Posts by Stewbo

WTF is... Project Canvas?

But...but!

Hi Nigel,

To clarify and expand what I said/trying to say. I agree that leaving the commercial companies to come up with the interface is a bad idea, because they will all be different. The other point I am making is that in a global market it is not enough for the BBC and friends to decide and 'standardise' the interface, because they haven't - other global stakeholders have not been involved. It wouldn't even be a standard for the UK as the BBC has not got agreement from Sky. Sky's interface is the de facto standard in the UK. So I disagree that Canvas design provides a "single interface", and it runs a very high risk of never getting the global stakeholders on board and so never becoming a global standard, and therefore another waste of money. I think that the BBC is nowadays poor value for money (perhaps it always was). They need to be far more efficient and effective with the funds they are given in return for the tyranny of the license fee.

My understanding is that there IS the capacity to deliver true 1080p via satellite, and so Sky and FreeSat could do this. I am aware of the challenges and bandwidth limitations with terrestrial/Freeview transmissions.

I understand that the EBU is made up of the BBC and other national tv companies and indeed is largely driven by the BBC and others such as the German ARD etc. And I understand that the BBC plays a key part in inventing the technologies. But after this stage I think they should route their ideas for standardisation through international organisations such as the EBU, ETSI and CENELEC etc. And not build it first and try and force it on the other market players and presumably other national broadcasters.

By the way, thanks very much for your time and efforts on the toppy.org site and all your other contributions to the technology scene.

cheers

Stewart

leave the tech to others and get back to the content

Hi,

On all issues like this I think its about where is it best to allow businesses to compete and 'innovate', and where is it best to allow a regulator to set the standards and a framework of rules, within which, the commercial companies can then compete.

In a global market, such that we have, with the Internet, HDTV, Blu-ray, DVD, and now DVB, we need global standards and not BBC and co. local standards.

Take for example the interface (GUI) that we use to interact with the TV. Consumers don't want different and competing interfaces, they just want one that works well. The technology is successful if it is invisible and a non-issue to the user.

Rather they should competing on content, price and other aspects. The BBC and co. haven't yet delivered on giving us all our favourite programmes in true 1080p HD, to match up to the capabilities of the TV and other equipment we have all bought!

So I say to the BBC and co., stop wasting time and license payers money and get back to the content and pass the technology stuff to the EBU and similar organisations.

Content is king!