DS Forums

 
 

BBCi channels


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 25-05-2010, 16:04
kingsmeadow
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 65

I am very new at Freesat, but have had Freeview for many years, and I notice one thing immediatley and that is I cannot connect to a BBCi channel directly as I can with Freeview.

For example on Freeview I can go to 302,303,etc without having to press the Red button. On Freesat, I cannot find the channel with pressing the Red Button.

Can anyone enlighten me.

One more thing, what format do the files have to be in order to play from a USB drive?

Many thanks
kingsmeadow is offline   Reply With Quote
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
Old 25-05-2010, 16:24
Geoff_W
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Nottingham
Posts: 372
Unlike Freeview, the BBCi red button does not have its own dedicated channels, so you can only access the service via the red button. Consequently, you cannot record them, either.

An external usb drive must be formatted as EXT3 in order to copy to and play back from it. Normally, the formatting is done under Linux. There are other threads on this board which explain how this is done.

Geoff
Geoff_W is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-05-2010, 17:03
GaseousClay
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Worcester
Posts: 4,185

An external usb drive must be formatted as EXT3 in order to copy to and play back from it. Normally, the formatting is done under Linux. There are other threads on this board which explain how this is done.

Geoff
Not entirely true. Fat32 format works fine for files smaller than 4GB.
GaseousClay is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-05-2010, 17:07
GaseousClay
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Worcester
Posts: 4,185

One more thing, what format do the files have to be in order to play from a USB drive?

Many thanks
The file needs to be a .TS file (transport stream) and it is accompanyed by two 'sidecar' files.

There is a piece of software available (I don't have the link to hand) that will convert AV files and create the 'sidecar' files to work with the HDR

edit: link here
GaseousClay is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-05-2010, 17:18
Geoff_W
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Nottingham
Posts: 372
Not entirely true. Fat32 format works fine for files smaller than 4GB.
True, but I took the OP's reference to a "USB drive" to mean an external HDD.

Incidentally, is it possible to play back a (sub-4Gb) file from a usb pen?

Geoff
Geoff_W is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-05-2010, 17:23
GaseousClay
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Worcester
Posts: 4,185
Incidentally, is it possible to play back a (sub-4Gb) file from a usb pen?

Geoff
Yep pen or Hdd, as long as under the 4GB limit of the format or over if you reformat to ext3. You can even attach a usb hub and increase the number of attached storage devices. If I remember correctly you can have the internal drive plus 3 externals.

Edit: I've just plugged in 1 external Hdd (FAT32) and 3 pen drives, 2 are FAT32 and the other EXT3. so thats internal plus 4 externals.
GaseousClay is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-05-2010, 18:00
kingsmeadow
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 65
Unlike Freeview, the BBCi red button does not have its own dedicated channels, so you can only access the service via the red button. Consequently, you cannot record them, either.

Geoff
What disppointment ! I do enjoy the sports on BBCi and record them to view anytime. I suppose I will continue to use my Freeview system and enjoy the benefits of FreeSat, which are now fewer. Seems a step backwards.
kingsmeadow is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-05-2010, 18:09
gomezz
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Buckingham
Posts: 28,534
Complain to the BBC about the reduced Red Button service on Freeview. And they will tell you to use iPlayer. So where is MotoGP Xtra on iPlayer, says I? Deafening silence.
gomezz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26-05-2010, 08:22
kingsmeadow
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 65
The file needs to be a .TS file (transport stream) and it is accompanyed by two 'sidecar' files.

There is a piece of software available (I don't have the link to hand) that will convert AV files and create the 'sidecar' files to work with the HDR

edit: link here
Thanks much for this, I shall give it a try and see how I get on.
kingsmeadow is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 27-05-2010, 09:01
kingsmeadow
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 65
The file needs to be a .TS file (transport stream) and it is accompanyed by two 'sidecar' files.

There is a piece of software available (I don't have the link to hand) that will convert AV files and create the 'sidecar' files to work with the HDR

edit: link here
Just some feedback for you. I have converted 2 files, one an mpg, but the audio was broken up. The second a VOB with ac3 audio and it worked perfectly ! I will try and find out why the mpeg audio didn't convert. However thanks again for the link and info.
kingsmeadow is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2010, 11:09
GeofP
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Hampshire
Posts: 5
I don't have a Freesat box but watch the chanels using a satellite card in a PC using DVBViewer software.


I access the red button channels on the following transponder:

Frequency Symbolrate FEC Stream ID
12441 V . 27500 .....2/3 2038

________PID: Video . Service. Audio. Text . PMT . PCR
STREAM-0 ..... 5000 .. 6880 ... 5001 . 5007 . 256 . 5000
STREAM-1 ..... 5100 .. 6881 ... 5101 . 5103 . 257 . 5100
STREAM-2 ..... 5200 .. 6882 ... 5201 . 5203 . 258 . 5200
STREAM-3 ..... 5300 .. 6883 ... 5301 . 5303 . 259 . 5300
STREAM-4 ..... 5400 .. 6884 ... 5401 . 5403 . 260 . 5400
STREAM-5 ..... 5500 .. 6885 ... 5501 . 5507 . 261 . 5500
STREAM-6 ..... 5600 .. 6886 ... 5601 . 5603 . 262 . 5600
GeofP is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2010, 13:02
mikeydb
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Bristol.
Posts: 1,783
The BBCi streams can be accessed with any receiver other than a freesat receiver it seems, not sure why the freesat boxes lack this ability, but like the above poster said, it's freely available to watch.
mikeydb is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2010, 14:00
davemurgatroyd
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Oxford
Posts: 12,689
The BBCi streams can be accessed with any receiver other than a freesat receiver it seems, not sure why the freesat boxes lack this ability, but like the above poster said, it's freely available to watch.
They are broadcast as data streams and not channels. Neither freesat nor Sky boxes can tune these streams seperately. If the BBC were to broadcast these as channels with a seperate EPG entry then they would require a new license for each channels (which the BBC trust have said no to) and to pay seperate EPG fee for each. Most generic receivers can tune these channels as they not restricted to EPG data and can also be set up to ignore the data stream flag.
davemurgatroyd is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2010, 14:01
davemurgatroyd
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Oxford
Posts: 12,689
Bump - forum bug
davemurgatroyd is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2010, 15:35
jzee
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 19,460
They are broadcast as data streams and not channels. Neither freesat nor Sky boxes can tune these streams seperately.
Not true, Technisat boxes can, as can Panasonic Freesat TVs.
jzee is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 14-06-2010, 16:26
moog5
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 3,556
Given the above info, I assume there's therefore no way to record the red button streams on the Humax HDR box - correct?
moog5 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 14-06-2010, 17:14
GaseousClay
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Worcester
Posts: 4,185
Given the above info, I assume there's therefore no way to record the red button streams on the Humax HDR box - correct?
Correct!
GaseousClay is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Reply




 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 16:20.