BT Vision questions

Ok went to the launch, got the press pack, and maybe able to answer some questions.

Andrew

Picture quality on the streams?

News item will have a short comment once uploaded, but from a few inches away you can see MPEG artifacts, but then I can see these on a DVD if I look at that distance from the screen.

Screens where a mixture of sizes, but on a 20-22inch screen from a few feet away it was not really noticeable.

I'd say around normal Freeview channels, or put another way inbetween a not so high bit rate Sky channel and Sky One which normally runs fine.

Andrew

When are Mac users going to be able to get in on the act? According to the system specs., it's just for Windows at the mo, though I'm not sure how the OS has much bearing on receiving or viewing tv content through the box. Do you absolutely have to have Windows Media player 10 to play the downloaded content?

er - I think you've missed the point. This has nothing to do with PC's or MAC's, BT Vision it totally independent.

I think you may be referring to the Movie download part of the website that is seperate to the main BT Vision box etc

Did they indicate whether the PVR could record two channels at the same time?

Doh! One answer I didn't find out and not in the FAQs

I'd guess at two channels, ala Sky+

Andrew

Why do you need a BT Home Hub? Does the Home Hub perform some task for BT Vision which a normal ADSL modem/router would not do?

Presumably the V-box is able to pull details of the available programme material from some internet site, so that you can choose what you want to download.

Is there a list of the programme material that people can view before they make a purchase?

Am I right in thinking that its basically a freeview service, with the option to stream On demand content? (so normal channels - BBC1 etc, are over freeview?)

If so, theres no point in me going close to it atm, cos I can't get freeview here.

In reply to:

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Doh! One answer I didn't find out and not in the FAQs

I'd guess at two channels, ala Sky+

Andrew

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The Philips boxes used by the service feature a DVR with 80 hours of recording capacity; dual tuners; a smart card reader; HDTV support; and various extension capabilities

From Tracy Swedlow ITVT Newsletter

(Note: It doesn't indicate whether that means record two channels at once or record one, view the other, but would guess the former)


Also of interest from same newsletter:

The service, which is based on Microsoft TV's IPTV Edition software platform (note: two other European operators, Swisscom and Deutsche Telekom-subsidiary, T-Online Germany, have commercially launched IPTV Edition-based services over the past few weeks--see [itvt] Issue 7.03 Part 2; other providers that have commercially launched services using the platform include AT&T, and Deutsche Telekom's French subsidiary, T-Online France; Microsoft claims that 10 other telcos are either planning deployments of the platform or are in "deep trials")