Extra channels - info on BT Help pages
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BT have now added a section to their help page titled 'Extra Channels'. Hopefully you can get straight there using the link below.
http://bt.custhelp.com/app/hub/c/348/?s_cid=con_FURL_help/btvision#h=ImNhdD0zNDhfNjMwMHxjb2w9MyI.
Essentially the extra channels will be recordable and appear in the TV guide from channel 800 onwards (with a little 'b' beside to denote they are using broadband). If you are watching one of these channels then it will affect your broadband speed so they recommend changing the channel to a freeview channel once you've finished watching the programme you wanted to watch.
Only had a chance to skim read, I'm sure they'll be some more interesting things on there...
http://bt.custhelp.com/app/hub/c/348/?s_cid=con_FURL_help/btvision#h=ImNhdD0zNDhfNjMwMHxjb2w9MyI.
Essentially the extra channels will be recordable and appear in the TV guide from channel 800 onwards (with a little 'b' beside to denote they are using broadband). If you are watching one of these channels then it will affect your broadband speed so they recommend changing the channel to a freeview channel once you've finished watching the programme you wanted to watch.
Only had a chance to skim read, I'm sure they'll be some more interesting things on there...
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Looks like when the current football season ends I will be changing from BT.
Again, there's nothing stopping you from using power line adaptors. of course, if theyre low bandwidth you might struggle which is why bt wont support them probably. I can push over 40meg through mine si ill be fine anyway.
Hi wwwebber,
How do users check what speed their PLA's operate at?
I plugged in my laptop instead of btvision and did an internet speed test.
True. I dont use the BT supplied ones but have a pair of Solwise 500 Mbps ones which may be ok. The problem is that according to the BT price list published earlier you will have to recontract for a year to get the extra channels. If the adaptors didnt work it would probably be a battle to get out of the contract as the BT guidance is very firm that only ethernet cable will do. However still some months before I have to make a decision.
Forgive my ignorance here but on what basis would somebody be asked to enter a new contract for a few extra TV channels? Will they not be similar to TalkTalk and be an added 30-day at a time option?
And you know what montycat? I completely agree with you. One would have thought these new channels would have been offered on a month to month contract only, particularly when bearing in mind whats just around the corner with YouView.
I'm out of contract with Vision, and have also just signed up to Infinity Unlimited, but again with no extension of contract. All in preparation for switching to YouView in July (hopefully). Yet now this happens...
Here is the relevant extract from the BT price list
"UNLIMITED EXTRA3
BT VISION+ BOX
All Viewing Packs + TV Replay + Extra TV channels – 12 month term – eligible for ESPN add-on
£15.00"
This may only apply to new customers the price list does not specifically cover existing customers. It would seem completely daft for BT to ask existing customers to recontract for the 12 month period to get the extra channels but I would never put anything past them. They may do something on the same basis as when they added Sky sports i.e. a lower monthly cost for the channels subject to taking out a new contract.
12 months contract will apply to people getting a new (subsidised) box from BT - anything beyond that would be madness.
As with Youtube from BT, the new information isn't very well written - BT will catch up after a few weeks... I seem to recall that it was a couple of months before they clarified this kind of query in their Youtube information, they need better copy writers and editors.
Sky do this kind of thing from time to time, too, sometimes I despair at the quality of information put out by these companies and the unanswered (but often obvious) questions they leave hanging in the air. :rolleyes:
Is is the powerlines I use with my Youview box.
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/9093087.htm#pdpFullProductInformation
Would thay be any good for the new BT channels. They seem to work well with HD on the BBCi player via YouView.
Darren
Powerlines will not be supported by BT with the new live channels. PERIOD.
Whether an individual user can can them to work or not is a matter for that individual user and that user alone. And they will be on their own, with whatever results they end up with.
I will no be taking any of the new BT channels then if this is the case and I was thinking about taking a basic package.
Darren
Right... just done the above and no chance. I'm only pulling 10Mbps. But I've just found a spare 15m Cat5 cable upstairs, so I'll use that, if I decide to go for these new BTV channels. But I think I may wait for the YouView launch. Which will still need a cable.
I didn't say that powerline adapters can't be used. I said BT will not support the use of powerline adapters on the new linear channels. The adapters will probably work fine for some people but if they don't BT won't support you in a technical way.
Why not get some new adaptors? quite cheap these days. My Youview box, tv and Sonos runs off mine no problem.
http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/rss/1165768/Well-call-you-BT/
It's my understanding that support for powerline is being worked on.
For now, the above is correct to the best of my knowledge - it's not supported, though you may well get it to work depending on the brand of powerline adapter etc.
Obviously if doesn't work and you phone the helpdesk, and you tell them you are using powerline, expect to get short shrift...
I wouldnt bet on it. Wifi varies greatly from location to location and house to house. It can never be depended upon to offer a consistently high throughput due to various factors.
Yeah... It's a strange one that. Because it was and still is in the YouView specs to include it. But they haven't. Mind you, with the very high bit rates that will be required, I imagine the majority of users just wouldn't be able to get even powerlines to work, never mind wi-fi.
In terms of Wifi - problem is bandwidth throughput and interference. BT are incredibly risk averse when it comes to products and whether customers will complain. Wifi doesn't have enough of a "safety net" to be used.
I think the Powerline Adapters will be fine but WiFi is just too risky especially if streaming 2 channels (1 to watch, the 2nd being recorded).
I stand corrected.
Correct - but with YouView it was developed as a VoD system for catch up TV were WiFi performance should be acceptable (max 1-3mbps video rate).
Referring back to my earlier post moving towards live television streaming customers will not accept buffering/packet loss on their Live TV pictures which is why WiFi is out of the question for just now.
That's right. The only way wifi for Youview (or BT Vision for that matter) would ever work acceptably for linear TV channels would be if they were delivered unicast, and then probably using adaptive bitrate delivery to give some sort of continuity when things start going awry.
VOD is (obviously) delivered unicast, and the STB can perform a number of tricks to pre-buffer content to deal with variable bandwidth - Youview has buffering behaviour baked into the spec, and no doubt BT's box preloads a safety margin of VOD content before playback starts. Within reason, VOD would work over a piece of wet string as long as the average bandwidth was high enough.
The multicast approach that BT will be using for their linear channels is highly intolerant of packet loss - for example there is no packet-level retry at the TCP level (because it's delivered over UDP and not TCP).
There are workarounds such as forward error correction and unicast-based retransmission, but these don't really scale to the point that would allow (say) everyone in the UK to watch Eastenders over multicast on a flaky line, or over a home network that includes a potentially flaky link such as wifi or powerline.