General
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Design goals
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Watch TV programs broadcast in Japan on a large screen TV in family room
in the U.S.
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Remotely and securely control everything over the Internet
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Use of and connectivity with open source resources.
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Installation
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December 2005
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Availability
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99.9% (actual, excluding scheduled downtimes)
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Base recording server installed in downtown Tokyo
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CPU
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AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 3000+ (1.8GHz)
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Memory
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512MB (64MB used for VGA) DDR3200
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Disk
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100GB SATA/150, 8.5GB IDE (for local backup)
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TV capture cards
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Haupauge PVR350 with hardware MPEG2 encoding (2 ea.)
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UPS
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A dumb UPS (no communication with server) prevents the server
from power-cycling at a short period of power outage
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Hardware cost
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~ $600US
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OS
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Linux 2.6 (Fedora Core 4)
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Control and processing software
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Various open source tools including ffmpeg
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Home-brew programs written in PHP, Perl, and Bash
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Recording
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Scheduling
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iEPG with point-and-click on a commercial TV guide site using URL-wrapping
technology
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Regular programs
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Day of week, Monday-Friday
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TV stations
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VHF analog (1-12ch)
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Simultaneous recording
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Up to 2 programs with automatic arbitration of TV capture cards
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Primary recording
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MPEG2 720x480i 29.97fps NTSC 8Mb/s (3.9GB/h with audio)
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Transcoding
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MPEG4 640x480i 29.97fps NTSC 2Mb/s (966MB/h with audio)
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Audio
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Monaural, 128kbps after transcoding
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Transcoding performance
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About 220% of program time (software transcoding with ffmpeg)
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Simultaneous transcoding
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A significantly shorter program can cut in with a higher priority (no more
than 2 simultaneous transcoding processes)
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Recorded program transfer
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File transfer
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Rsync over SSH (possible to resume interrupted transfers, no file size limit,
one program at a time, shortest program first)
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File transfer performance
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Up to 490kB/s (limited by local cable downstream)
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Internet security
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Packet filtering, SSL, server access deny/allow list
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Play back
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TV
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Sony KDF-50WE655 50" LCD RPTV
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Network Media Player
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Buffalo "Link Theater" PC-P3LAN2/DVD
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Resolution
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640x480i on 720p screen
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NMP server (hardware)
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Pentium 4, 3GHz, 1GB memory, 1.2TB disk, Linux 2.6 (Fedora Core 5)
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NMP server (software)
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Wizd (modified)
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Program menu
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Date, Time, Program title, Program subtitle, Station, File size
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File management
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Delete, Archive (web based)
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Playback quality
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Similar to good VHS
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