July 2007 – Page 2 – Digital-Lifestyles

BBC Trust OK With No DRM On BBC Shows

BBC Trust OK With No DRM If you listen to our interview with Mark Taylor, you’ll have heard a very interesting point that was raise in the OSC discussion with the BBC Trust.

The BBC Trust are totally fine with BBC content going out to over the Internet _without_ content protection – ie DRM.

This would be in-line with the BBC’s view of distributing their TV content over satellite in the UK, where in 2003 they made Sky beam out the BBC TV channels without encryption – much to Sky’s displeasure – saving themselves £40m – £85m in the process.

This is of course still an avenue open to the BBC. We wonder how much of the License payers money would be saved on DRM if they were to take this route?

iPlayer: OSC Interview After BBC Trust Meeting: Podcast

We got the exclusive opportunity to interview the members of the Open Source Consortium (OSC) that has met with the BBC Trust, directly after they had been discussing the BBC iPlayer with them for the first time.

From there we scooped the iPlayer On Linux a must story, but there was a lot more detail in the interview than we could get into the piece.

Various highlights were

How discussion went with the BBC Trust
The path that the OSC has been following
Discussion with Ofcom
How iPlayer is based entirely on the Microsoft stack
concerns under the BBC Radio player being rolled into the iPlayer and the loss of support of other players that would occur
BBC Trust’s different view on BBC Content and content from other production companies
Support for a Linux iPlayer from the “the most popular Linux desktop client in the world”

If you, like many others, are unhappy about the iPlayer only being available on a particular version of Windows, get yourself over to the iPlayer petition. Every vote counts, so join the current 12,000+ that have said they don’t like it.

Sorry about the popping in part of the recording (like the beginning), but I left the mic windshield at the office – blast!)
[audio:https://digital-lifestyles.info/media/audio/osc-post-bbc-trust-iplayer-meeting.mp3]

Ofcom Wants VoIP 999 Services

Ofcom Wants VoIP 999 Services Ofcom has published a proposal that some VoIP services should allow users to call 999 to connect to emergency services as soon as by early 2008.

They’ve carried out research that has revealed that as many as 78% of those with VoIP thought that they could, or did not know if they could.

Ofcom’s concern is that VoIP users cannot connect to emergency services when they really need it – ie. in an emergency.

If people have to locate a landline or mobile phone, costing them a delay of seconds or minutes in getting through to emergency services, it could prove critical.
Continue reading Ofcom Wants VoIP 999 Services

Is Silverlight the BBC iPlayer Silver Bullet?

We’re all aware that the BBC is planning to make their iPlayer compatible with Macs … and we even know that now that the BBC Trust has committed to make it work with Linux (shock horror).

Well if you’re like most of the tech population, you might be scratching your heads, wondering how the bleep they’re going to be doing it – given that the whole system relies on Microsoft technology to deliver any of it, and in particular the DRM. Especially as, to date Microsoft has steadfastly refused to deliver a media player for the Mac that has DRM built in.
Continue reading Is Silverlight the BBC iPlayer Silver Bullet?

Cheap SD memory – Don’t Do It!

Cheap memory - Don't Do It! We’ve recently had an horrific experience. Having recorded a few great interviews using the excellent Zoom H4 digital audio recorder, gone to download them to the Mac for processing, only to find that some of them were zero length – apparently completely inaccessible.

The sinking of the heart that occurs and the sheer blind panic shouldn’t be experienced by anyone, so we’re going to pass on our experience to you in the hope that you don’t ever have to live through the same.

The Zoom H4 has always performed well for us. it produces excellent quality stereo recordings with no hint of data lost.
Continue reading Cheap SD memory – Don’t Do It!

BBC Trust Statement On iPlayer OSC Meeting: Bit Woolly

BBC Trust Statement On iPlayer OSC Meeting

We’ve been in touch with the BBC Trust today, to follow up the statement that was mentioned in our piece about the BBC Trust position on the iPlayer and Linux playback. Here it is in full with our observations at the end.
Continue reading BBC Trust Statement On iPlayer OSC Meeting: Bit Woolly

BBC Trust: iPlayer On Linux And Mac A Must

BBC Trust Want iPlayer Mac And Linux Support: OSC The Open Source Consortium (OSC), the organisation leading the charge to make the BBC iPlayer open to all platforms, not just Microsoft Windows, met with the BBC Trust yesterday to find that there was a lot of agreement in their ambitions.

(The BBC Trust has now issued a statement.)

Speaking to Mark Taylor of the OSC straight after the BBC Trust meeting, I learnt that The Trust had declared that they “share the vision” of the OSC. Not surprisingly the OSC representatives felt very buoyant but the very positive meeting.
Continue reading BBC Trust: iPlayer On Linux And Mac A Must

Panasonic DMC-FZ18 Superzoom Camera Announced

Panasonic DMC-FZ18 Superzoom Camera Announced Panasonic has taken the wraps off the the latest model in their FZ superzoom series, the FZ18 which packs an astonishing eighteen times optical zoom.

Sporting a relatively modest 8 megapixel sensor, the SLR-style camera offers an ‘Intelligent Auto Mode’, Face detection, automatic LCD backlight control and high ISO performance.
Continue reading Panasonic DMC-FZ18 Superzoom Camera Announced

Sony Network Walkman NWD-B100 MP3 Player Series Announced

Sony Network Walkman NWD-B100 MP3 Player Series Announced Sony has announced a rather snazzy looking range of stick MP3 players that do away with the need to transfer tunes with their much-maligned SonicStage desktop software.

With the new ATRAC-free NWD-B100 Series players, users can simply drag and drop music straight from their desktop PCs to the pencil thin, 30-gram player.
Continue reading Sony Network Walkman NWD-B100 MP3 Player Series Announced