Exciting new Feature

[hackbart 556]

Hi,

 

as the topic suggests we have an exciting new feature in the works which took me the last 2 years of hard work. This week i also had spent dozens of hours to implement the engine from a stand alone application into the DVBViewer and there are still a couple of side effects which has to become fixed before the feature will be available for all.

 

The cool thing is that these images are taken from the application itself and are not just mockups.

 

 

We definitively will integrate the HBBTV feature into the Mheg5 engine add on, which allows customers who have already a license not to buy another one. For those who want to save some money (we probably have to increase the price, since we also sub licensed the engine) a good time spent money in order to buy the Mheg5 plugin

 

Have i mentioned that the media archives also work fine? The first release wont be able to allow a complete web browser inside the DVBViewer, but i already added two com object functions which can be used to load the website and to show the browser. This might become useful for plugin developers who would like to create a fully featured web browser inside the DVBViewer.

 

Christian

[Griga 562]

Warum nur in Englisch?

 

Be happy that he didn't post in Russian

[hackbart 556]

Well and there are things you wonder why they appear and what the heck some broadcasters think what they do:

 

This has happened a few minutes ago and it somehow appears all the time i think i'm fine with the implementation.

​

 

[Derrick 64]

I'd prefer a new channel list/scanner

(mir wär ne neue senderliste/suchlauf lieber )

[hackbart 556]

Well there are a couple of things on my to do List (e.g finishing the Mac version). It is a step by step process.

[Derrick 64]

..let me guess which is the oldest

[hackbart 556]

No need to guess, you already know the answer, but just for the record

 

Christian

​

[McenterFreak 8]

You are so dedicated to to the technical aspect of TV, why cant you use a Little bit of you skill to make the user interface a bit more atractive.

DVBViewer looks like Word 1.0

[Ede_123 1]

Part of the MHEG5 plugin? So basically if one can't really use MHEG5 (like in Germany) one would have to buy this for no reason to get HbbTV?

 

Not acceptable for me, especially since I can reach most contents of HbbTV via the normal Websites of the TV stations anyway.

 

HbbTV is a nice gimmick - but nothing more. I'd probably not even spend 5 € for it.

[Griga 562]

DVBViewer looks like Word 1.0

 

Rather like

 

 

...from the user's and developer's point of view. That's where ends meet...

[antdude 3]

Will this work in old Windows XP Pro. SP3?

[hackbart 556]

Yes, at least it should unless you have the latest VC runtime installed.
@McenterFreak: if you use one of those available skins the DVBViewer does look modern. Besides the animations which neither Lars nor me likes and from the technical point of view we have to remove everything except the D3D allocator/presenter mode if we would ever start to animate everything. This is what i already did inside the OEM version. Under OSX we use OpenGL and under Windows Direct3D which allows us to manipulate the display by changing the display matrix before placing a texture (trianglestrip). If we would do this in the current version we had to implement it in D3D and in GDI+ which is a pain in the a** and horribly slow in things like this. Keep in mind there are a lot of users who work with heavily outdated systems, even if we do not support 9x anymore and every time we started to remove parts of the application at least a couple of users complained about missing functions. This would only work if we create a complete new application from start which might be an option, but not at this time. There are so many other things to do and we do not have the man power. Sure it would be cool if we had a million dollar background which could help us in focus the development for a new application from scratch, but this isnt the fact.

​@Ede_123: 5 Euro, minus 19% VAT, minus license fees, minus the costs we had spent in integrating, minus 50% regular tax means we have to pay you to use the application. It is quite annoying how some people think what honest work does really cost. I also do not want to complain, but our "updates are free" policy is heavily missused which also force us to get some money for living by offering add ons. To keep the price lower at an for us affordable level i decided to bundle mheg and hbbtv, but there is a german saying which fit into this situation: "Jedem Menschen Recht getan, ist eine Kunst die niemand kann."

 

Christian

[VinoRosso 32]

Looks very promising, Im looking forward to it.

 

And complaints about the pricing model from users are ridiculous.

I wolud love to pay more if it would speed up the DVBViewer development process :-)

 

Except from the Recording Service, this is the first new cool feature in 5 years of using it.

