More on MPEG & Tivo

[Terry Fox]

I took the cover off the company's TIVO, and found the MPEG II encoder
and decoder chips.  Then, I did a Google search on tem to find out more
info, including PDF's on them.

I also looked at the AVS forum, and was reminded that 9thtee.com has
stuff on the Tivo.  Look them up at www.9thtee.com/insidetivo.htm.

Anyway, the MPEG encoder is a Sony CXD1922Q.  I would imagine Sony has
MPEG decoders as well.  Sony has been selling  MPEG-based broadcast
video equipment since 1997, called the Betacam SX.   A few of our
stations use it, I might be able to get a manual and see how the SX
encodes and decodes MPEG.  It is a fixed 18 Mb/s rate onto tape, so it
may take too high bandwidth.

The MPEG decoder is an IBM MPEGSC22.  Doing a Google search brought me
to an IBM website, which appears to include MPEG encoders as well.

I don't have time to investigate further today, but if we can get small
quantities of these and other support parts, we may be able to come up
with a low-cost ATV-D system.

BTW, I still think breaking into a Tivo may be a good first attempt.  I
see them on Ebay for around $100.00 for the old 14 hour units.

Next comes the modulation scheme and RF.  As we heard yesterday, the
Germans are using GMSK.  Higher data bandwidth is obtainable using other
modulation schemes, as a sacrifice of S/N ratio.

Anyone want to come up with some modulation and RF??
Terry