All reasonable points .......<br /><br />Just a word about STBs. Not all STBs are created equal! Even those that claim DVB compience are quite often only partially compliant. The suite of DVB specs runs to tens of thousands of pages - I just print the ones I use most and that fills two big D-Ring binders - double sided. Some aspects, like bouquets are not mandatory. It's a complex thing to manage.<br /><br />As you poited out, there are compatibility prblems within the Irdeto camp with various versions om the CAM firmware. These problems also exist for older versions of SoftCel (the Irdeto s/w that lives in a STB) but this can't be resolves as easily as re-flashing a CAM because its STB type specific.<br /><br />We will transmit a DVB standard EIT table in English - as simple as it gets, most EPG's should work with this. However, this doesn't mean that a third party box will support content descriptors, language descritors, parental ratings lockout etc. It's a real mine field.<br /><br />The reason we like to control the STB is to avoid these problems. We sell a $30 p.m. service (we make a small margin on this), it costs about $30 per hour to answer a phone call, so one support call can wipe out a few months of subscription margin. If we control the STB we reduce the support problems and costs.