videdot is a networked digital video recorder project. The aim is to provide a powerful & usable turnkey solution. It will be:

Cheap

By using common PC hardware, it is possible to build a videdot box for little cost. By keeping things simpler, we can use older hardware - you can use your previous PC that simply isn't up to the task of running newer, less efficient software. The videdot software will be here, free for download and use at no cost. The source code will also be freely available to modify and redistribute as well.

We may offer pre-built machines later on, for people who want a little more help. We're always looking for more pleasant, living-room-friendly containers for commodity hardware.

More on building a box.

Useful for non-technical people

You won't need an appointed geek to manage things. You won't need to fiddle around in text files to make things work. Installation will consist of a few simple questions, and take about 10 minutes to complete, all through a self-explanatory graphical interface. This is intended to replace your VCR, not just be a cute application to run on your PC (although you can use it there if you like). [You will need hardware that can run BeOS, but we can help with that.]

This means making things like search and archiving powerful yet simple.

More on usability.

Network-savvy

The network is essential to making things interesting. We use listings fetched over the internet, in a common (XMLTV) format not tied to any one territory.

You will never record everything you may want to watch: you might find out after it airs, it might clash, it may not be available in your area. videdot will provide hooks to find shows that others have recorded and made available for download. Similarly each videdot box can make it's own recordings available to a network of peers. Equally, you might have videos of your own you want to publish, where people all over the world can reach them - whether or not they use videdot.

How do you find out what's good and will interest you? Appealing to a broader community on the network allows inferences to be drawn based on common themes (grouping fans of genres, people or shows, 'people who liked this also liked that' and beyond). We take privacy seriously and only use anonymised behaviour patterns to generate suggestions.

More on using the network.

Yours

It's your box and you get to choose what it does. This means we won't sneak recordings in by the back door^{[free reg required]} or force any particular restrictions on the media files you have stored or what you choose to do with them. For example, crippling your archived recordings to only play on a particular machine is hardly in your interest. Eventually machines go wrong, and you shouldn't lose your recordings when they do.

What is possible in videdot will simply be a matter of what people want to provide plug-ins for. If that means hooking in to your dv-camera and sharing the clips, then great! Your video, you choose.

More on freedom.