DVB support. Can we have an official response?

[Jon Hancock]

There are a number of threads on this forum discussing DVB support for BTV. Most have little or no response from SS.

Would SS comment on whether they are to provide support for this type of card in the foreseeable future. Freeview is fast becoming a viable alternative to Sky and Cable in the UK and it would be good to know that support is in the pipeline. A timeframe would be great but I suspect I maybe pushing my luck there!

[mikem]

If it is helpful I asked this question

I am an existing BeyondTV user in the Uk and am
looking to find out if there are any plans to add
support for DVB-T Cards, along with a likely timescale
if you are planning to.

in February and this was the response from Snapstreams Information Desk

"Thanks for writing in. As I understand it, you have questions regarding a specific tuner card and our program guides. There has been no decision made as to whether these cards will be supported in the near future. The demand really has not been there. The program guide issue is something we are getting ready to focus on to make it easier for our European users to schedule recordings. If you like to be kept in the loop with updates on these issues and other promotions and offers that are being made through our site, please make sure to sign up for our newsletter:"

I know of 2-3 people just at my workplace that have abandoned Snapstream to get DVB-T card support, with myself probably becoming a 4th shortly, now that Mediaportal is supporting DVB-T and even over the air grab for the EPG, along with the MCE remote fully.

The way that they have done the DVB cards is to support the BDA driver model, along with most of the other PVR solutions out there. Whilst I much prefer the BTV interface to Media Portal, I find that the lack of IR blasters and seperate STB is worth it.

[bnflaherty]

A statement has already been made -- regarding support for OTA HD support.. http://blogs.snapstream.com/2005/05/...g-struck-down/

[sdonovan]

I might be wrong, but my understanding is that the american broadcast system uses the ATSC model where europe and australia use a different system?

So support for HD to my understanding does not give you DVB-T automaticall. Infact from the test cards that are listed in the version 4 release they do not support the european and australian broadcast format?

[Jon Hancock]

If this is the case then it looks like us in Europe will be paying for an upgrade to allow compression to Divx, something that we had a few versions ago. It would be nice to know if the rest of the world are to be supported with this upgrade or whether it is just for the US/Canadian market. I feel that if Snapstream don't pull their finger out and explain fully what is going to be supported then more people are going to abandon ship and go elsewhere. There are more and more products supporting DVB and if any of them get their interfaces anywhere near as good as BeyondTV then SS will lose business on this side of the Atlantic.

[thompson]

DVB is on our roadmap for this year.

[mikem]

Excellent News. This is just what i've have been waiting to hear! That DVB support is coming. I can see my Mediaportal box disappearing when this arrives.

[thompson]

Just a follow-up... This isn't heavily publicized, but single-subchannel DVB-T transport stream playback works in the current HD builds. Since ATSC and DVB-T are both closely linked together at the MPEG-2 level, this is definitely not surprising. The only technical hurdle left for DVB support is tuning and capture card support.

[Jon Hancock]

Excellent news.