"Adrian Caspersz"  wrote in message
news:g778a4F4sagU1@mid.individual.net...

> Hmmm.... How API accessible is the EPG information from a DVB-T and DVB-S
> from these USB dongles?
>
> Reason I'm asking is, I've seen a few requests around these parts (err...
> Brian..) for a 'talking EPG', 'voice controlled remote', even 'voice
> controlled PVR' for use by the blind / partially sighted.
>
> Don't seem to be those features available built into consumer electronics,
> something which the RPi could be knocked into doing?

I would imagine an RPi with suitable software and a couple of dongles would
do a very good job of recording and playing satellite or terrestrial
channels.

I use TVHeadend, and a DVB-T-only decoder and a DVB-T/T2 decoder. That can
comfortably record three HD channels from the same mux, or a couple of SD
channels from both decoders simultaneously. It could even have a sound-only
mode by capturing only the sound stream(s) for a channel, which would reduce
the amount of disk space that would be needed.

The EPG information for DVB-T multiplexes is readily available as one of the
header tables that is transmitted. I dare say someone could filter that
information to list just a few favourite channels for a particular day/time,
and to read it out using speech synthesis.

DVB-T2 (and presumably DVB-S2) is more of a problem because the EPG
information is encrypted. However many PVR packages can read it, so it's
probably a case of applying for a decryption key. Given that a lot of PVR
software is free, it looks as if there's no cost incurred in getting a key,
otherwise that cost would have to be passed on to the users of the software.

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