Saturday 30 May 2009

Freesat Ethernet Port

I'm sure I'm not the only one who is still waiting for the ethernet port in the back of the freesat boxes to be activated. The freesat specification requires that any freesat digibox or TV with built in freesat must have an ethernet port built in for future use. I'm not very technical, but surely it wouldn't be hard to switch it on already and let people connect their freesat boxes to their broadband, even if only to watch BBC iPlayer. I read somewhere that the port is there for future software upgrades, but I can't see the point of not taking advantage of the iPlayer service right now. It would give you the basic functionality of a PVR in a freesat box and would surely only boost the sales and marketability of the boxes over some equivalent services like freesat from Sky or the Virgin Television service.

I can't imagine it would be very difficult to integrate a web browser into the software of these boxes since I'm pretty sure that the info coming down in the EPG is either XML based or HTML based (now and then I get some spurious characters that are HTML formatting so I'm basing my assumption on that).

In the meantime, we still have to have a seperate box to browse the internet, which is a real shame because it puts another computer under your television or in your lounge if you want to access some online TV. And of course, connecting up my computer to my television is a little bit awkward....My ideal situation, obviously is simply to have a freesat television with the ethernet port active for web browsing - then I can do away with all the little black boxes under my television :)

Oh well, just some thoughts. Anyone out there have the inside scoop as to when the ethernet ports are going to be useful to the consumer?