Hi Matt,
Thanks for taking the trouble to find out. I rather thought that there
would be some issue of exclusive access to the specs. At least Freesat
are aware of the issue.
From the MHEG side I can at least experiment with the test streams that
are already being transmitted and try to reverse engineer them. It
mostly works already with the current code and I was actually alerted to
the test streams by someone noticing the "Press Red" banner. What would
be really nice would be to have some information that would allow MythTV
to use the EPG information in Freesat. There have been hints about
where the test transmissions might be found but nothing substantive.
Clearly the success of Freesat depends on the involvement of the set-top
box manufacturers. However, open source projects also have a role to
play in providing testing and feedback. After all, at the moment
probably the only people who can view the MHEG test transmissions,
outside the labs, are MythTV users.
Thanks again,
David
Matt Hammond wrote:
Hi David,
The Freesat platform is being set up and managed by a separate company
(of the same name) that has been set up by those participating (BBC, ITV
etc).
I've asked around the team at R&D who are working with them on the
technical infrastructure and specifications. Unfortunately it looks like
the information you're after will not be widely available (at least not
yet).
What I've been able to establish is that Freesat identified the need to
guarantee a supply of compliant set top boxes at launch. A group of
manufacturers have agreed to do so, but only in exchange for a limited
term of exclusive access to the specification. I have no idea what the
length of this exclusivity arrangement will be.
Personally, I would very much like to see these specs eventually opened
up - we've certainly benefited from many of the open-source developments
for DVB-T / Freeview. I believe Freesat are aware of this consideration,
so I'm hoping it will be something they eventually choose to do.
This is as much as I have been able to find out for you. Apologies for
it taking a little while.
Matt
On Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:58:55 -0000, David Matthews <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
I don't know if this is the right place to ask but I was wondering if
there was information available about the technical details of Freesat
that could be used in open source projects.
Specifically, I wrote and maintain the MHEG engine that is used in
MythTV. It appears that the BBC has started test transmissions on
satellite of the MHEG interactive service. It's possible to view much
of this using the current code in MythTV but it seems that the profile
on Freesat is a superset of the Freeview profile so not everything
works. Presumably information about this is available to the builders
of set-top boxes but it would be nice if it could be available for
open-source projects. There have also been references to the EPG
information being transmitted but again there is nothing publicly
available about how to decode it.
Incidentally, I've been working on a translation of the MHEG engine
from its original C++ into Java to produce an application/applet for
viewing MHEG offline or via HTTP. I'm rather short of MHEG test
programs although I have recorded some of the carousels off air. Does
the BBC have some test programs available?
David.
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