[CiNcH 26]

I recently started to use the online services from CBS, FOX, NBC, ABC,... (and also Pandora web radio) via an U.S. proxy a lot and I really like the nature of VOD. I don't really know yet what valuable content is on HBBTV. But it might be interesting..

[hackbart 556]

This could also work with native websites:

 

as well as with ce-html based one:

 

 

The last example already run extremely well, since it is intended to work on a televion Regular websites require a way to get virtual key commands, and i keep the focus at the moment in completing the cehtml/hbbtv based sites first.

 

@Nordstern70: Once the implementation is complete (i hope within the next week and after we did several in house betatests) we will publish a new version of the Mheg Installer. This one will alllow you either to select Mheg or Hbbtv or both to install.

 

Christian

 

 

 

​

[Ede_123 1]

I see your concerns regarding pricing. But I don't know if selling gimmicks is the waqy to go.

 

You'd better start selling the RecordingService (which really yields some important functionality on it's own), instead of plugins. I could imagine people would be more willing to pay for a product they need indstead of a plugin that is only nice-to-have.

[hackbart 556]

Well everything step by step, as i said we do not have enough man power to complete everything we started working on within a short period of time, but i am happy to have such a plugin and at least the online video content from ARD and ZDF is worth of it, as well as the fact that you can use other services like napster without begging them for an API.

[borisffm 0]

Could you release a beta version?

[hackbart 556]

Not yet and the plan is to update the DVBViewer first, with several bug fixes and improvements for Sat>IP. In the meantime a seperate branch of the software will be released for the internal beta testers which includes the HbbTV updates. The development for the HbbTV engine is already finished, except the fact if some bugs might appear which where not found earlier. I'm quite sure that there might/will be some strange state graph related bugs, but at least what i can say here is that all tested (i'm half way through http://www.hbbig.com/) pages behave like they should, or in other words the DVBViewer behave like they want to have.

Right now i got stuck in putpat.tv which is pretty cool:

[dvbrewer 8]

Is there any non German content that this will work for?

[hackbart 556]

Sure there are several french, spanish and english channels with hbbtv Content, plus those additional services based on cehtml. Napster, USTV Now and others who offer their data in this format. Not tested yet, because i am at the Moment not on the PC, but this one should also run fine: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/bigscreen/tv/

[Tjod 298]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_Broadcast_Broadband_TV#Roll_out

[uglyned 4]

MHEG5 was some big premium product that I bought but it's totally buggy with UK MHEG transmissions, screws up the DVBViewer interface and you seem to have abandoned it completely. Now I see why - you have a new toy to play with. Hope it's not as broken as the one you forgot about, but I won't be buying it to find out.

[McenterFreak 8]

I cant understand why people write in german, when they are in the English version of the forum!!

[Tjod 298]

Moved the the the German post.

 

New German post here, will be delete without further warming.

[antdude 3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_Broadcast_Broadband_TV#Roll_out

"Other regions

 

HbbTV also caught interest in the US, Argentina, Australia, Japan, China (which is conducting a trial) and Malaysia (where DVB-T2 broadcasting will soon start)."

 

So basically, it is not out in USA yet? Also, it seems like I will need new HDTV tuner cards since mine are from 2005 -- http://www.bbti.us/products_air2pc_atsc_pci.htm ...

[hackbart 556]

Well technically it is just an ordinary website. If you tune a dvb station which has HbbTV content the application gets a notification about a www-link to tune. This link contains the application and can be started without having a tv card in general. The con is you need a internet connection, but since most providers offer streaming it makes sense. A typical HbbTV website is for example this one: http://hbbtv.zdf.de/zdfmediathek/

 

Christian

[hackbart 556]

This one is the service from Eins Festival:

Even if the additional content from ARD are all based on the same design, the look and feel is slightly different,

 

The iplayer link above works quite nicely, but i suppose it is not regular ce-html and comes with flash. This is not a bad thing in general, at least you wont recognize the difference inside the DVBViewer, but it does not work properly with the keycodes used for HbbTV

 

RTVe also works like it should:

 

As well as other non german related broadcasters:

 

[nordstern70 3]

I can not wait to instal the plugin.

[dvbrewer 8]

Sure there are several french, spanish and english channels with hbbtv Content, plus those additional services based on cehtml. Napster, USTV Now and others who offer their data in this format. Not tested yet, because i am at the Moment not on the PC, but this one should also run fine: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/bigscreen/tv/

If the iplayer thing works, I'll buy it .

