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My brother Josh Seidman from  @ruggedridgeforest7775  returns to the channel soon to show you the process of making his awesome maple syrup! We were up at his place in Worcester, Vermont to witness the eclipse in full totality. This weekend you'll see both the eclipse and his maple sugar process in a single video! 

If you are looking for a good deal on a Thunderbolt dock, OWC is having a huge sale on their 14 port Thunderbolt 3 dock - $99 (a 64% discount). This should work with any Thunderbolt 3 & 4 equipped PC. I haven't reviewed this one but OWC makes good stuff. Find it here:  https://lon.tv/zdto5  (compensated affiliate link). 

Tonight we'll have a video detailing a workaround for the ATSC 3 DRM encryption for gateway devices. It looks like the A3SA has today announced that they've finally released the spec for officially supporting this activity in the home. Here's the press release they sent me today: 


Digital Video Recorder Specifications Released for New NEXTGEN TV Devices

Los Angeles, CA – February 26, 2024 – A new digital video recorder (DVR) specification is now available to licensees of the A3SA content protection technology that is now being deployed throughout the country concurrent with the launch of NEXTGEN TV broadcast channels.  The new specification provides a blueprint for a variety of new ATSC 3.0 recording devices that will allow innovators to develop new products for home networks, insuring the seamless and easy viewing of favorite broadcast TV programs.
 
“For the past year, we’ve been working in consultation with several electronics companies who are developing devices designed to add new features for NEXTGEN TV viewers, from simple DVRs to more advanced home networking systems.  After considering the various home scenarios, A3SA is pleased to release detailed specifications that will guide companies and soon provide consumers with a wealth of new options for digital video recording and more,” said Ron Wheeler, managing director of A3SA.
 
A3SA approved the new specifications and rules for secure DVRs, home gateways, and other accessory devices, as well as a newly added alternative method to let viewers securely stream ATSC 3.0 content from such devices throughout their home network.  Developed in consultation with manufacturers and with extensive subsystem prototyping to prove feasibility, the new DVR specifications support multiple product architectures from single components to systems that have devices distributed across a home network.
 
The DVR specification is designed to work in concert with A3SA’s earlier established Broadcaster Encoding Rules, which govern how broadcasters can use the A3SA security technology with ATSC 3.0 content that is simulcast with corresponding ATSC 1.0 content, allowing viewers to decode and record broadcasts, make unlimited copies without expiration dates, and use common features like pause, rewind and fast-forward.  The A3SA Encoding Rules also prevent downgrading of picture quality when connecting to legacy television sets.
 
The new A3SA DVR specification supports in-home streaming to applications hosted on common media consumption platforms such as Android, Fire, Roku, WebOS, and Tizen, with iOS support in process.  The spec supports dynamic memory provisioning for media playback (an advantage for consumer devices) and enables developers of new NEXTGEN TV platforms to bring to market innovative new options.
 

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I heard from a viewer tonight in the Colorado market who is also unable to decrypt ATSC 3.0 DRM protected channels with his new Zinwell tuner. See it here on  @Minimelkav  's channel: 

I'm sure many of you are hearing the news about the "Ace Magic," and "Ace Magician" PCs containing malware. I reviewed (favorably) a few of their mini PCs over the last couple of months. The units I received previously did not have the issues that were noted in the news recently. 

I still have a few of them here including one that I haven't looked at yet so I will be doing a follow up on Monday or Tuesday. I will be running a few different malware scans to ensure these are clean. I suspect the malware issues are with their newer ones that I haven't looked at. They reached out to me to review the unit in question last month but I passed as the specs were very similar to some of the other Mini PCs we looked at recently. 

Stay tuned! 

Finally got my hands on a Raspberry Pi 5 - anything you'd like to see? 

We'll have more on the ATSC 3 DRM fight after the new year but I did want to let you all know about a major milestone! Our petition now has over 10,000 signers as of this week! The  @AntennaMan  and I will continue advocating on your behalf. 

Walmart just announced an under $15 1080p Onn Google TV. I've got one on order and will be reviewing it soon. If you can't wait it looks like they're shipping this week at this compensated affiliate link:  https://lon.tv/lgqv5 

Happy Family Tech Support Day! What problems have you solved today? 

Tablo just released a four tuner version of their 4th generation TV tuner/DVR. Still not ATSC 3.0 compatible because broadcasters won't allow it.  https://lon.tv/3x8r6  (compensated affiliate link)