. Most of the cheap stuff. like ATI, doesn't perform well with very dark or very light source. The means sand, concrete, Caucasian skin, things like that tend to get washed out.

(I'm designing a proper way to tune the capture characterisitcs right now, actually. ATI decided to mvoe the registry entries again, sigh.)

One of the nicest video servers is VideoLAN and it's free. There are also a number of Linux-based projects for pre-programmed capture (usually created by people who think they can do better than TiVo.) See the links list from my sig, look under players.

[smokeman]

and 30 days is what I came up with. What I really think is needed is a tivo/video server automated relationship.

maybe even completely take the tivoweb out of the picture, and install a small binary running on the dtivo all the time, and the video server would directly communicate with the small binary.
guide info could be downloaded to the video server, and offload the processing power....so all the dtivo would hafve to do is schedule/record the shows, and when recorded, the video server could verify the recording, and automatically extract it, and implement it into it's own menu system....

maybe one of those linux-media box projects that attempts to emulate tivo functionality...but lacks the most inmportant ingrediant that dtivos' have....dual recievers recording digitally from sattelite.

[FredThompson]

If you avoid the TiVo, it will be a lot easier to do what you describe. I have a friend who is a linux zealot and heavily involved in recording as you describe. (Claims it's better than TiVo but shuts up when I bring up quality/DTiVo issues ;)

Multiple streams on one machine is doable but very resource heavy, regardless of OS. If you want quality, don't waste time with that. If 15 fps, 320x240 is fine with you, go right ahead.

Keep in mind, though, kids are going to loose interest in something that's all block and a crappy encode. The idea is for them to pay attention to the content, right? Crappy encodes will compete for that attention.

Suggest you start your research at the links list I keep. TV-Cards is a good place to start.