Good point Gareth 'News 24' is streamed from a SDI source. We moved from analogue to digital capture cards about four/five years ago & the difference in quality was immediately noticable - bitrate & frame size for Flash has been upped of course, so looks even better (the current encoders are a tad old & I think the cards are a bit past the sell by date: the windows & real streams we've moved across to the new boxes already look better). But I still think the quality is rather poor for what they're doing - Siemens stream some stuff from digi-boxes without looking that soft. I don't know if Zattoo are using Freeview or Sky boxes, but I'm guessing Freeview - the blocking I've been seeing is very similar to what I get on my telly when a 747 flies overhead ;)
On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 10:55 AM, Gareth Davis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Agreed about the quality. Since the service is not officially sanctioned > they are going to have to do the encoding 'off-air'. And a 3-4Mbps MPEG2 > feed is not a good starting point for doing further compression from. > > While I don't know what the channel formally known as News 24 does with > their video streams, we encode our live video for BBC Arabic directly from a > 270Mbps SDI feed of the network output. > > -- > *Gareth Davis* | Production Systems Specialist > World Service Future Media, Digital Delivery Team - Part of BBC Global > News Division > 8 http://www.bbcworldservice.com/ + 702NE Bush House, Strand, London, WC2B > 4PH > > > ------------------------------ > *From:* [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] *On Behalf Of *Richard Compston > *Sent:* 13 May 2008 19:05 > > *To:* backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk > *Subject:* Re: [backstage] Zattoo - live streaming BBC channels > > Moving away from the legal wrangles for a moment, I must say I'm not too > impressed with the quality of their streams... > Looking at my PC's network usage zattoo is using three times as much > bandwith (admittedly some will be upstream) than the FLV stream of News 24 > (sorry, News Channel) we're running tests on currently (beta stream coming > to news.bbc.co.uk soonish), but actually looks worse - lots of blocking & > buffering. > My PC is rather old, but the connection's not too bad - getting around > 5Mbps currently. > > Rich. > > On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 3:16 PM, Brian Butterworth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > >> The relevant part of the Copyrights and Patents Act 1988 (as Amended) is >> here: >> >> http://www.jenkins.eu/copyright-(statutes)(1)/part-1-copyright-.asp#s73<http://www.jenkins.eu/copyright-%28statutes%29%281%29/part-1-copyright-.asp#s73> >> >> It all boils down to the definition of 'cable' and 're-transmission by >> cable'. Interestingly the Act does not say 're-broadcast' by cable, it >> doesn't say it has to be in a partciular format (DVB-S or analogue PAL, for >> example) and does not state that it has to be a 'broadcast' (many to one) >> just a 're-tranmission'. >> >> It also says that 'ee-transmission by cable include the transmission of >> microwave energy between terrestrial fixed points' which seems to cover >> wireless internet in my book... >> >> 2008/5/13 Robin Cramp <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: >> >> >>> From a user perspective viewing content in this way is great, it provides >>> another source of viewing; more importantly online. I would think from a >>> broadcaster perspective there is a sense of split view on the subject. >>> Broadcasting the stations as is gives them an extra level of exposure, not >>> to mention the advertisers too. Although from a content owner perspective >>> there is the age old issues about copyright. I personally think that it will >>> be the rights owners that will have the biggest say in whether Zattoo should >>> continue in their current model, rather than the broadcasters pushing for >>> change. >>> >>> ________________________________________ >>> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>> On Behalf Of Matt Barber [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>> Sent: 13 May 2008 14:35 >>> To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk >>> Subject: Re: [backstage] Zattoo - live streaming BBC channels >>> >>> On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 2:02 PM, Brian Butterworth >>> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>> > http://zattoo.com/ >>> > >>> > http://informitv.com/articles/2008/05/09/zattooclaimscopyright/ >>> > >>> > "Zattoo, which is now offering live online streams of the leading >>> British >>> > terrestrial television channels, is claiming it has the right to do so >>> under >>> > the United Kingdom Copyright Act. Zattoo says it "operates strictly >>> > legitimately on the basis of agreements with broadcasters and the >>> copyright >>> > law" but the British broadcasters say they have no agreements with the >>> > streaming startup company. The law seems ambiguous at best." >>> >>> >>> Interesting stuff. I can see how retransmission is a good thing but >>> only through the right channels - i.e. if I were to provide content to >>> the BBC or ITV, I would like it to be transmitted professionally and >>> with a good level of quality. >>> >>> Any views on this? >>> - >>> Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, >>> please visit >>> http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. >>> Unofficial list archive: >>> http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ >>> >>> - >>> Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, >>> please visit >>> http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. >>> Unofficial list archive: >>> http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ >>> >> >> >> >> -- >> Please email me back if you need any more help. >> >> Brian Butterworth >> >> http://www.ukfree.tv - independent digital television and switchover >> advice, since 2002 > > >
