Re: Thoughts on VDR evolution - my 2 cent

[Klaus Schmidinger <Klaus.Schmidinger@cadsoft.de>]

Carsten Koch wrote:
> 
> [...]
>
> #3 (teletext):
> First off all, here are my thoughts on the re-insertion
> versus OSD versus MPEG debate:
> 
> I agree with Klaus, it would be best to get re-insertion
> going.

When I voted against sending the teletext info as a still frame
I wasn't really thinking about re-insertion. As far as I understand
this, re-insertion means generating the same "vertical blank" information
as in analog videotext. If we send the teletext through this bottleneck,
I'm afraid we will lose a lot of the possibilities digital teletext
offers. The VDR PC could chache all of the pages sent and have them
ready instantaneously. But with re-insertion the information would
have to be sequentially sent through the video signal's vertical
blank, and it would be as slow as in the old analog days.
Maybe I'm not understanding this correctly, so if re-insertion
actually means something else, please enlighten me.

> Here is an idea: maybe we could get rid of the OSD junk
> altogether, simply by leaving the TV set in teletext mode
> and generating teletext pages for the On-screen-displays
> as well?

Frankly I don't think this is a good idea, because the tv set
(at least mine) is not in teletext mode by default, so every time
I switch channels between VDR and terrestrial (yes, I sometimes
watch the ORF...) or analog satellite (unfortunately there is no
CICAM for SKY digital - or is there?!) I would have to fiddle around
with getting in and out of teletext mode.

What I would really like to have is a faster OSD.
Since the driver doesn't do very much here, it must be the
firmware that slows things down - or is this done in hardware
and thus can't be improved? 

Ralph, any comments on this? I heard that convergence has presented
a settop box on the IBC - was that based on the Siemens DVB card?
Does it use the OSD? If so, with anything a little more complex
than the VDR menus (and I guess a commercial product would present
some fancy graphical interface?!) I'd say this must be veeeerrrrryyyy
ssssssllllooooooooooooooooowwwwww.... On the other hand, maybe I'm
using the OSD the wrong way in VDR, and it could be much faster if
accessed correctly. Any hints here would be greatly appreciated.

Greetings
Klaus
-- 
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Klaus Schmidinger                       Phone: +49-8635-6989-10
CadSoft Computer GmbH                   Fax:   +49-8635-6989-40
Hofmark 2                               Email:   kls@cadsoft.de
D-84568 Pleiskirchen, Germany           URL:     www.cadsoft.de
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