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Old 09-04-2008, 13:52   #12
Stuart C
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Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: It's Lahndun, Innit?
Age: 37
Services: Virgin for TV, BT for phone and Be* for Broadband.
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Re: Gadget Show last night..

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeph View Post
It's not Virgin's fault really, it's the base software at fault on the boxes afaik

The boxes themselves come with little or no software. OK, maybe enough firmware to connect to the cable network and download the rest.

But, the rest of the software (the bit we see, such as the EPG) is written by VM (or a contractor) based upon a system called Liberate.

So yes, Theoretically, Virgin are in a position to change the software even if the problem is with the base software. And, TBH, even if the software did come built into the boxes, Virgin probably orders boxes in quantities of tens of thousands. Are you seriously saying that they wouldn't be able to influence the software installed on the box?

---------- Post added at 14:52 ---------- Previous post was at 14:44 ----------

Quote:
Originally Posted by zinglebarb View Post
probably the all mighty pound stopping it. VM will most likely have given the job to the lowest bidder rather than the better coder
Zing, I suspect you are right, but not necessarily for the reasons you state. It could be that the software that Virgin's is based on, Liberate, requires special hardware at the head end. This would have to be replaced if VM were to switch to another middleware providor.

I suspect it would cost VM Millions to do this..
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