What Are They Using?

Each month we'll be featuring a fun Linux implementation by a notable user. Launching the series is Wendy Selzer. A founder of Openlaw, its open DVD forum and the Digital Effects Clearing House, she was also a star attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where she led EFF's Digital Television Liberation Front, fighting restrictive government technology mandates with open source software. These days she lives near Boston, where she serves as assistant professor at Northeastern University School of Law and fellow with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. - Ed.

I'm using MythTV to power my home entertainment system. The combination digital video recorder, jukebox, streaming audio server, and web browser is a Debian-based Pentium 4 running MythTV and other Free Software.

I built this machine when the Broadcast Flag was threatening the continued availability of open high-definition television tuners -- but since public interest groups including the American Library Association, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Public Knowledge defeated the
Broadcast Flag, the hardware is still available, and Moore's Law makes it cheaper all the time. (Full specs at <http://wendy.seltzer.org/mythtv/>; the large-screen TVs pictured aren't mine.)

The DVR picks up over-the-air television in HD and standard def, recording a mix of programs I've directly selected, TiVo-like "season passes," and those it gleans from searches or community-generated lists. Whenever a "best movie of all time" or nature program comes up, I can time-shift it to fit my schedule. If I'd rather watch the "NewsHour" in half an hour, I can time-squeeze it to fit. Independent video from YouTube and Miro round out the mix.

Ripping my CDs to lossless FLAC files gives me a jukebox from which I can select playlists to listen on my living room stereo, stream to the study or office, or move to a pocket. I can record the Metropolitan Opera's Saturday matinee broadcasts (streamripper from a crontab) and pull up Wikipedia pages or libretti alongside.

The system that started as a political statement has become immensely practical (and fun). The general-purpose computer lets me watch media as I want to see or hear it. We just have to make sure the media stays unencumbered and the technologies aren't hampered by ill-designed mandates from Hollywood.