It's using the now unused TopUp TV capacity. (whatever that means - I don't know where this capacity has come from )
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume it'll use the video stream which is currently the BT Sport Preview channel, which I think was previously ESPN's stream (ESPN no longer broadcasts on DTT and was previously available on TUTV etc).
It's using the now unused TopUp TV capacity. (whatever that means - I don't know where this capacity has come from )
Yep, that's BT Sport (previously ESPN). For some reason BT has decided not to continue broadcasting ESPN on Freeview. It looks like the capacity is available from 14:00-07:00.
They want to get away with DTT transmission in the long term anyway and will probably do so once any related contracts run out. Not only does DTT transmission cost more than IPTV but it's also a shoddy low bit rate 544x576i image, which can be much improved via IPTV.
I'm not sure what's going to happen on satellite - Channel 5 has no more space on its transponder, realistically. Hell, they were only able to get decent enough encoders to use full SD resolution a month or so ago!
Not only does DTT transmission cost more than IPTV but it's also a shoddy low bit rate 544x576i image, which can be much improved via IPTV.
IPTV can offer better resolution and picture quality (the two are not the same) but usually doesn't. Also a large proportion of the population doesn't have fast enough broadband for IPTV and won't do for quite a few years yet.
IPTV can offer better resolution and picture quality (the two are not the same) but usually doesn't. Also a large proportion of the population doesn't have fast enough broadband for IPTV and won't do for quite a few years yet.
I don't actually know since I don't have BT TV but I imagine they use some kind of dynamic stream changing like iPlayer, so those with slow or unreliable broadband get low bit rate video and those with sufficient broadband get proper SD resolution. Either that or they have a minimum speed requirement for IPTV?
Hell, 704x576i @ 2 Mbps AVC would look far better than anything on SDN/Arq A/Arq B and would only require 3 Mbps broadband if you're not using it for anything else. Multicast should have high priority too.
Hell, 704x576i @ 2 Mbps AVC would look far better than anything on SDN/Arq A/Arq B and would only require 3 Mbps broadband if you're not using it for anything else. Multicast should have high priority too.
I'm not interested in whether things look better than SDN/Arq A/Arq B, I rarely watch those. My benchmark is BBC1 SD and it needs more than 2 mbps to equal that.
Multicast would be good, but most broadband providers don't support it. Mine doesn't (O2, about to become Sky which I don't know about).
I wonder how long until a Milkshake channel launches now, perhaps pre-schoolers in the morning and older kids in the afternoons. They showed Power Rangers and Batman after Milkshake at the weekends recently. I am sure a Milkshake/Shake channel would do well.
Just out of interest, the entire Channel 5 network had 6.3% audience share (BARB, June 2013), compared to Channel 4 network audience share of 10.5%.
I'm not interested in whether things look better than SDN/Arq A/Arq B, I rarely watch those. My benchmark is BBC1 SD and it needs more than 2 mbps to equal that.
Why? BBC One averages maybe 3.5 Mbps on Freeview but that's MPEG2. 2 Mbps AVC should be even better than that.
Multicast would be good, but most broadband providers don't support it. Mine doesn't (O2, about to become Sky which I don't know about).
What? Any company providing IPTV would be using multicast, there's simply no other efficient way to do it. I know BT and TalkTalk do this currently, not sure if anyone else does.
Why? BBC One averages maybe 3.5 Mbps on Freeview but that's MPEG2. 2 Mbps AVC should be even better than that.
What? Any company providing IPTV would be using multicast, there's simply no other efficient way to do it. I know BT and TalkTalk do this currently, not sure if anyone else does.
Averages are fine on stat muxed Freeview etc. but not relevant on IPTV. What matters on IPTV is the peak bitrate needed, because that's when it all stalls on my broadband and the annoying rebuffering kicks in.
I thought you were talking about iPlayer or YouView type channels accessed through any arbitrary broadband provider.I have IPTV (YouView mainly on a Humax DTR-T1000) but my broadband does not support multicast.
I'm not sure what's going to happen on satellite - Channel 5 has no more space on its transponder, realistically. Hell, they were only able to get decent enough encoders to use full SD resolution a month or so ago!
Obviously with the new encoders in place it'll mean they'll shoehorn it in with the rest and drop back to 544 and macro blocking.
It's called 5 Later on the Freeview EPG.
So, the channel name DOES have a space in it!
What time do they add new channels because my box rescans at 5.30 every morning yet there was no sign of Channel 55 when I first switched on this afternoon?
I had to manually rescan before the new channel finally appeared in the EPG.
Averages are fine on stat muxed Freeview etc. but not relevant on IPTV. What matters on IPTV is the peak bitrate needed, because that's when it all stalls on my broadband and the annoying rebuffering kicks in.
Sorry, you're right I forgot about that. Perhaps something like 5 Mbps would be needed in that case. However, if you look at the bit rates of Freeview channels, stat muxing doesn't seem to affect them locally/instantaneously very much. It's more a long-term change that happens depending on programming content.
