BBC Red button changes

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chrisy

07-06-2013

Next Thursday, the EPG data for 302 and 303 changes:
302 then shows description as "The best of BBC Red Button"
303 has actual content (Queen's tennis, and the next day kicks off with MotoGP)

Mark Smith

08-06-2013

As I've just posted in the Freesat forum, it appears the HD red button will also be simulcasting BBC Three coverage of the Confederations Cup starting next Saturday.

Sideburns57

08-06-2013

Perfect. Thanks for letting us know.

Greebo

08-06-2013

Originally Posted by Mark Smith:
“As I've just posted in the Freesat forum, it appears the HD red button will also be simulcasting BBC Three coverage of the Confederations Cup starting next Saturday.”

Good spot. I see another BBC Three simulcast - World Athletics - Diamond League, Oslo: Live coverage of the Diamond League Athletics from Oslo. 19:00 on Thursday.

tomee

08-06-2013

Any news on 302.When will it starts broadcasting?

Sue_Aitch

09-06-2013

No news of the return of a second screen is being given on http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/...e#dna-comments but Queen's looks to be being shown on Connected TV.

who10uk

10-06-2013

Looking at today's press release, it appears that Red Button streams being used for Glastonbury won't be used for Wimbledon with only upto 3 streams available at a time - presumably BBC1, BBC and 301.

Really crap the way the BBC obsess about connected red button wich is only available on Virgin. My two year old Sony doesn't get BBC Sport App. I'm not buying a new TV to get that!!

I doubt connected red button will be on Sky anytime soon

Besides that, I don't want this blowing my broadband use cap.

Really crap service after many years of 5 Wimbledon streams.

Sue_Aitch

10-06-2013

Originally Posted by Sue_Aitch:
“No news of the return of a second screen is being given on http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/...e#dna-comments but Queen's looks to be being shown on Connected TV.”

Alix Pryde, bless her, has blogged http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/abouttheb...-Button-summer

mossy2103

10-06-2013

Originally Posted by Sue_Aitch:
“Alix Pryde, bless her, has blogged http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/abouttheb...-Button-summer”

The salient points:

Quote:
“As regular readers will know, one of the challenges we have been grappling with over the past months and years is how to get the right amount of capacity for BBC Red Button broadcast video streams. The difficulty is that the amount of content available varies across the year, typically peaking around the time of Wimbledon, Glastonbury and the British Grand Prix. Our goal is not to waste money paying for more capacity than we need over the rest of the year, but at the same time to be able to offer audiences a breadth of choice at the times that they want it most. It’s a difficult balance to get right.

In order to bring an enhanced experience to your TV this summer we are trying something different. We are trying to operate a flexible model for the BBC Red Button which expands when the content demands. And as more and more of you get HD TVs, we want to be able to offer more of these prime sporting and music events to you in HD too, beyond what you will see on BBC One HD and BBC Two HD. This summer is our first experiment, and we’ll be launching:

An HD red button stream on Freeview HD/Youview, Sky HD, Virgin Media and Freesat HD
One additional SD red button stream on Freeview/BT Vision/Youview (digital terrestrial television, DTT)
Two additional SD red button streams on Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat (satellite and cable)

The reason why there is only one additional SD stream on DTT rather than two is that unfortunately there isn’t the capacity available in the market to do more. That’s also the reason why the geographic coverage of that stream is a bit less than our usual coverage, c. 90% of households rather than 98.5%. The coverage of the HD stream and the satellite and cable streams will be the same as the usual BBC coverage.

The extra SD streams are timed to cover the last week of June and the first week of July as this is the busiest time of the year on the Red Button. The HD stream will start a little sooner and will be available for longer. The HD Red Button will be the place to find our 3D coverage of the Wimbledon semi-finals and finals. All the events are available on bbc.co.uk as well.”

Sideburns57

10-06-2013

They are showing Brazil-Japan (football) via 302 on the 15th, so that makes moi happy!

