Re: Digital TV

[Raymond <Reb.barnett@xxxxxxx>]

Just in case anyone is interested in this thread, I had a chat with a
friend in the MPEG industry on Friday. Apparently there is digital
decoder under development (by the BBC) that fits in a PC. This will
offer direct to disk recording of the MPEG2 stream, and a number of
additional benefits - such as remembering what you usually watch and
recording it if you miss it, plus recording related types of programmes
(e.g. if you regularly watch the F1, it would record any 'special'
programmes on F1). The board will give you access to the additional
information in the MPEG stream such as content description etc, but it
is unlikely it will have understand the on-digital and sky specific
information. It remains to be seen if and when it will be produced, and
if the featureset really is that good. However it seems an obvious
development for digital TV so I'll be surprised if there isn't something
like this out inside of a year. Which means I won't bother to
investigate further.

BTW, my friend claims there is no inherent reason for MPEG2 to be lower
quality than analogue, and plenty reasons why it can be better. It
apparently depends on how expensive an encoder you use, and what
bandwith you allocate to the stream. Hence a SKY broadcast is laden with
artefacts, but a decent DVD is pretty good (and certainly better than
S-VHS).

Ray.

> > Does anybody know of a digital TV coder that has an MPEG2
> > output? It was
> > pointed out to by a friend that the easiest (and best
> quality) way of
> > recording TV to a PC would be to take the MPEG2 stream
> directly from a
> > decoder box.
>
> Trouble is that the MPEG stream sits on the DVB standard
> which is basically
> transport stream.  This house the total package of channels,
> data, text and
> whatever the programme provider wants to put on the DVB system.
> The quality of MPEG is not that great anyway and a good
> analogue picture
> (decent reception) will beat it hands down.  If you are
> thengoing to record
> it to a VCR VHS then the standard just dropped 10 fold.
>
> There are some receivers that have started to use the
> Firewire standard -
> not sure which ones though.
>
> You can get a professional DVB receiver that will tip out the
> transport
> stream (MPEG) but then you will have to demux the channel and
> then you are
> OK to decode on the PC.  Tandberg do lots of different
> modules for their
> range of receivers that can tip out SDI if you prefer.
>
> You could always get a DVB card for your PC that is a
> receiver decoder,
> saves using cables or tape to transfer.
>
> Ian
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> ----------
> <center>
> <a target="msnsummer"
> href="http://clickhere.egroups.com/click/689/timestamp=935163726";>
> <img border="2" width=468 height=60
>
> src="http://view.avenuea.com/view/egroups_gateway_BA331_AUG_07
> 2399mg_01/direct/01/timestamp=935163726"
>   alt="Click here for a Gateway computer deal!">
> </a>
> </center>
>
>
> eGroups.com home: http://www.egroups.com/group/ukha_d
> http://www.egroups.com -
Simplifying group communications
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

------------------------------------------------------------------------
MyPoints-Free Rewards When You're Online.
Start with up to 150 Points for joining!
http://clickhere.egroups.com/click/805


eGroups.com home: http://www.egroups.com/group/ukha_d
http://www.egroups.com - Simplifying
group communications