[mythtv-users] CBS sucks!

Eric Sharkey eric at lisaneric.org
Mon Oct 31 19:48:46 UTC 2011


On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 3:06 PM, Jay Ashworth <jra at baylink.com> wrote:
>> Now that analog TV is dead and everything is a compressed multiplexed
>> bit stream, I don't see why they can't crank up the compression a bit
>> more during overtime and actually broadcast both simultaneously at
>> lower bitrates. Just instantiate another plex and use EIT to mark
>> everything clearly. (Yes, I know I'm glossing over *lots* of details,
>> but the fundamental idea is basically sound.)
>
> Except that that screws everyone *except* those watching a network affil
> OTA: cable companies aren't gonna pass it.  And hence, cable watchers won't
> see it, and *everyone* gets screwed except the small number of OTA watchers
> smart enough to cope with it.

Like I said, I've glossed over a lot of details.  Cable companies
already pass multiple programs broadcast simultaneously on the same
OTA frequency.  They already have the capability for broadcasting
channel and guide information which does periodically change (much to
the dismay of all of us with clear QAM tuners).  I'm just suggesting
an even more dynamic assignment of programs to frequencies/multiplexes
with properly embedded machine readable information to allow figuring
out what's what.

I don't realistically expect any of this to happen.  We'll likely all
be downloading all of our content over multi-cast IPv6 before that
kind of change could be worked out, assuming we live that long.

Eric


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