[nordstern70 3]

If the iplayer thing works, I'll buy it .

If you have a britisch satellite-IP...

[dvbrewer 8]

If you have a britisch satellite-IP...

I'm in the UK, which is why it's a deal breaker on whether I buy the addon or not .

[dvbrewer 8]

Is this coming soon, how will we purchase it?

[hackbart 556]

I will release it today at 6pm, if nothing gets in between - which is unlikely i hope. HbbTv will be bundled with MHEG for 12 Euro. This is much more easier for us to manage (especially since we pay for both licenses) and cheaper for the customers if we would seperate both plugins. Users who already have the MHEG-5 plugin wont need to buy it again. Won't need does not mean i would not be happy about receiving an extra

To get a license, you just have to click on link inside the keytool (which points you to this url). The rest is automatically done by the server, you get a key which has to be entered inside the keytool and you will be able to download the plugin in the members section. The size is about 20mb (since there is a complete browser engine inside).

 

A and by the way we (myself and the beta tester - mostly Tjod and MaxB - thanks for this) found a really nice way to wrap the HbbTV into the existing OSD. There are still some smaller things which can be improved, but i really like it in the way it is now. I also think about rewriting the MHEG code to become handled similar, but at the moment it is almost a zero interest of the legacy MHEG which is the main reason why i did not spent that much time into it and it is nearly impossible to test it since we live in a region (former east germany) which does not allow me to test live transmissions.

 

Christian

[uglyned 4]

A little smoother integration of MHEG into the OSD would be very useful. I'll be a tester if you need one - have DVB-T and S cards, do some software development, QA and testing as my job, have used DVBViewer for what must be 4 or 5 years now.

 

I know you're busy, and it's a difficult time, but the offer's there.

[dvbrewer 8]

I will release it today at 6pm, if nothing gets in between - which is unlikely i hope. HbbTv will be bundled with MHEG for 12 Euro. This is much more easier for us to manage (especially since we pay for both licenses) and cheaper for the customers if we would seperate both plugins. Users who already have the MHEG-5 plugin wont need to buy it again. Won't need does not mean i would not be happy about receiving an extra

To get a license, you just have to click on link inside the keytool (which points you to this url). The rest is automatically done by the server, you get a key which has to be entered inside the keytool and you will be able to download the plugin in the members section. The size is about 20mb (since there is a complete browser engine inside).

 

A and by the way we (myself and the beta tester - mostly Tjod and MaxB - thanks for this) found a really nice way to wrap the HbbTV into the existing OSD. There are still some smaller things which can be improved, but i really like it in the way it is now. I also think about rewriting the MHEG code to become handled similar, but at the moment it is almost a zero interest of the legacy MHEG which is the main reason why i did not spent that much time into it and it is nearly impossible to test it since we live in a region (former east germany) which does not allow me to test live transmissions.

 

Christian

Sounds great, I'll get it if you can give me a guide how to get my new IMon remote (Pad) & VFD (with Silverstone case) to work with DVBViewer .....

[uglyned 4]

I started off with this but quickly ended up getting an MCE remote and switching the mode in iMon settings.

 

http://www.DVBViewer.tv/forum/topic/17584-imon-vfdlcd-plugin/page-49?hl=imon#entry389508

 

Correction - this one

 

http://www.DVBViewer.tv/forum/topic/30235-imonpad-mce-konfigdateien/page-1#entry218120

Edited July 15, 2013 by uglyned

[Virtim 0]

Is there any possibility to trial version of this plugin ? I would like to test whether they will work Czech Television. They just released complete archiv.

[hackbart 556]

Sorry there is no trial, but do you have the HbbTV/CE-Html links for your provider?

[dvbrewer 8]

I started off with this but quickly ended up getting an MCE remote and switching the mode in iMon settings.

 

http://www.DVBViewer.tv/forum/topic/17584-imon-vfdlcd-plugin/page-49?hl=imon#entry389508

 

Correction - this one

 

http://www.DVBViewer.tv/forum/topic/30235-imonpad-mce-konfigdateien/page-1#entry218120

Thanks ned, brilliant! Will try this later (and HBBTV of course ....)