Guest Steven1963 Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 I know a guy where I work that sells these little boxes that hook up to your tv via hdmi and receive internet either wirelessly or through a LAN connection. He jailbreaks the boxes which are sold commercially (like apple TV) and puts on a different operation system that streams programming over the internet. He let me try one for a weekend to see if I would be interested in buying one. This was in about mid-to-late January. I took it home and while it was a bit complicated (not every good instructions), I was able to watch American Sniper while it was still in the theatre - full HD, not one of those hidden camcorders in the movie theatre. The list of programming was overwhelming. He said there were about 3,000 channels from all over the world. With only a weekend to mess with it I didn’t have much time to get into it but by just skimming the surface I could tell that with this little box I could watch anything, anytime – first run movies still in the theater and any tv show I wanted, along with sports...virtually ANYTHING. Past or present. He was selling them for $250 each. No updates required, no monthly subscription fees, just the one time purchase. Seems worth it when you compare it to cable or satellite. Does anybody know anything about these? He says that since you are streaming from the internet it is not illegal, as you are not downloading and/or storing anything. I dunno. I see them on Amazon also advertising ‘jailbroken’ but the reviews for them are terrible. His didn’t seem bad at all although the remote wasn’t great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JL Sargent Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 That's interesting. First I've heard of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Steven1963 Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 (edited) Well, I'm probably going to take the plunge and buy one. I just wanted to run it through here first and see what other people knew about it. Seems new (I'm never the first to hear about anything cool), and if I can watch whatever, whenever, without leaving the house for virtually a one time fee, why not? Edited March 18, 2015 by Steven1963 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Please keep me posted. If this is legal and works as advertised, I'd be very interested in his contact info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mxr dad Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 I wish I could help but havent heard of it either. Might as well try it. Would the guy offer any returns if not satisfied? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrickdj1 Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Please keep me posted. If this is legal and works as advertised, I'd be very interested in his contact info. That is not the question, lol. Do a blind buy, ignorance is bliss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajoker2c Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 (edited) What's the make and model of the box?, There are a ton of these on the market now. Sounds like it's on an android platform. It's all about the processort speed in the box or it buffers too much with HD. The American sniper movie you saw was not HD it was a dvd screener readily available for download (not legal). There no true HD copies of it out yet in the torrent world.I have a jailbroken ATV2 with XBMC, need to update to KODI which I heard it easier to navigate through. Edited March 18, 2015 by ajoker2c 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fjd Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Before Apple TV people were jailbreaking their iPhones. Of course there are "questions" about the legality...... You can actually do this yourself if you have an Apple TV 1 or 2 unit. It is on my list to try but I've been buried at work and still have a couple months of busy season left. The people that write the programs haven't figured out Apple TV 3 yet. Essentially, you are just gaining root access to the Apple device in order to have more control over the operating system and firmware. As I understand it you can jailbreak any iOS device such as the iPhones, iPods, iPad, and the Apple TV. http://appletvjailbreakguide.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajoker2c Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 IPTV, the new 'cable' coming soon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Steven1963 Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 What's the make and model of the box?, There are a ton of these on the market now. Sounds like it's on an android platform. It's all about the processort speed in the box or it buffers too much with HD. The American sniper movie you saw was not HD it was a dvd screener readily available for download (not legal). There no true HD copies of it out yet in the torrent world. I have a jailbroken ATV2 with XBMC, need to update to KODI which I heard it easier to navigate through. I think it was something like 'android tv.' Beyond that I can't remember. The movie sure looked like HD. 'XBMC' sound familiar...there was a splash screen on start up that said that I think. But yeah, navigation was a pain - so much to choose from and I only had about 50 'stations' chosen on my main screen, with each of those having sub menu's for movie genre, etc. I think I could have spent months wading through all of that content trying to set up favorites and weeding out the ones I didn't want. But it was definitely cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mxr dad Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 The American sniper movie you saw was not HD it was a dvd screener readily available for download (not legal) I'm just trying to learn and dont have a clue on the legalities of this so if someone downloads it they could get in trouble? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Steven1963 Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 (edited) The American sniper movie you saw was not HD it was a dvd screener readily available for download (not legal) I'm just trying to learn and dont have a clue on the legalities of this so if someone downloads it they could get in trouble? Well, 'technically' it isn't being downloaded. It's being streamed. You aren't saving it to a hard drive, or to the cloud, or anything. I'm not a lawyer so I am not going to parse the legal elements, just pointing out the difference between downloading and streaming. Edited March 18, 2015 by Steven1963 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Steven1963 Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 (edited) Think of it as a collection of websites with a storefront icon that you would click on to enter. Once inside you can choose content and then stream it, not much different than when you go to a website now and a video is embedded there available for viewing, all you have to do is click 'play.' You aren't DL'ing it, you are just watching it from their server. That's a very simple example of how this works. Edited March 18, 2015 by Steven1963 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajoker2c Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 The American sniper movie you saw was not HD it was a dvd screener readily available for download (not legal) I'm just trying to learn and dont have a clue on the legalities of this so if someone downloads it they could get in trouble? Torrent download you