DVB-T / ATSC / etc "hardware neutral" team creation - suggestion

Hi

I've a DVB-T USB dongle, (based on Afatech AF9015 chip, cheap on eBay). I've read an old thread about setting a OpenWRT system with a mumuDVB, in order to stream over network the streaming packages, since DVB-T is MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 encoded, at least in most of Europe. The method doesn't work anymore, nor even mumuDVB exists anymore, also, and OpenWRT is now LEDE.

Since the shift to digital television broadcast is a trend in most of the world, i think this is a major issue, because it's a great advantage to have TV in any devices connected to a network managed by an LEDE DVB-capable device, and - i believe this is a valious argument - you can have a network that broadcast exclusively digital TV signals to all wired or wirelessly capable devices, even without being connected to the internet. In other words, you can have a network only for TV, for example in an isolated place where the only thing you have is electricity (even on generators or batteries) and electromagnetic waves. Couple a little antenna to a LEDE DVB capable box and you have tv in all the smartphones of your scouts at the weekend's camp.

For good and evil, television and radio are still an effective way to acquire information, specially for who can't afford a monthly plan of data and PayPerView.

I believe LEDE can make a difference in create a new paradigm that is almost inexistent worldwide: FREE TV on demand in any device capable of receiving HTTP and/or UDP packages or whatever. You can think that's the usual thing now. It's not! You only have that if you have installed a proprietary app or go to the provider's site and use your account name and password. What you have now is tv broadcasted in the homes of people who pay for watch TV. Each business have their own app, some apps don't work on Linux, and some businesses require silverligh and other proprietary stuff to view by web. and some premium channels can't even be broadcasted, only viewed in the screen where the box is attached. Also, and important, most of the IPTV streaming packages of PayPerView TV are encrypted, and you need an authorized box from your provider to decrypt it, to avoid EXACTLY the chance you share it with your neighborhood, for example.

In resume, you can watch TV in your network IF you pay for TV, and in the way your provider wants. But there is still no easy way to watch free digital TV/radio in a network, AND the hardware already exists: LEDE device, USB or whatever device DVB capable, a traditional antenna, and that's it (almost... :slight_smile: ). The missing thing is the software at the LEDE side, since the firmware/modules for DVB devices are available for many of them. At the client side, you have VLC for android/windows/linux/mac/BSD, only as an example.

The idea is broadcast the free digital channels to all, in a network. You can see the available channel you want, without cables, in your WC, in the garden, in the bed, and, of course, in your laptop and desktop PC's, with an ethernet cable.

Probably this also applies to DAB (digital audio broadcast) too, and, of course, to free DVB-S.

This is only an idea. I'm not a developer. But i think this may be a very valuable cappability, specially if simultaneously channels acquisition is possible.

Thanks.

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