I thought you were talking about iPlayer or YouView type channels accessed through any arbitrary broadband provider.I have IPTV (YouView mainly on a Humax DTR-T1000) but my broadband does not support multicast.
iPlayer is not IPTV. Not sure what you mean by "YouView type channels" but if you mean things like red button channels on Freeview (e.g. GOD TV, Kiss, Kerang or Magic) then they probably are IPTV but work like live iPlayer on a computer and don't require multicast.
If you have BT's YouView, then all of the extra channels like Sky1 will be IPTV. This probably requires BT Broadband though, which obviously supports multicast.
5Later must be replacing the BT Sport placeholder channel. Unless they're going for a 14th stream... oh god why.
This tickles me. I remember the days of Ondigital on DS. Perceived wisdom was that there could be no more than six channels on a Mux, and that we'd all have to wait for digital switchover before we saw any more channels.
Having painted that nostalgic picture, it's not outwith the realms of possibility that technological advances could see better pictures with more channels. Highly unlikely, but not impossible.
IPTV means Internet Protocol TV, which iPlayer is. It allows TV to be watched over the internet. YouTube would count as IPTV if it had any live streaming channels with schedules. We're almost splitting hairs saying YouTube isn't IPTV.
If you have BT's YouView, then all of the extra channels like Sky1 will be IPTV. This probably requires BT Broadband though, which obviously supports multicast.
I own a Humax DTR-T1000, nothing to do with BT I got it during the original YouView trial. I am on O2 broadband as I have already said, which does not support multicasting.
IPTV means Internet Protocol TV, which iPlayer is. It allows TV to be watched over the internet. YouTube would count as IPTV if it had any live streaming channels with schedules. We're almost splitting hairs saying YouTube isn't IPTV.
But iPlayer on set top boxes or TVs isn't live. If IPTV includes non-live broadcasts then fine but I find that definition a bit pointless. I'm talking about live broadcasts over the internet.
I own a Humax DTR-T1000, nothing to do with BT I got it during the original YouView trial. I am on O2 broadband as I have already said, which does not support multicasting.
And you don't have those mainstream IPTV channels which require multicast either so it doesn't matter.
Channel 4 (who I assume at least partially owns Box TV) has decided that they can afford the bandwidth for providing their channels by IPTV, probably because viewing figures will be tiny. Most people don't even know the channels exist, they'll only work on Freeview HD boxes/TVs, they'll only work for those with decent broadband, and they're only music channels.
BT has obviously decided they need multicast because the bandwidth requirements to deliver mainstream entertainment and sports channels with larger numbers of viewers would be prohibitive, particularly in HD. Plus, they can control the internet connection of its viewers, which means they can make sure viewers have multicast capability, unlike Channel 4.
This tickles me. I remember the days of Ondigital on DS. Perceived wisdom was that there could be no more than six channels on a Mux, and that we'd all have to wait for digital switchover before we saw any more channels.
Having painted that nostalgic picture, it's not outwith the realms of possibility that technological advances could see better pictures with more channels. Highly unlikely, but not impossible.
IIRC they were getting 18 Mbps per mux back then and did not have statistical multiplexing, so 6 channels maximum sounds about right. Probably still looked better than COM mux channels do now.
But iPlayer on set top boxes or TVs isn't live. If IPTV includes non-live broadcasts then fine but I find that definition a bit pointless. I'm talking about live broadcasts over the internet.
But iPlayer can watch BBC channels live.
I agree that most people consider IPTV to only mean live channels. But that's only by convention, nothing about the name Internet Protocol TeleVision says it has to be live. I suspect it is purely that TV was always live, therefore IPTV only counts if it is live.
What time do they add new channels because my box rescans at 5.30 every morning yet there was no sign of Channel 55 when I first switched on this afternoon?
5 Later was added at some point between about 11.00 and 11.30 this morning. Changes tend to be made around midday.
This tickles me. I remember the days of Ondigital on DS. Perceived wisdom was that there could be no more than six channels on a Mux, and that we'd all have to wait for digital switchover before we saw any more channels.
Having painted that nostalgic picture, it's not outwith the realms of possibility that technological advances could see better pictures with more channels. Highly unlikely, but not impossible.
When the eighth(?) channel was added to SDN's mux, the picture quality of all channels on that mux actually improved.
Okay thanks I should probably set my box to rescan around that time. Had previously assumed they would do it when hardly anyone was watching.
I think they do it around midday so that if there is a mistake there are plenty of people around and time to spot it before the end of normal office hours. Also it means they don't need people at work at ungodly hours to make the change in the first place.
14 video streams on the SDN MUX! how poor! It would be better to lobby OFCOM to allow them to go to DVB-T2 transmission, then at least they could put more than 13 720x576 streams on there!
Why the hell would they do that? At a stroke, they'd wipe out most of their coverage, and so most of their value.
Freeview "SD" boxes/TVs are the norm for now amongst Freeview viewers, and will be for quite some time to come. Moving to Freeview HD (-T2) as standard would be another DSO-level shift.