keep of copyrighted material is illigal . What this box does is direct stream from a website. No problems The American sniper movie you saw was not HD it was a dvd screener readily available for download (not legal) I'm just trying to learn and dont have a clue on the legalities of this so if someone downloads it they could get in trouble? Well, 'technically' it isn't being downloaded. It's being streamed. You aren't saving it to a hard drive, or to the cloud, or anything. I'm not a lawyer so I am not going to parse the legal elements, just pointing out the difference between downloading and streaming. You can set up favorites fro channels in each App. Ice films and 1channel are good for basic stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajoker2c Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 The Roku 3 and IPTV works good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mxr dad Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 So, as long as you stream it and dont save it, its legal? (I dont know if you can even save the stream so maybe a dumb question). I think it is worth a shot and buying it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fjd Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 So, as long as you stream it and dont save it, its legal? (I dont know if you can even save the stream so maybe a dumb question). I think it is worth a shot and buying it. I’ll try to outline the way I understand the issues. I’m not an attorney and not offering legal advice; however, in certain work situations I have been contracted for various litigation support research. One aspect to keep in mind is that if a person is “pirating” downloads, that is most likely a copyright infringement, which is illegal in most places. There are a few “legal grey areas” with jailbreaking and the potential interaction with the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). The DMCA contains an “anti-circumvention” clause that states that if there is a protection mechanism on a piece of software, a user is not allowed to bypass that protection. Apple would say it voids any warranty. If a company wanted to pursue legal action in relation to jailbreaking, the anti-circumvention clause would most likely be the aspect cited. However, an interesting item to note is that in 2012 the Library of Congress renewed an exemption for jailbreaking of cell phones such as the iPhone that I referenced in an earlier post. http://www.copyright.gov/fedreg/2012/2012-26308_PI.pdf A similar proposal for an exemption to jailbreaking was made for tablets (e.g., iPads); however, that proposal was declined. Given the proposal was declined, the DMCA does not specifically name jailbreaking tablets as illegal and the process still remains as a “legal grey area” as described above as the anti-circumvention clauses have not really been tested in court for this specific issue. I'm not aware of anyplace where these devices such as Apple TV have been addressed either. Note that other countries may have different anti-circumvention laws from the United States, which could very well include these types of devices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fjd Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 IPTV, the new 'cable' coming soon Quality IPTV is coming on strong so much sooner than most realize. However, I believe that there is still some “posturing” going on over the actual infrastructure that will deliver all of the “content” and “streaming services” that needs to resolve itself before we see a large scale adoption. I do believe it will be here and in place before the driverless cars in the other thread and once the infrastructure falls into place and becomes more efficient and profitable, you will see many more content providers and more equipment providers enter the marketplace. If interested in why I believe Google may play a large role in the backdrop needed for this next revolution or frontier of internet technologies, search “dark fiber” and look who has been quietly buying all of the unused fiber optic cable around the world. You will find that Google and Facebook have been buying much of the unused fiber optics. Google started purchasing on a large scale back in 2005 and now owns over 100,000 miles of fiber optic cable routes globally. The demarcation point was probably the “Telecommunications Act of 1996,” which is described as an “Act to promote competition and reduce regulation in order to secure lower prices and higher quality services for American telecommunications consumers and encourage the rapid deployment of new telecommunications technologies.” Before 1996, the telecommunication companies were regulated; however, with the Internet and new technology on a steep and consistent spiraling rise toward the sky, the government "handed over" the regulation of the telecommunications companies to regulate themselves and develop the U.S. data infrastructure. After about $25 billion in tax breaks, this extensive fiber optics network was developed; however, the dot-com crash brought many of these companies down and many underwent mergers and bankruptcies, essentially, eliminating these companies before they even had a chance to set up the necessary hardware to interact with the fiber-optic lines. Essentially, there are hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of miles of “dark fiber” related to the network of fiber-optic cable built in the late 1990s and early 2000s. During that period of time, telecom giants such as AT&T and Verizon (formerly GTE) bought up many of these companies for pennies on the dollar (including the respective fiber optic networks) and the interesting aspect here is that both had huge vested interests in keeping copper wires around for a while longer, since copper wire was used by their "cash cows" known as DSL and wire-line telephone services. For years now this expansive network of ultrafast cabling has gone essentially unused with a huge upside of untapped potential. Only recently has the “copper cash cow” essentially run its course where you are finding that these companies have begun offering consumer-level fiber-optic television, phone and Internet services. Essentially, copper is fast becoming obsolete due to demand that is driven by "skyrocketing Internet video traffic, requests from the financial sector for ever-faster trading connections, and soaring mobile phone use - which has to be tied into landline networks." This brings us back to Google and Facebook buying up huge portions of unused fiber optic cable that the huge telecoms don't own. However, while the “faces will change,” we all will still be dealing with massive corporations in the end. Progress at its finest! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paducah Home Theater Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Quality IPTV is coming on strong so much sooner than most realize. Who are the major players? I'm sold. My NetFlix movies are WAY better than the cable subscription I'm getting over the same fiber optic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Steven1963 Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Well, who knows when iptv will be around and how much they will charge. I'm gonna buy one of these 'jailbreak' boxes. I'll give updates on how it works. Heck, if it's good I'll start a distributorship and sell these things as a sideline. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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