Peer-2-Peer file sharing

[amoeba]

For those of us with only 1 tuner, its a pain when there are 2 things on at the same time we want to watch.

It would be absolutely great is GB-PVR had some kind of peer-2-peer file sharing, that would let you download one of the 'wanted' recordings off of another user.

I am not sure on the legalities, but I would have thought this is legal as you have paid to have the broadcast already - just couldnt watch it because you watched something else.

I know its probably a massive feature to add (unless you can somehow cheaply add an existing protocol to do this).

[stefan]

Quote[/b] (amoeba @ Dec. 06 2004,11:38)]I am not sure on the legalities, but I would have thought this is legal as you have paid to have the broadcast already - just couldnt watch it because you watched something else.

Perhaps getting off topic here, but can't help it =) At least here in Sweden the (legal) problem wouldn't be downloading the show you missed from someone else. The problem would be providing the show to other users, who potentially have *not* payed to have the broadcast.

[amoeba]

Yes that would be illegal.

What I am suggesting though, is that you can only download the show IF you had the ability to record it (but couldnt because you watched/recorded something else).

This would kind of give the appearance of being a multi-tuner device.

[stefan]

I'd find it very hard knowing if the person I'm sharing the show to really has the ability to watch the show. Anyone would be able to write a client that connected to you, said "yes, I may", and then download the show from you, with you being the illegal dude in this scenario...

I'm sure there are ways to try to stop clients from misbehaving like that, but I'm equally, or more, sure that would be pretty difficult :-)

[reven]

why download a huge mpeg2 file via gbpvr, you could just use a p2p program like emule or something (im not suggesting you do, that would be wrong, just hypothetically) to download a xvid hdtv version of the same thing at around 350megs.  its pointless, but hey what if you're using the pvr350 and it doesnt do xvid output, convert it to mpeg2, it would be quicker than downloading it (well it should be). and plus the adds are already cut out. or just buy a second tuner

i just think this is a bad idea, mpeg2 files are to large to do this (sure internet is quite fast these days, and downloading gigabytes isnt that big of a deal;but availability would be quite low).
and if you say well i cant find the show in xvid, im sure one of the two shows you can, record the one you cant. and legal issues, so nah bad idea.  it would be better to implement something like bittorrent into gbpvr (via plugin) which downloads a list of available torrent files (updated daily or something) and download the shows via that (they are mostly in xvid these days, but still available in vcd/svcd). since torrent is just a protocol it might be a legal loop hole. plus the torrent community is far larger than the gbpvr community so downloads would be far quicker.
and if using external thing like bittorrent, its not gbpvr legal issue (i think, im not a lawyer, so dont quote me on this )

[Huw]

it would certainly be illegal in the UK, regardless of whether you could have watched it because you subscribe to the channel, the act of sharing the resultant recording would be illegal since you are only allowed to record for your own use.

[colin]

This kind of idea was talked about before, and basically it comes down to: in some countries this is legal, in others this is not legal.

I believe Tivo are investigating something along the lines of shareing recorded programmes, so it will be interesting to see what happens there.

videohelp.com has interesting discussions about the legalities of issues like these,

cheers,
Colin.

[reven]

i think replaytv allows you to do this at the moment, but their community is far larger, if it ever was implemented, i think the community size would cause slow downs, long waiting periods (where no sources are available) etc. the best thing would be getting these types of files from a much larger community (eDonkey, Torrent etc). and via these you have the option (in some cases, but i dont suggest you do this, it would be wrong, its just a fact) to download preair tv shows (enterprise you can currently get the episode a few days before it airs, you could also do this for buffy/angel and there are more shows out there, those are the only ones i know about).
i better wish would be to a plugin developer (not sub) to create a plugin to connect to the eDonkey service or similar one to allow file sharing of all types of media, kinda like mce does with the napster thing (only you have to pay to download stuff from them), since i think emule is opensource this could be possible. just have to make a pretty, skinnable interface.

[sub]

When I thought about doing this in the past, I'd considered a more private file sharing model, where you would be able to add your families and buddies (and "sub" of course) to the list of users that could browse/copy your recordings. Open slather video sharing would probably cause too many legal problems too quickly, but this private sharing would probably be deemed acceptable - not legal, but not a huge concern to the networks.

You'd probably need to use the postprocessing.bat file to recompress the video to wmv/divx/xvid, because MPEG2 is too large. PX-M402U/TV402U and LifeView TV Walkers would probably be ok, with their native divx recordings.

[reven]

for legal reasons it should be kept out of gbpvr, only available via an plugin, and not writen by sub, just to be safe. i think most people would want to share with more people than just families, or they might wish to share to their extended family (the human race) since well im the only person i know with a pvr, so i couldnt share with anyone, and the same would be true for a lot of people. if you want to share with family now, you could always just set up a vpn and let windows handle it all for you.