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RobertBFC

Listed below are comments made by RobertBFC between Wednesday, 16th July 2008 and Friday, 27th March 2009.

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Red Button Arcade 10:04am on 27 Mar 2009 Any media centre edition of windows, doesn't have digital tick certification so it is unsurprising that the red button features don't work. In fact I don't think any PC software is available which is digital tick compliant or indeed has the facility to interpret MHEG code. This is purely a manufacturer decision and only consumer's pushing manufacturers to provide digital tick compliant equipment will work.

As far as I'm aware you can only get tv software which understands MHEG using Windows Vista Media Center TV Pack 2008, which is OEM only.

Given that soon, we'll be switching to DVB-T2 which no software yet supports, it's worth holding back on buying a new PC just for the MHEG functions.

However, it raises a good point and the BBC and DTG should be doing a lot more with consumers, manufacturers and retailers to push "digital tick" products more. In the last couple of years, one major if not the biggest retailer of electrical products was caught red handed selling a whole variety of cheap and nasty non-compliant boxes as having the digital tick, despite the lack of this being picked up in the media, they have now stopped doing this but probably hundreds of thousands of boxes were sold under false pretences.
BBC iPlayer Goes H.264 2:59pm on 13 Aug 2008 Has this feature been removed then because no videos on the Iplayer have a button allowing for higher quality video.
Under the bonnet: The Two Stream Quiz 3:02pm on 16 Jul 2008 With many non digital tick boxes now failing to work, isn't it time the BBC stopped supporting them given they have not been approved by BERR/DTG as guaranteed to work after switch over.

All the digital tick boxes contain MHEG 5 v1.06 and if the BBC used this it would improve the interactivity provided on freeview which is a must given the bandwidth restrictions.

The BBC must not be held to ransom by manufacturers who in the past have produced boxes with standards not approved by the DTG. It is not your fault if retailers have sold equipment to customers which is not fit for purpose and it's not fair on those who have taken the advice of buying boxes with the "tick" only to be told that the improved interactive features that the box can support will not be offered by the BBC.

If these boxes struggle after you use the new MHEG code then surely it's down to the retailers to explain why they sold these boxes in the first place, not the BBC to explain why they are using MHEG code which since 2006 has had the full support of the DTG in being used on freeview. Further to this the DTG offered manufacturers the chance to provide over the air downloads to their boxes to make their non-compliant boxes compliant, how many manufacturers took up this offer - ZERO.

Part of the problem I feel is that the broadcasters seem to be too scared to highlight the fact that not every box being sold as freeview compatable really is and unless this is given widespread publicity, we will continue to find people making the switch to digital using non-compliant boxes and giving you guys who make the applications the dillema of choosing to support them or not because as you must realise they are a big chunk of your users.

I hope you take this issue seriously and use this opportunity to share this issue with your colleagues at Watchdog as issues like this one will become more and more common.

http://www.freeview.co.uk/help/faq/id104963

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