On Wed, 2004-08-11 at 16:48 +0100, MJ Ray wrote:
I think you probably ought to talk to some BBC engineers before saying too much bad stuff about them.
I have, often described in my /blog/ site, but they have said they won't write to me much any more.
Ah, ok. Sorry, I've not been watching anything you've written about this.
[...] 7-day EPG [...] the problem is one of end-user hardware, not willingness to support standards.
I have hardware which works with the ARD services. I believe they are DVB-SI EIT and BBC isn't.
I have no idea what DVB-s stuff works with the full SI information, but certainly a lot of DVB equipment won't, which is why they are doing such extensive (slow) testing.
I'm saying they're not testing full DVB-SI on the Astra 2 satellite.
Ah, I didn't realise you were talking solely about DSAT. As far as I know, provision of EPG over DSAT is out of the control of the Beeb - certainly on BSkyB CA it was, I don't see any reason why it would be in their remit now. I'm also not sure how DVB-s multiplexes; with -t I think the EPG is a full broadcast per-multiplex. I doubt there would be enough bandwidth to do that across the -s system, due to the sheer number of channels, but I guess that's speculation.
What's 4TV?
Providers of a proprietary EPG via DVB-t.
I don't know of any DVRs which cope with it.
What's a DVR?
A recorder with a digital tuner, rather than analogue - i.e., something which saves the broadcast directly. Most free software VRs are PVRs, although you can get digital tuners.
[engineers] I will try asking if you're interested in the answer
I am, especially if it's soon enough to affect this. Do BBC use Globecast uplinks?
Probably, but it's irrelevant for this (BBC use uplinks for many, many things). The Astra uplink would be sent by the BBC themselves, but the Globecast bods I know will also be uplinking to Astra so would probably have a good idea about the EPG situation.
Possibly. I don't see how I can use this on the manufacturers, though. Can you? I think the BBC must create the demand by supporting the standards first
Chicken and egg, though. The BBC do tend to supply before the demand is there as a rule, although EPGs might be a touchy area.
Cheers,
Alex.