noggin's posts, page 233

15,946 search results, most recent first

NG
noggin Founding member

Early days of NICAM Stereo

Riaz posted:
NICAM tuners were commercially available in 1988. There was also a kit available from Maplin around that time.


Kits were available earlier than that. We fitted one to our Philips HiFi VHS machine in '86.

Quote:

Some Philips TVs (and their B&O cousins) from the 1980s had twin speakers and German models had an extra PCB for the FM-FM stereo audio. Aftermarket NICAM PCBs were available for them.


Some Philips TVs from c.1982/3 had a System-I Zweiton decoder built in - even though the standard didn't exist...
NG
noggin Founding member

W1A

Neil Jones posted:
So how long before BBC Me becomes a real thing inspired somewhat by W1A? Smile


Isn't this W1A latching on to an idea for personalisation that the DG championed a couple of years ago, and which has started to appear since iPlayer sign-on started (recommendations etc.), and just taking it a bit further?
NG
noggin Founding member

Game capture cards for recording TV?

London Lite posted:
IndigoTucker posted:
"Freeview HD" will only allow branding, and access to the EPG data if the output from the box is encrypted with HDCP, and USB recording is encrypted. The EPG data is encoded with a proprietary Huffman table, that you get access to by agreeing to the terms.
There is nothing to stop a manufacturer making a generic DVB-T2 box, without access to the Freeview HD EPG, like August do, and allow you to record unencrypted. Recording onto a PC, and using an external EPG, like XMLTV, or one of the Linux programmes that can decode the Freeview HD EPG, to record the transport stream to your hard drive, makes recording possible.. BUT bearing in mind, the Freeview HD MPEG4 streams are a little non-standard, with HE-AAC audio and p/i switching.


That changed a couple of years back as I have full HD EPG data using my non Freeview branded DVB-T2 tuner.


Chances are your receiver is using licensed Huffman code tables without a licence... The proprietary compression of the EPG is still in use last time I checked earlier this year.

(The tables were reverse engineered ages ago - they are similar to Freesat SD and HD tables AIUI)
NG
noggin Founding member

Game capture cards for recording TV?

London Lite posted:
This DVB-T2 receiver from August will also record to a USB stick. Amazon calling it a Freeview box when it isn't.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Freeview-Box-Recorder-HD-August-Black/dp/B00Q38S9BU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1507329146&sr=8-2&keywords=august+dvb


To be fair - it's probably Daffodil - the seller/supplier (or August, the manufacturer?) who wrote the advert, not Amazon.

Unless something is actually being sold (not just fulfilled) by Amazon, it's important to remember Amazon is kind of like eBay when it comes to third party sales (and product descriptions).
NG
noggin Founding member

BBC News Channel Presentation - 21/03/16 onwards

Rkolsen posted:
They could simply be just replacing the catwalk screens. I think they were 103” Panasonic’s which have been discontinued.


All Panasonic plasmas are discontinued AIUI (unless they still have old stock) - manufacturing of Panasonic plasmas has ceased. (Crying shame - but 4K plasma production wasn't cost effective AIUI)

Fingers crossed it is the DTL LCD screens (which have terrible screen burn from a reasonably static logo that is parked in there) are being replaced - not the 103" plasmas (which don't have such bad burn) and are better suited to the cat walk role than even the best LCD displays (Singapore demonstrates the limitations of LCDs in the catwalk role) The catwalk screens are viewed off-axis, and LCDs really still don't have consistent picture quality across viewing angles. (Luckily - when they do need replacing, fine-pitch LED matrix may well now be good enough for that role - or possibly OLED)
NG
noggin Founding member

Game capture cards for recording TV?

London Lite posted:
A USB DVB-T2 tuner for a PC also bypasses the HDCP on the Freeview HD channels.


More accurately it bypasses the HDCP added to the HDMI output by official Freeview HD tuners (the HDCP is a licensing requirement).

If you buy a non-Freeview licensed HD DVB-T2 PVR you may well find :

1. The HDMI output doesn't have HDCP
2. The recordings made are unencrypted with DTCP (unlike Freeview HD licensed PVRs and TVs that record to external HDDs)

A PC tuner - either USB, PCI-e or Networked (like the HD Homerun) is another solution as you say.

All of the above also holds true for non-Freesat licensed satellite solutions.
NG
noggin Founding member

A question about media servers

Ne1L C posted:
Loving the discussion. How much more difficult will it be to stream 4K via wifi than 1080p?


Depends entirely on the bitrate of the UHD (aka 4K) material and the quality of the WiFi (and the congestion of your WiFi environment).

