[mythtv-users] CCI Copy Freely Letter Campaign

[Mike Perkins]

On 19/07/15 10:07, Simon Hobson wrote:
> Nigel Jewell <nigel.jewell at grufty.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> I'm based in a region where this issue doesn't directly affect me, however out of interest I took a look at your letter.
>
> Ditto, I'm in the UK - though what happens "over there" tends to get imported sooner or later :-(
>
In this case, in the UK, we are already well past that point.

Here, there is no alternative of a cable card for any of the service suppliers 
(BT Vision, Virgin Media and Sky. There are probably others). You get one of 
their Set Top Boxes and you are stuck with that.

Some boxes do come with SCART outputs - whoop-de-do, SD output via RGB or 
composite! Wow! Other boxes have only HDMI outputs.

We dumped Virgin Media a while back and took out BT Vision instead, on cost 
grounds. The box BT supply doesn't obey the HDMI specs, leaving the 'active' 
signal up even when it is in standby, and complains bitterly whenever I plug 
something into one of the TV's other HDMI inputs - what business is it of BT 
what I plug into my TV? (Mythtv, of course, but it could as easily be a Blu-Ray 
player or an XBox.)

So, this is one rare example where the US has tried to get it right. It doesn't 
surprise me that the networks attempt to game the system every chance they get, 
but in the UK they do what they like and nobody seems to care.

-- 

Mike Perkins