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ITV2 on DTT

(December 2001)

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TP
Techy Peep Founding member
Does anybody else have problems with ITV2's programme information on DTT?

It doesn't seem to matter what MUX or channel I'm watching, I can't see what's on ITV2 unless I'm actually viewing ITV2.

Any ideas?
NE
markNES
Yes, the same happens to me. Mostly ITV2, sometimes ITV1
GS
Gavin Scott Founding member
Yes the EPG on my ITV Digital rarely works for either ITV station! This was the case when it was ON Digital too.

Occassionally when it does display listings it is written as:

BILL AS: 'Feature Film - ....'

or

nff: 'Bond - World is not enou'

Its so ironic that the company that owns the platform can't sort this out.

Am I right in thinking that the EPG listing have to be supplied by the local station, in my case Scottish?
TP
Techy Peep Founding member
I'm not entirely sure how the EPG info is transmitted. I know its part of the datastream on each MUX, but is it embedded in the whole MUX stream, or each channels data once decoded?

If anyone can enlighten me, I'd be very grateful.

Everything was so much easier in analogue days!
MG
MikeG
Does the Sky Dig/ DTT guide actually give all the details?

Dig Cab might say, for example,

'2000 - The World is not E

Pierce Brosnan, Dame Judi Dench: 1998: The premiere of the latest James Bond fil'

and doesn't bother to have the end of the description! And do they use Digiguide like T. AD
WI
william Founding member
Techy Peep posted:
I'm not entirely sure how the EPG info is transmitted. I know its part of the datastream on each MUX, but is it embedded in the whole MUX stream, or each channels data once decoded?

If anyone can enlighten me, I'd be very grateful.

Everything was so much easier in analogue days!


I think, from what someone told me a while ago (I'm no longer using ITV Digital, only Sky) there are actually two separate versions of the EPG transmitted.

E.g. for the BBC channels, there's one version that goes out on the BBC mux (BBC one, two, knowledge, choice + news 24) and there's a copy that goes out on all the other channels.

Likewise on other multiplexes, there is one copy for that MUX's own set of channels transmitted within it, and what should be an identical copy included on every other multiplex.

It was possible to prove this theory as on several occasions one of the two would be wrong and get stuck, so you could go to a different MUX and test it.

Don't ask me why on earth there are two. To go back to your orignal question, I think its embedded in the whole MUX datastream, but I don't really have any proof..

William
TP
Techy Peep Founding member
Cheers William!

I'm looking into EPGs now. The technical name for them is MHEG-5 apparently and have a bandwidth of 10KBs as laid out by the EBU. No clues yet though as to where in the datastream its placed in each MUX.

Today seems like a flashback for me when I had to research Streaming Media to give a lecture at Wood Norton.

Cheers guys
Smile

(Edited by Techy Peep at 4:52 pm on Dec. 9, 2001)
CA
cat
Techy Peep posted:
I'm not entirely sure how the EPG info is transmitted. I know its part of the datastream on each MUX, but is it embedded in the whole MUX stream, or each channels data once decoded?

If anyone can enlighten me, I'd be very grateful.

Everything was so much easier in analogue days!


I don't know about ITV Digital but Sky Digital may work on a similar system. One of the tech people at Sky News Active said a while back that they upload everything via the internet - I presume the Sky EPG operates in a similar fashion.
RY
ryan
Nope, I have had no problems at all since ITV 1 and 2 launched on to Sky Digital.

Some load of rubbish on about 9:00am yesterday morning though on ITV2 - I was wondering whether it actually was ITV2.

PS - in a nutshell is GMTV2 similar to GMTV (style, issues etc) - and what's better to watch out of the 2?
TP
Techy Peep Founding member
Ryan, the thread is about DTT, not DSat

GMTV2 is kiddie programmes, nothing to do with GMTV programming as seen on ITV1

C@T, yes thanks for the info about internet. I suspected as much. But still the question about why ITV2 details not being present unless you actually tune into the station.

While researching, I've found out that all EPG's, no matter what platform, use the same software/protocol to list the details. The presentation of the details are unique to the platform you are viewing, but how the information is broadcast is common, as laid out in EBU specs.

But it still doesn't answer why ITV2 is the ugly duckling amongst the stations. Am emailing NTL who provide the infrastructure for DTT

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