Comments
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume it'll use the video stream which is currently the BT Sport Preview channel, which I think was previously ESPN's stream (ESPN no longer broadcasts on DTT and was previously available on TUTV etc).
They want to get away with DTT transmission in the long term anyway and will probably do so once any related contracts run out. Not only does DTT transmission cost more than IPTV but it's also a shoddy low bit rate 544x576i image, which can be much improved via IPTV.
I'm not sure what's going to happen on satellite - Channel 5 has no more space on its transponder, realistically. Hell, they were only able to get decent enough encoders to use full SD resolution a month or so ago!
IPTV can offer better resolution and picture quality (the two are not the same) but usually doesn't. Also a large proportion of the population doesn't have fast enough broadband for IPTV and won't do for quite a few years yet.
Hell, 704x576i @ 2 Mbps AVC would look far better than anything on SDN/Arq A/Arq B and would only require 3 Mbps broadband if you're not using it for anything else. Multicast should have high priority too.
I'm not interested in whether things look better than SDN/Arq A/Arq B, I rarely watch those. My benchmark is BBC1 SD and it needs more than 2 mbps to equal that.
Multicast would be good, but most broadband providers don't support it. Mine doesn't (O2, about to become Sky which I don't know about).
Just out of interest, the entire Channel 5 network had 6.3% audience share (BARB, June 2013), compared to Channel 4 network audience share of 10.5%.
What? Any company providing IPTV would be using multicast, there's simply no other efficient way to do it. I know BT and TalkTalk do this currently, not sure if anyone else does.
Averages are fine on stat muxed Freeview etc. but not relevant on IPTV. What matters on IPTV is the peak bitrate needed, because that's when it all stalls on my broadband and the annoying rebuffering kicks in.
I thought you were talking about iPlayer or YouView type channels accessed through any arbitrary broadband provider.I have IPTV (YouView mainly on a Humax DTR-T1000) but my broadband does not support multicast.
What time do they add new channels because my box rescans at 5.30 every morning yet there was no sign of Channel 55 when I first switched on this afternoon?
I had to manually rescan before the new channel finally appeared in the EPG.
iPlayer is not IPTV. Not sure what you mean by "YouView type channels" but if you mean things like red button channels on Freeview (e.g. GOD TV, Kiss, Kerang or Magic) then they probably are IPTV but work like live iPlayer on a computer and don't require multicast.
If you have BT's YouView, then all of the extra channels like Sky1 will be IPTV. This probably requires BT Broadband though, which obviously supports multicast.
This tickles me. I remember the days of Ondigital on DS. Perceived wisdom was that there could be no more than six channels on a Mux, and that we'd all have to wait for digital switchover before we saw any more channels.
Having painted that nostalgic picture, it's not outwith the realms of possibility that technological advances could see better pictures with more channels. Highly unlikely, but not impossible.
IPTV means Internet Protocol TV, which iPlayer is. It allows TV to be watched over the internet. YouTube would count as IPTV if it had any live streaming channels with schedules. We're almost splitting hairs saying YouTube isn't IPTV.
I own a Humax DTR-T1000, nothing to do with BT I got it during the original YouView trial. I am on O2 broadband as I have already said, which does not support multicasting.
And you don't have those mainstream IPTV channels which require multicast either so it doesn't matter.
Channel 4 (who I assume at least partially owns Box TV) has decided that they can afford the bandwidth for providing their channels by IPTV, probably because viewing figures will be tiny. Most people don't even know the channels exist, they'll only work on Freeview HD boxes/TVs, they'll only work for those with decent broadband, and they're only music channels.
BT has obviously decided they need multicast because the bandwidth requirements to deliver mainstream entertainment and sports channels with larger numbers of viewers would be prohibitive, particularly in HD. Plus, they can control the internet connection of its viewers, which means they can make sure viewers have multicast capability, unlike Channel 4.
IIRC they were getting 18 Mbps per mux back then and did not have statistical multiplexing, so 6 channels maximum sounds about right. Probably still looked better than COM mux channels do now.
But iPlayer can watch BBC channels live.
I agree that most people consider IPTV to only mean live channels. But that's only by convention, nothing about the name Internet Protocol TeleVision says it has to be live. I suspect it is purely that TV was always live, therefore IPTV only counts if it is live.
5 Later was added at some point between about 11.00 and 11.30 this morning. Changes tend to be made around midday.
When the eighth(?) channel was added to SDN's mux, the picture quality of all channels on that mux actually improved.
Sadly it's all gone downhill since then.
Okay thanks
I think they do it around midday so that if there is a mistake there are plenty of people around and time to spot it before the end of normal office hours. Also it means they don't need people at work at ungodly hours to make the change in the first place.
Why the hell would they do that? At a stroke, they'd wipe out most of their coverage, and so most of their value.
Freeview "SD" boxes/TVs are the norm for now amongst Freeview viewers, and will be for quite some time to come. Moving to Freeview HD (-T2) as standard would be another DSO-level shift.
a waste of space
We don't no what going to be on there yet.