[opendtv] Re: Broadcast Flag

  • From: "John Shutt" <shuttj@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2004 08:52:32 -0400

Let's parse your parsing.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Willkie" <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxx>

> Let's parse it.
>
> 1.  If you don't do the upgrade, "you will not be able to receive
protected
> content".  No problem there.  But, that's well into the future, since
there
> is little to no interest RIGHT NOW among broadcasters to employ the
> broadcast flag.

If your current STB was designed to ignore the broadcast flag, you should be
able to continue to receive protected content, since the content itself is
not encrypted in any way.  The fact that Samsung claims you won't be able to
receive BF content tells me they have a software bug that chokes on the BF.

As a broadcaster at a small market PBS station, I can tell you that the most
likely deployment of the BF by us will to be to simply turn it on and leave
it on, and we aren't the only ones who will do so.   (As Ron Popeil says
about his counter top rotisserie; "set it and forget it!"  This probably is
why Samsung is taking such pains now to get their STBs in for upgrade.  They
know that they will be hit with a flood of angry customers in the very near
future.

> 2.  "and may interfere with unprotected content" as well.  This appears
wide
> of the mark, but notice the "may."  I'd say "maybe" but unlikely.

If the BF causes the box to lock up, then it would in a way interfere with
unprotected content as well, until you rebooted the box with a power cord
cycle.


> There are at least three Samsung consultants on this list that I've had
> contact with.  Maybe they'll clue me in on the reality behind this.  Makes
> me wonder what else they're updating at the same time.

Hopefully, they are also updating how some of these stupid boxes handle 608
and 708 captioning.

> Notice the "if the broadcast flag is broadcast."  I haven't paid much
> attention to the feature set of other PSIP generator manufacturers (to
avoid
> issues of copying, etc) in the past year or so, but I don't think that the
> broadcast flag is used at all, due to it's legal newness, and the somewhat
> thorny technical and marketing issues.  Are the commercials flagged?

The broadcast flag  is in the PSIP data, so the BF is set on a program by
program basis, without regard to commercials.  Theoretically, you will be
able to see which upcomming programs are protected, depending on how many
hours' worth of program guide a station transmits.

> Heck, how do the non-satellite STBs upgrade?

With packing tape.

> Can't wait until they do the announcements for "PSIP-E" and "E-VSB"
> enhancements.
>
> Call is another "early implementation" issue.

Those will most likely not be retrofit into existing receivers, which is why
the ATSC took such pains to ensure backwards compatibility with existing
receivers.  As we see with Samsung's BF problems, even this is not
guarenteed to be the case, now is it?

 
 
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