Editing Programme Delivery Control (section)

{{short description|Television standard to indicate start and end of programmes}}
{{about|PDC/StarText teletext programme listings||Startext (disambiguation)}}
[[File:Medion MD8910 - Siemens SDA 5650-8004.jpg|thumb|VPS / PDC-plus Decoder IC by [[Siemens]].]]
'''Programme delivery control''' ('''PDC''') is specified by the [[standardization|standard]] ETS 300 231 (ETSI EN 300 231), published by the [[European Telecommunications Standards Institute]] (ETSI). This specifies the signals sent as hidden codes in the [[teletext]] service, indicating when transmission of a programme starts and finishes.

PDC (also known as Enhanced Teletext Packet 8/30 Format 2) is often used together with StarText, enabling the user to select a programme to record using specially coded teletext programme listings. The combination of features is often called '''PDC/StarText'''.

In Germany and some other European countries, the older standard '''video programming system''' ('''VPS''') is in use also known as format 2. Effectively, the two systems do the same thing and most modern [[videocassette recorder|VCR]]s and stand-alone [[DVD recorder]]s work with both signals.

In digital TV (see [[Freeview+]]), the feature [[Accurate Recording]] (AR) that was based on the PDC specification for analogue recording devices is now used for a [[Digital Video Broadcasting|DVB]]-SI event based scheduling system. This was due to the BBC discontinuing the [[Ceefax]] service.