Virtual GBPVR

[flyswatta]

Wouldn't it be awesome to have a "Virtual GBPVR Cluster" of GBPVR HTPCs where you could view/stream recordings from other users? For instance, you could form a cluster comprised of someone from the UK, Canada, USA and New Zealand. Then schedule recordings on their GBPVR and have it uploaded or streamed to your GBPVR.

I know that there was a similiar initiative with x-share but I think it was ultimately abandoned due to copyright reasons.

I've noticed that there are a number of shows that are either not broadcast in certain countries (Regenesis) or broadcast late (current run of Doctor Who in the US is a season behind the UK). I've heard of some shows broadcast in the US that get broadcast much later in Europe. Or there are some shows that will never be broadcast in certain markets (Australian Idol will NEVER be broadcast in the US)

My thought on the whole thing is that the Networks work hard to get you "hooked" on a show then you're at their mercy on when you can watch it. Also, what is the legality of "sharing" a show, but leaving in the commercials? The various incarnations of the MPAA no doubt have made that illegal because they don't have control over it.

Thoughts, comments, criticisms?

DISCLAIMER: I thought about putting this in the wishlist, but I understand that this will never happen due to copyright issues so I just thought I'd bring it up as a discussion topic.

[FirstTeamOPS]

Very cool idea. The first problem I see is, how are you going to transfer the files between users? Many shows are multi-GB files.

What you could do until fiber is run into everyone's home ... do something similar to the streaming feature of EWA. You have some kind of master server that keeps track of a master list of shows available and then you can select a client from which to stream the show. Kinda like bittorrent... the more people that have the program, the more sources you have to pick from.

But yea... a huge copyright violation.

[David]

I've only wanted this type of thing for my "internal" use. You can only put so many tuners in a single system. Worse, if you mess up the primary system by tinkering, it's real bad for the WAF. Better to tinker on a second system were you can add in those odd and sometimes breakable plug-ins without fear. I'd be more likely to install the software recorder for some of those older unsupported cards if a new version upgrade couldn't take down my system. It might also be nice to connect via VPN to a second residence or the office where a different set of channels may be available.

[HTPCGB]

Such a system of distributed tuning would be great for redundancy. (Eg. Two servers keep track of each other and make sure that all shows get recorded, even if one crashes.) Should we start a poll to see how many are interested in such a system?

[pBS]

you can kinda do it with a common shared video library dir. but the descriptions won't show..

a nice plugin idea would be to store the files on an ntfs drive and have the plugin automatically show the file.mpg:metadata.xml from the recording itself..like an enhanced video library..
playing shows live from an internet source isn't really feasable with the slow upload speeds of 'high-speed' internet..
otherwise you'd need transcoding on source end, which would slow down user's machines...or maybe pre-compress the files intended for sharing...
several ways of delivery, but need some sort of description info display ability for usability and WAF..

[pBS]

hmmm,i wonder if we could configure the EWA RSS feed to send out the data,and have a 'plugin' for EWA where you could select multiple rss feeds to view...or just some way for the EWA to share the data and transcode..

or something as easy as a page in EWA with links to other people's video page, using a special common logon account..allowing to use the existing transcoding and info display..

maybe use the 'easyview' xml list of shows, for a separate list to share..

[cginzel]

http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Utility/XShare

[pastro]

I think it's a great idea, but would require fairly high upstream bandwidth to get a decent picture.
My cable uplink is really poor and wouldn't support much. When I stream to work I have to set it at 128kbs, otherwise it locks up. My upload speed is capped at 384ish. Some of you guys have much better upstream rates and maybe it would work for them. Btw, anyone have experience with slingbox? What's the picture quality like?

[flyswatta]

http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Utility/XShare

Yeh, I mentioned this in my original post. I think it was abandoned.

[flyswatta]

Wow! There's some great ideas here. I was originally thinking of GBPVR sharing, but there are a lot of legal issues
and grey areas, so it's probably better to avoid.
However HTPCGB's thought of using it for redundancy is a nice twist to it.

<Welcome to my working world>
You'd almost have to set up a true Client/Server model. You could set up a GBPVR Management Console that would have x number of nodes in a cluster.
Each node could have x number of tuners that are controlled by the "GBPVRMC". The GBPVRMC would have the master database of tv guide listings, plugins, the recordings database (keeping track of what GBPVR server has what recordings), and the list of what tuner is on what GBPVR server.
The clients would basically "log into" the GBPVRMC and then by selecting a program to view, the appropriate GBPVR server would then send the
show to the client (or if it's local, just play it).

The important part is that a physical box could conceivably host the GBPVR server, GBPVR client, GBPVRMC, or the database.

</Welcome to my working world>

(Sub, this is getting way out there and is just theoretical, so please take some deep breaths - breathe in, breathe out...)

Something like this would be really cool, but I can't think of how to justify doing that type of setup for a home PVR.
This would be more of an enterprise type solution - having redundant nodes, centralized (or distributed) management, abstracting the
databases and distributing tuners over multiple machines probably wouldn't be used a whole lot for the home user.
Although the model would lend itself well to creating a "Virtual GBPVR" like I was initially postulating.

The reality is that something like this could probably work fine on a home network, but starts to run into upstream bandwidth limitations
on the majority of home internet connections - not to mention copyright/broadcasting issues if you connected to a node outside of your
home network.