Re: [LUG] OT - BT Vision was Small Wireless Access Points?

[Rob Beard <rob@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Grant Sewell wrote:
> On Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:31:18 +0100
> Rob Beard wrote:
>
>   
> > Dan Lewis wrote:
> >     
> > > I was out shopping for a new package deal for my friend and for 360 
> > > swedish krowns a month - 30 pounds he got an entry level TV box
> > > with 720p and recording - like the one sky does in the uk. then
> > > there was a 20 mb internet connection, home telephone line and
> > > mobile phone contract with calls to mobiles costing 29ore per min
> > > which is about 2.5p. My point is all of this comes into the house
> > > through a combination of cables from the phone jack see here for 
> > > diagram
> > > http://www.telia.se/privat/kundservice/support/tv/digitaltv/guider/installation_digitalbox.page
> > > or here for brochure showing real units
> > > http://www.telia.se/files/Inst_handb_TeliaDigiTV_B.pdf
> > >
> > >       
> > Just had a look at the links, it actually looks like it works in a 
> > similar way to BT Vision and Tiscalli TV which are both IPTV based 
> > systems.  BT Vision for instance is a custom Freeview PVR which can 
> > stream on demand content (standard definition only) over the ADSL 
> > connection and download stuff in high definition (720p).  Wasn't a
> > bad system apart from the fact it was locked into BT and without a BT 
> > connection the box was pretty much useless, although it can be
> > modified to run Linux with a bit of hardware hacking (I believe it
> > requires some sort of chip to get round the protections).
> >
> > If BT don't ask for my old box back, I'll look at getting mine done
> > so I can re-use it.  I seem to recall reading that the BT Vision
> > hardware is similar to the Popcorn Hour box.
> >
> > Rob
> >
> >     
>
> Apparently the BT Vision box runs Microsoft Mediaroom:
> http://tinyurl.com/ydrph6n
>
> Grant.
>
>   
Yep albeit a cut down version.

I've been reading up a bit about it, some folks have managed to create 
their own WindowsCE applications (I gather they are .Net and can be 
written using Visual Studio) and have added new features such as 
streaming from the internet etc.

What I'm interested though is getting Linux running on the box.  From 
what I understand they now have video and audio playback working 
although I presume it's early days.  How I see it though is if I can get 
Linux on there then maybe eventually it could be maybe used as some sort 
of media playback device (not sure if it could maybe be a MythTV 
frontend or something).

If all else fails I'll just whip out the hard drive and use it in 
something else.  Does seem a shame though just to chuck it on the scrap 
heap because of some BT specific firmware.

Rob


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