Red Button service now on BBC One HD and BBC Two HD
I posted this in the Change Log, but in order to avoid discussion over there I thought I'd start a new thread. It appears to be the full service, but it has not yet been implemented on BBC Three HD|/CBBC HD. I expect it will be as there is no technical obstacle to this. It is not on COM7, so can't be used from BBC News HD, which is a shame.
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Source: en.digitalbitrate.com
Working OK from Winter Hill.
Mike.
I wonder if they are having to slowly roll it out to each region, or if there's something different with the code which means it isn't working on certain receivers?
It's certainly a much lower bitrate, but the HD boxes should compensate for that with vastly more memory.
Second all that from Winter Hill - normal red button works on 101 and 102 on my Panasonic bluray, and connected red button beta works on 101 and 102 on my little Samsung TV.
The PID 7302 data stream has been attached to BBC 1 HD / 2 HD / 3 HD (but not CBBC HD) for many months, at least dating back to June 2014. The type 0x52, which you refer to, is simply a stream identifier descriptor in the PMT. It's not really useful to know that the stream has a type 0x52 descriptor. Data, video and audio streams will all have stream identifier descriptors, so knowing that the descriptor exists doesn't actually identify the type of stream.
So, what has changed?: previously BBC 1 HD had a data stream, PID 6610, defined as an active MHEG stream; BBC 2 HD had a data stream, PID 110, defined as an active MHEG. These streams have now been removed, (both the data and the entries in the PMT). PID 7302 is now defined as the active MHEG stream for both BBC 1 HD and BBC 2 HD. BBC 3 HD had, and still has, PID 7011 defined as the active MHEG stream when broadcasting or PID 7010 defined as the active MHEG stream when the off-air slate is displayed. PID 7302 is attached to BBC 3 HD as a data carousel.
This possibly means that the RB service has been running in test mode for many months with the streams on PID 110 / PID 6610 acting as a hidden gateway to the RB service. Possibly with a secret key sequence required to access the service. PID 110 / 6610 have also provided mini RB menus when required for special events.
Basically, the existence of PID 7302 doesn't give any indication of when the service went live. The date that the streams on PID 110 and 6610 disappeared would be a better indication, if anyone collecting DTT stream stats has that information available.
And a single carousel rather than the 5 carousels used by BBC A, so the refresh rate will be much slower for some pages.
Probably not as they haven't activated the RB service on BBC 3 HD either.
Darren
How long till they do? Yes they are starting with BBC 1&2 in HD for now but once its on the mux its there! I guess ideally the BBC would like all its HD channels on one mux, maybe they would like the SD channels gone so they could do that (obviously that's not currently possible though)?
How long is a piece of string? The data carousel for the RB service is still linked to BBC 3 HD in the PMT table but the active MHEG stream, when the channel is broadcasting, is still defined as the PID 7010 data stream. Although listed in the PMT, the actual PID 7010 data stream is no longer present. That means there isn't even access to the data carousel with a secret key press sequence from BBC 3 HD. It could be that the BBC has decided not to activate the service on BBC 3 HD until a decision on the future of the channel has been made.
Also the BBC has never given access to the RB service on Freeview when an off-air MHEG slate is displayed.
Could it be something to do with the CBBC HD/BBC3 HD timeshare - maybe they haven't yet got a solution to only make the red button appear during BBC3 HD hours? Does that work ok on SD? I've never looked.
Also which regions & nations is this appearing in? Some people are still not seeing it? So is it just the CP and WH muxes that carry it (plus anywhere that repeats the same mux construction)? In which case it may be an early live test being checked by BBC R&D in Salford & London.
RB services are available on all BBC SD timeshared channels on Freeview during their normal broadcasting hours. It's just a matter of defining the stream in the PMT. The streams defined in the PMT are changed whenever one timeshare channel hands over to the other.
Maybe they aren't waiting long enough for it to load, it does take a tad longer than the SD version. It might be worth waiting a minute after selecting the channel before pressing TEXT or the red button.
It's certainly available from Emley Moor and Belmont. That's all I can check at the moment.
Am I right in thinking Emley and Belmont are currently broadcasting the exact same BBCB mux construction as Winter Hill though (minus a small amount of tx data) - BBC1HD (England, no regions), BBC2HD(England- the only current HD version), ITV HD(Granada), CH4HD (North adverts)? So any tests aimed at Salford will appear due to the shared equipment? Or do they carry a more appropriate ITV HD region now?