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COMPANY REPORT

PC Card Software

The DVBViewer Team:


Software programmer Christian Hackbart (left) and his father Bernd Hackbart (right), responsible for administration and marketing

Light version available at no cost since 2002 Regular software updates Can receive all digital TV standards Preconfigured for UHDTV

www.dvbviewer.com. Here you can download the free demo version and order the Pro version for 15 Euros

The DVBViewer website:

DVBViewer

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COMPANY REPORT

PC Card Software

The Specialists for TV Reception on a PC


One of the most well-known software programs for reception of digital channels on a computer is DVBViewer. This program is so popular because most digital TV PC card manufacturers include this software with their products; this has allowed DVBViewer to become the market leader. So, whos actually behind this success story? Who better to explain all this to us than the programmers themselves: the father and son team Hackbart. We met up with them in Erfurt, Germany. The son, Christian Hackbart, was DVBViewers programmer. When I was eight years old I was given a Sinclair Spectrum Computer from a relative. That was 1986. From that point on little Christian set out to discover all the secrets of this new and wonderful technology. His father Bernd Hackbart recalls: Christian was very proud to show me his first piece of programming - graphically created people strolling across the monitor. It was not surprising that Christian went on to study electronics later on at the Ilmenau Technical University. During his studies he programmed a spectrum emulator. In 2000 I came in contact with programmers out of Bratislava and together we worked on developing a video player based on DirectShow. Christain Hackbart was able to take the experience that he gained from this and expand on it shortly thereafter. There was an Internet-via-Satellite service that ceased operations in 2002. All of a sudden there were a large number of PC cards that no longer had any use. They could be purchased very cheaply. Christian Hackbart jumped on this opportunity and educated himself on satellite data streams with the help of these PC cards. Because of his previous experience, he found it easy to write a software program that filtered TV channels out of this data stream and then program a user interface. In just a few weeks I had written the first version of DVBViewer, recalls Christian Hackbart. His father Bernd Hackbart adds, That was in the spring of

Erfurt

SatIP Viewer for MAC


Screenshots of the brand new SatIP Viewer for MAC. For now the SatIP Viewer
only comes bundled with the Windows version of DVBViewer. A MAC version is in the works. Here are screenshots of the Beta version.

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2002. Now the question was, what to do with this software? They discussed this amongst themselves; his father suggested a commercial distribution but Christian thought that because of his hobby it should be distributed as freeware. In the end they compromised: a light version was made available for free and a Pro version could be purchased for a moderate price of 15 Euros. This price is still the same today. At the end of 2002 it became a little more serious for this product that essentially came about because of his hobby. A PC card manufacturer came to the two of them and offered to buy a dedicated version of the software under license for his PC cards. Back then there simply wasnt any software that was good enough to receive TV channels with a PC card. So, an especially stable running version of DVBViewer was developed that didnt have all of the features of the original version and was only available from the PC card manufacturer in a bundle with the PC card: the DVBViewer TE. Back then the software had to be matched to each different type of PC card. In 2005 the Windows BDA drivers became popular so we matched DVBViewer to these drivers. This move led to the breakthrough; now PC cards from every manufacturer could work with DVBViewer as long as these PC cards used the BDA drivers. Even more programming took place in 2005: Up until then, DVBViewer was only compatible with DVB-S. We expanded it to include DVB-C and DVB-T as well as ATSC and ISDB-T. And just like that, there was nothing anymore to stop it; demand grew and grew. Bernd Hackbart, responsible for administration and marketing, recalls, Our best year was in 2008 when our sales were in the lower six-digit range. Since then the market slowed down somewhat; the number of downloads had pulled back a little. But that didnt stop the DVBViewer team - development work continued. Programmer Christian Hackbart: In 2009 we added plug-ins for MHEG and this year DVBViewer will also be suitable for HbbTV. So where is the DVBViewer software used the most? Bernd Hackbart has the overview: 65% of DVBViewer users are in Germany, 10% are in Scandinavia and another 10% can be found in France and Italy. Outside of Europe there are quite a few users in China, including Hong Kong 148 TELE-audiovision International The Worlds Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine 01-02/2014 www.TELE-audiovision.com

and Taiwan with the remaining 5% in all of the remaining countries. DVBViewer has not had much luck in the USA since the popular satellite operators use their own proprietary technology there. What future plans does the DVBViewer team have? Since 2006 weve been of-

SatIPViewer for iOS


Also being developed: SatIP Viewer for
the Apple operating system iOS. Here are some initial screenshots of the Beta version for the iPhone.

fering TransEdit as a plug-in. With it you can analyze and record data streams. Right now were considering offering a professional version of this software. The SatIP viewer is already available. With it you can utilize the new SatIP technology. For now this software is only available for Windows; a MAC version is being developed and versions for iOS and Android are in the planning stages, reveals Christian Hackbart. Its the last two platforms that promise to be quite inter-

esting since the number of mobile device users continues to rapidly increase and a viewer program for this group should be hugely successful. In addition to DVBViewer development, Christian Hackbart has been working together with Lars Gehre on a program called Recording Service: It can be used to automatically record channels. Unfortunately, Lars Gehre passed away in 2013. Since then Christian Hackbart has been continuing development on his own.

It works like this: the software automatically searches through the TV channels EPG data and records all those programs that match the search keywords. As an example, Christian Hackbart points out that, You can automatically record movies with a specific actor or record every movie that matches specific keywords. The software can also recognize reruns. If the EPG data from a rerun is identical to an original broadcast, the software can recognize this and skip over

the rerun. Especially unique with the Recording Service is that the PC being used doesnt even have to be turned on: With a Wakeup Call the software turns on the PC by itself, records the TV program and then, after the recording is complete, shuts down the PC automatically. In this way it would be possible, for example, to record your favorite programs even while away on vacation. Naturally, the DVBViewer team is quite familiar with all of the new technologies.

Everything is set with a DVBViewer version as soon as regular broadcasts in H.265 (ultra high definition) start. The DVBViewer team is continuously working on software updates and adapting whatever new requirements come along. By the way, we can also program custom versions for special requirements, we learned towards the end of our visit. If you want to take advantage of the special skills of the DVBViewer specialists, all you have to do is contact them directly.

First screenshots of the iPad version.

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The 'Recording Service' software has been in development since 2004. Development should be complete in 2014 at which time it should become available. It would make possible the automatic recording of TV programs through the use of keywords that the software would search for in the EPG. The user can select whether only video and audio or also the complete EPG data should be recorded.

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