Video distribution capabilities

1. Analog stereo inputs, and a switch that basically tells the ZvBox2.0, "Forget the computer. Digitize whatever you see on the video and audio inputs, encode it, and send it on its way. Component video inputs would be really nice, too. Yeah, someone COULD use a YCrCb->VGA adapter... but it would probably add about $3-5 to the ZvBox2.0's hard manufacturing cost to support it directly, and including it "out of the box" would VASTLY increase the potential market.

2. Raw bitstream output. Sniff the bitstream as it emerges from the MPEG-2 encoder, and blast it straight to a stripped-down 10mbit ethernet MAU. Why? To open up entire, as yet undetermined possible uses for it. Building a video encoder that can take RGB input and output a MPEG-2 bitstream is no small feat. On the other hand, most embedded hobbyists could interface a sub-$50 ARM to 10mbit ethernet using a Magjack with their eyes closed. Just imagine how many ZvBox2.0 units you might sell the month after a single issue of Circuit Cellar hits the shelves with some cool project that uses a ZvBox2 as its video dongle. No, I'm NOT talking about an onboard streaming video server. Remember, "Ethernet" != "TCP/IP". Bits were blasted along ethernet cable LONG before most people ever saw a TCP/IP network (think: Netbios, IPX/SPX). They even coexisted alongside each other on the same physical cable, doing little more than using collision-avoidance to avoid stepping on each other's feet. Yeah, there ARE other fast serial standards besides Ethernet, but Ethernet is the easiest (read: cheapest) one for mortals to interface homebrew embedded projects with thanks to ready-made modules that basically make ethernet look like a 10mbit SPI master.

3a. Insert a sequential counter into the MPEG-2 video stream as metadata, and increment it for each new field/frame (rolling over at the top). A single byte is fine. Why? To enable house-wide synchronization using a ZeeVee TUNER box. Let's call it "ZvSynchroBox". One REALLY BIG problem with digital TV as it exists today is the fact that it's nearly impossible to put TVs in adjacent rooms and watch both as you move between them. One will almost ALWAYS lag behind the other. So... ZeeVee makes a box that can take either a coax cable with ZvBox2.0-modulated QAM signal, or the raw ethernet-like bitstream from suggestion #2, buffer 2-5 complete frames/fields, then on house-wide cue (sent as an out-of-band signal over both the coax and cat5), they ALL output the frame in unison. If push comes to shove, hijack one of the caption streams and use IT to encode the time-sync value.

3b. If out of band signaling can't be done reliably, make a GPS plug-in module for the ZvBox2.0, and build a GPS receiver into each "SynchroBox" (so each can leech the atomic clock time from one or more satellites), then encode the exact time (say, 1/3 of a second from now) the field/frame ought to be output into the MPEG-2 stream as metadata. Then, the receiver box would decompress the frames/fields into its buffer, and wait until its own GPS-derived atomic clock time matched the metadata timestamp encoded into the frame/field before showing it.

The truth of the matter is that right now, there really isn't any good way to distribute HD video from component source house-wide. Not even component-downrezzed 960x540. Nor is there any good way to watch the same video source on multiple TVs in adjacent rooms (due to sync and latency that differs for each TV). For a company like you, the "latency thing" is a direct gift from ${deity}, because it completely removes economics from the "is it worth trying to distribute the output from one source throughout the house" equation. Yeah, you COULD rent two or three DirecTV boxes for up to a decade at $5/month before coming anywhere close to breaking even with the cost of buying a ZvBox2.0 and a few ZvSynchroBoxes... but THEN you'd always have to keep muting and unmuting the TVs in the kitchen, family room, and den as you moved from room to room so you wouldn't hear the current program reverberating throughout the house with slightly different timing everywhere. Trust me... the people who currently throw down $25k on a home theater system won't blink twice about spending a few thousand more to synchronize their TVs housewide (and, believe it or not, will actually justify it to their wives by saying, "but honey, we're ALSO saving $10/month in box rental fees!")