Thursday, March 16, 2006

Hauppauge!

Today I bought a Hauppauge! MediaMVP. It's basically a tiny Linux computer with an Mpeg2 decoder, a Scart output and an Ethernet port. It boots diskless from any Windows machine, but of course that's not what I want it for. It can also boot from a Linux server thanks to some dedicated programmers at SourceForge. It then runs their software instead of the standard Hauppauge! stuff and that means it's a front end to MythTV. Now! that! sounds! good!

Except that mine can't do any of those things due to the absence of a power supply in the box. Now, like most people who don't like throwing away stuff, I have a huge collection of wall warts from deceased or obsolete electronic knick knacks. Some of them are even 6V, which is what Google tells me the Hauppauge! needs. But none of them can deliver 1300mA. The one that got closest delivered 700mA, so I tried that (I was desperate), but all I got out of that was the nasty smell of hot sodium borate. At least that's what I assume it is, since it smells like the disinfectants they use in hospitals.

Whatever the chemical composition of the smell it didn't smell like a breakthrough for time-shift TV viewing.

It's probably not significant that "The new Hauppauge! MediaMVP" is an anagram of "Eva the puma humped a pig!".

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