Snaptream Devs - see BBC.co.uk/news site

[finlaand]

For those not aware the UK television market has today changed.

Previously c20% had paytv services supplied by either cable or satellite.

As of today the government (as the BBC) was awarded control of the terrestrial Digital network.

This means ALL of the UK will shortly be able to receive (for a once in a lifetime fee) 26 channels. (unencrypted)

Snapstream Devs - I know you only support analog tuning now - trust me - this will move the whole of the UK to digital - and you will need to be able to support it - or lose customers.

[Indra Datta]

I found this article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/tv_and_radio/newsid_1233000/1233927.stm

Is that the one you were referring to?
Also, do you have any idea what digital receivers are popular in the UK now? That way we can order a few and try them out before you do.

[tonywalk]

Hi Guys,

The current DTT standalone receivers in the UK are made by Pace, Philips and Nokia. Sony and Philips also do them built into TVs.

Tony.

[prbeard]

The BBC announcement could also cause a upsurge in the popularity of free-to-air digital terrestrial TV cards. There are only two models commonly available - the Hauppauge Nova-T - which comes in PCI and USB versions.

http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/html/digitaltv_prod.htm

The software supplied with these cards leaves alot to be desired. Support from Snapstream for this product would be fantastic.

Paul

[srigby]

From the point of view of SnapStream supporting these cards, the fact that it's DVB-T (UK terrestrial) or DVB-S (Europe satellite) shouldn't make much difference right?

The app just needs to save the MPG2 stream to disk. Although doing Live TV Streaming from this would be quite difficult (I'd imagine).

So, if SnapStream can't do it yet - what can? I'm familiar with the recording apps (especially under Linux), but what about live streaming?

Anyone know of any solutions to this problem?

Scott...

[Indra Datta]

Well, theoretically, the live stream could be saved to disk and the streaming servre could then send out the MPEG2 stream... But there's a lot more detail than that to work out. The Hauppage API's are fairly high level, to the effect of "Record Channel 31. Start Recording. Stop Recording", which means they couldn't plug directly into our streaming compressor unless we recompressed the MPEG2 output file...

Will keep thinking about it, but any suggestions are welcome.
-Indraneel

[prbeard]

If Snapstream do decide to support these cards, I would be willing to volunteer my services as a beta tester. I get good reception at home and I have 15 years experience in IT as a devloper and business analyst, so I am familliar with the development cycle and the importance of technically minded testers. Unfortunately I doubt my development experience would be directly relavent.

[AlexAlice]

Hi,
:lol:

The current DTT standalone receivers in the UK are made by Pace, Philips and Nokia. Sony and Philips also do them built into TVs.