So what is the "purpose" of a YouView box?
Lbear1
Member Posts: 741 ✭
Since the topic in which I asked this of Piers Lomax was closed for reasons not given - and I admit it was long - let me ask the question again.
The Sale of Goods act requires an item must be "fit for purpose". A toaster must be able to make toast and a washing machine must be able to wash clothes. So what functions or features should a consumer expect a "YouView" badged set top box to include in order to asses its "fitness for purpose"?
There are two other organizations which allow set top box manufacturers to use their logos; freesat and Freeview. In both cases a new box is tested against a set of minimum specifications issued by them. A consumer can have confidence that the unit they are buying has the required hardware and will perform the functions required by the specifications, if not exceed them. Freeview police use of their logo and demand its removal from advertisements from those non-compliant generic boxes and USB tuner sticks available on eBay, if told about them.
YV owners asking why their box cannot access the portals to the MHEG-IC IPTV channels are told that the protocol is not part of the "base specification". Since consumer "spec sheets" are unavailable and all the blurb is about the interface; it's reasonable to expect YouView have approved any boxes as meeting that B.S., or capable to be updated, to do so.
As the B.S. currently available on the site is designed for makers, however from launch it was made clear that two would be available and are included as mandatory in that B.S.
One was having inbuilt Wi-fi or ability to use a USB adapter. The article including Pier's interview makes it clear YV consider Wi-Fi too unreliable in some cases so have abandoned it for the time being and implies the existing boxes may never be updated. It's currently impossible to meet their B.S. as the USB sockets are not activated.
The other was the inclusion of two tuners and a hard drive of >320Gb. The YV site's home page states "pause, record, rewind". TalkTalk's latest offering does not have a hard drive and only one tuner yet still carries the YouView logo. Would the "man on the Clapham omnibus" consider recording to a buffer was the general understanding of "record"?
I presume that YouView still ask makers to meet their B.S. so therefore there must be a revised one. Is this or a draft published? Otherwise what defence could be made if a consumer complained their equipment was "unfit for purpose" because one or other of these functions is missing?
The Sale of Goods act requires an item must be "fit for purpose". A toaster must be able to make toast and a washing machine must be able to wash clothes. So what functions or features should a consumer expect a "YouView" badged set top box to include in order to asses its "fitness for purpose"?
There are two other organizations which allow set top box manufacturers to use their logos; freesat and Freeview. In both cases a new box is tested against a set of minimum specifications issued by them. A consumer can have confidence that the unit they are buying has the required hardware and will perform the functions required by the specifications, if not exceed them. Freeview police use of their logo and demand its removal from advertisements from those non-compliant generic boxes and USB tuner sticks available on eBay, if told about them.
YV owners asking why their box cannot access the portals to the MHEG-IC IPTV channels are told that the protocol is not part of the "base specification". Since consumer "spec sheets" are unavailable and all the blurb is about the interface; it's reasonable to expect YouView have approved any boxes as meeting that B.S., or capable to be updated, to do so.
As the B.S. currently available on the site is designed for makers, however from launch it was made clear that two would be available and are included as mandatory in that B.S.
One was having inbuilt Wi-fi or ability to use a USB adapter. The article including Pier's interview makes it clear YV consider Wi-Fi too unreliable in some cases so have abandoned it for the time being and implies the existing boxes may never be updated. It's currently impossible to meet their B.S. as the USB sockets are not activated.
The other was the inclusion of two tuners and a hard drive of >320Gb. The YV site's home page states "pause, record, rewind". TalkTalk's latest offering does not have a hard drive and only one tuner yet still carries the YouView logo. Would the "man on the Clapham omnibus" consider recording to a buffer was the general understanding of "record"?
I presume that YouView still ask makers to meet their B.S. so therefore there must be a revised one. Is this or a draft published? Otherwise what defence could be made if a consumer complained their equipment was "unfit for purpose" because one or other of these functions is missing?
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