It is quite easy to stream UHD stuff at Netflix's low max bitrate of ~15Mbs (because they are 24-25p and pre-encoded) in a nice quiet rural environment with only one WiFI network and with the WiFi router/access point nice and close with only plasterboard walls in the way.

It is much more difficult to stream UHD stuff at a continuous live broadcast rate of ~25-30Mbs (with live encoding and 50p) in a busy urban area with 40+ WiFi networks in range, sharing frequencies, and with your router at the other end of your house or flat with thick stone or brick walls in the way of the router.
NG
noggin Founding member

Update on regional BBC One HD

TedJrr posted:
noggin posted:
a516 posted:
This is the obvious solution if PID switching was supported.


PID switching isn't transponder switching AIUI - it just lets you switch a service on one transponder between multiple video and audio streams (which have different PIDS) on the same transponder. Forcing a re-tune is a lot more complex (and I'm not sure how standardised that is as a function?)


These are differnt things. Having regional streams on a separate transponder involved requires code to be available on *ALL* Sky and FreeSat boxes, and a relationship established with a data stream that flags the transitions.

PID switching requres logic to be available at box level, but is much less invasive.

In the past Sky have vetoed both approaches, by requiring and eye-watering indemnity agaist degredations of platform stability.

The issue is that the Sky network is now nery stable, and very understood. If BBC sub-regional opt-outs were facilitated by having alternate streams, then would Sky come to the party?


Yep - both would require Freesat and Sky to implement new 'switching' tech in their boxes - not sure I see it happening, particularly as I'm not sure the BBC has alternative uses for the HD bandwidth during regional downtime any more. (Red button streams are on the way out)

I think the reality in the UK is that the BBC, like ITV, would just need to bite the bullet and put 24/7 regional HD BBC One streams up...
NG
noggin Founding member

Update on regional BBC One HD

Spencer For Hire posted:
I’m sure we were having similar discussions 15 years ago before the BBC surprised us by launching all SD BBC One regions as full, separate streams on DSat, despite many suggestions and claims that the cost to the Beeb of doing this would be prohibitive.


But that was tied, at least publicly, to the cost saving of the BBC ceasing to pay Sky to encrypt their broadcasts/manage Solus cards for FTV, and switching to FTA, because of the Astra 2S spot beam on the UK/Ireland which reduced spill to the rest of Europe to a level that rights holders were able to agree to. (Whether the cost saving from no longer encrypting actually paid for the full costs of the extra transponders? Not sure - but it at least mitigated the cost a bit)
NG
noggin Founding member

Update on regional BBC One HD

dvboy posted:
Markymark posted:
dvboy posted:
You don't have to separate the regional news from the national if you switch PIDs before the national news starts and show that in SD also.

Does the news really have to be in HD anyway? I'd argue it adds less value than it does to sport or drama.



It's not really about having the news in HD per se, but rather not having gaps during the regional opt slots on BBC 1 HD.


Hence my suggestion of doing it for example at 1758 rather than at 1828.


Any suggestion that would shift the entire Network news operation in England from HD back to SD is a non-starter...
NG
noggin Founding member

Update on regional BBC One HD

a516 posted:
all new Phil posted:
Why couldn’t they just switch to the SD channel that already exists?

This is the obvious solution if PID switching was supported.


PID switching isn't transponder switching AIUI - it just lets you switch a service on one transponder between multiple video and audio streams (which have different PIDS) on the same transponder. Forcing a re-tune is a lot more complex (and I'm not sure how standardised that is as a function?)
NG
noggin Founding member

Update on regional BBC One HD

Inspector Sands posted:
Steve in Pudsey posted:

Well when they first moved in to BH, to what became Studio V, it was SD.

I didn't realise that. Their original setup was always going ti be temporary though, until they could move in with the other news operations in BH


Only the studio moved though. The gallery didn't, as it is near their newsroom. BBC London are still using the same gallery location as they did when they were in their temporary studio in what was destined to be the BBC Shop, but instead became home to The One Show (as by then the BBC had decided it wasn't a retailer).

Because BBC London moved into Peel Wing quite a bit before the network news teams moved over from TVC, they were equipped with technology similar to their Marylebone High Street set-up. When they moved into their permanent W1A studio, they also upgraded their gallery to be HD and moved to the same automation as Network News/BBC World News use in NBH. (Allowing their studio to be used by other outlets, or their teams to use other studios without any training or familiarity issues)

The current Studio V operation works into a gallery built for what was then BBC Vision (which became BBC Television before it opened) and uses traditional, non-News production techniques and largely uses industry-standard equipment that is more suitable for the freelance crews who use it.
Last edited by noggin on 4 October 2017 10:33am - 3 times in total