MPEG4 Transition - What does it mean for BEV subscribers?

08-03-2010, 11:56 AM

Well no, there's always Shaw for us western folks :-(

08-03-2010, 12:38 PM

The CRTC regulations for digital TV say that the BDU must pass the digital signal on to the end user in the same format and quality in which they receive it, with no degradation.

The current problem is that ExpressVu seems to be skirting the regulation for some 1080i channels via a loophole where they say the conversion from 1080i -> 720p is being done by the broadcaster before it's delivered to Bell.

That could be true in a couple of cases (ex. Global-HD and maybe CTV-HD), but the last time I checked they were still delivering CBC-HD and HDNet to customers in 720p, and there's no way either of those broadcasters are converting their 1080i signal to 720p for ExpressVu.

In short, the regulations are there to protect the viewer from signal degradation, but nobody seems to be holding ExpressVu accountable on the matter

.

08-03-2010, 03:22 PM

That makes perfect business sense and yet they caused all sorts of grief upon themselves.
Hopefully they learned a valuable business lesson that you can't dick around with people anymore.

08-03-2010, 07:06 PM

they did...they asked he pull the article, as it wasn't accurate...he refused, and the rest is history.

08-03-2010, 07:55 PM

Interesting news. First the MPEG4 transition was last Fall, then this Fall (with receivers available Q2). Now it is 2009 with receivers available Q4. Will someone at EV pleeeease make up their mind?! In the meantime, where are the new HD channels such as MPIX HD, National Geographic HD and Bravo HD? And what about AMC and TCM? Does EV expect its customers to wait until 2009 for those as well?

**hurricane** · 08-04-2010, 03:32 AM

I was always of the understanding that BEV/DN was simply a standard DVB-S using the Nagra conditional access?

DVB-S defines QPSK, 8PSK and 16-QAM as being compliant. The forward error-correction uses a convolutional inner code with a reed-solomon outer code. While they don't specify what the inner code must be (only that it is a convolutional code, typically viterbi), they specify the rates though.

Since Turbo code is a block code and by no means proprietary, either I'm wrong about them using DVB, or you are regarding their 8PSK implementation.

Again, I was under the understanding that part of the reason that BEV/DN is so easy to hack is because they are using the DVB-S standard so the only thing that really needs to be done to hack it is to bypass the CA.

08-04-2010, 07:39 AM

I always though that DVB-S didn't include 8PSK, while DVB-S2 did.
While Turbo FEC may not be proprietary, since only DN is using it in N.A., it sends up a red flag if it were to be included in a FTA box if one is to believe they are mostly being used legitimately.

Either way, the points made remain valid.

I can tell you also in the business and suspect you may well be correct on those specifics, if so I stand corrected.

08-04-2010, 09:38 AM

It sounds like EV could stop FTA piracy by replacing a few 6000's and implementing 8PSK. *C is already doing this. The fact that EV is not (and not gaining extra HD channels in the process) indicates that EV is no longer serious about stopping piracy or providing more HD to its paying customers.

**hurricane** · 08-04-2010, 04:23 PM

DVB-S not only includes 8-PSK, but 16 QAM as well. Just that most homeowners wouldn't want the 2.4 m or 3.6 m dish required to receive them.

DVB-S2 is much more efficient so they can use the higher modulations while maintaining similar Eb/No thresholds at the receiver.

Regardless of which modulation and FEC technique and coding rate they use, it would only be a temporary fix. Broadcom has a chipset available that has pretty much all industry standards implemented (including DCII). The weak point is the CA.

From my understanding part of the reason that DCII is so secure is that Starchoice doesn't directly generate the receiver authorizations. All of those are still generated by Motorola. They've kept such a tight leash on that scheme that they don't reveal any information to thier customers than they absolutely have to.

08-04-2010, 11:46 PM

Thanks for the clarification.
Yes the Moto SAC and the ACC, nice bunch of people down down.
I've been in the room, kinda weird, almost a separate entity from Moto, but still in the same building in S.D.

And I'm not convinced that dropping the 6000's and moving to 8PSK will buy them much, maybe a little needed bandwidth and of course the 6000 supports the now much sought after 8PSK module that is being raped and pillage to work in the new HD FTA units that like you say, have the latest chips to support MPEG4 and everything under the sun.

Wouldn't that be a hoot, ship a boat load of 8PSK modules out for all the 6000's, then folks will cancel en masse and replace them with SV-8000's and VS-8000's, drop in the modules and be 8PSK AND MPEG4 ready before Bev is.