Open Letter: What does EC "support" mean?

[MJ Ray]

On 2004-08-11 17:19:57 +0100 Alex Hudson <home at alexhudson.com> wrote:

> 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 wonder how on Earth it manages to break DVB-compliant sets. I 
thought they just ignored bits they didn't understand, like html 
theory.

>> I'm saying they're not testing full DVB-SI on the Astra 2 satellite.
> [...] 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.

In the extreme, it's up to the BBC how they get to the dishes. It 
should be possible for BBC to buy directly from Astra or Eutelsat (who 
parked Eurobird just 0.3 degrees away) if they are currently going via 
Sky. That might need to wait ages for another satellite at 28 east, if 
Sky have everyone tied down for now, even blocking the unused 
transponders. It would be nice to know the hold-up here, if nothing 
else.

> I'm also not sure how DVB-s multiplexes; with -t I
> think the EPG is a full broadcast per-multiplex.

I think it only requires broadcast-per-transponder on satellite, 
although you can do more if you want, as far as I can tell from the 
way it behaves on the German system. The 7-day table only usually 
fills when the decoder is tuned to the station's transponder for a 
while. If you tune to a "close friend" (say rbb for ARD) then it may 
fill a bit, but slowly.

> 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.

Why might it be touchy?

-- 
MJR/slef    My Opinion Only and not of any group I know
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