Greebo

10-06-2013

Originally Posted by Sideburns57:
“They are showing Brazil-Japan (football) via 302 on the 15th, so that makes moi happy!”

I'm seeing nothing except padding in the 302 EPG. Brazil-Japan appears to be live on BBC Three and BBC RB 303 HD. I wonder if they will add the SD-HD link metadata?

Sideburns57

10-06-2013

I did a scroll forward and saw it (unless I was dreaming-confusin 302 and 303!).

"I wonder if they will add the SD-HD link metadata?" One word: que?!

Greebo

10-06-2013

Originally Posted by Sideburns57:
“I did a scroll forward and saw it (unless I was dreaming-confusin 302 and 303!).”

I can see the whole 7 days of 302 EPG via a webbrowser on my Humax HD Fox T2 and it shows "This is BBC Red Button" up to 06:00 on Thursday, and then it becomes "BBC Red Button " and starts being flagged as sport. Every day is broken into four six-hour slots. I can see EPG data as far as the first 6 hours of Tuesday 18th June and there are no real programs up to then.

Originally Posted by Sideburns57:
“"I wonder if they will add the SD-HD link metadata?" One word: que?!”

It is what lets the box know that the program is also available in HD. Different boxes seems to then deal with it in different ways. The Humax boxes give you a popup message "Press OK to watch in HD" - wheres a Technika one has a menu option where it will autoswitch to the HD channel if you so choose.

Sideburns57

10-06-2013

Thanks for explaining that.

Sideburns57

10-06-2013

See link for schedule...........

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/17151954

Sideburns57

11-06-2013

Tournament preview on red button

"Wednesday 12 June

Confederations Cup preview: 15:15, BBC Red Button"

And, it must be said, what an odd time to put that on!

Sue_Aitch

13-06-2013

Page 998 has had a makeover to explain the new RB channels.

ozsat

13-06-2013

It is just one of many screenings at lots of different times.

Originally Posted by Sideburns57:
“Tournament preview on red button

"Wednesday 12 June

Confederations Cup preview: 15:15, BBC Red Button"

And, it must be said, what an odd time to put that on!”

Greebo

13-06-2013

Originally Posted by Sue_Aitch:
“Page 998 has had a makeover to explain the new RB channels.”

Also for the first time we have a very simple Red Button MHEG on the HD mux. "Press Red ⓘ" is now visible on BBC [One|Two] HD which then takes you to a blue button "● Menu" graphic that has two choices "Red Button HD" or "Exit to BBC One". The choice of exiting to BBC One is slightly odd, since you get that whether you press red on BBC One HD or BBC Two HD - there is never a "Exit to BBC Two" - plus it actually should say "Exit to BBC One HD" - but ignoring that, we have our first MHEG on the HD mux.

DragonQ

13-06-2013

Can't believe how long it took to add a red button. It must be so easy to do, especially when red button functionality already exists on the SD BBC A mux!

Greebo

13-06-2013

Originally Posted by Greebo:
“I wonder if they will add the SD-HD link metadata?”

To answer my own question, BBC Three this evening is not popping up the "(OK) Watch in HD" message, so the SD-HD link data is not in place for the World Athletics program.

chrisy

13-06-2013

Now all they need to do is add all the text content!

(Also - they had the channel changer MHEG during the Olympics, and the 2D/3D switcher before that, so it's not the first time MHEG has appeared on the HD channels)

Greebo

13-06-2013

Originally Posted by DragonQ:
“Can't believe how long it took to add a red button. It must be so easy to do, especially when red button functionality already exists on the SD BBC A mux!”

So if you'd have put a red button in place earlier, what would you have had it do?

chrisy

13-06-2013

Originally Posted by Greebo:
“So if you'd have put a red button in place earlier, what would you have had it do?”

Linking to 301 would have been a start. I've lost track of the amounts of times the announcer has said "..and if you press the red button now..." and I'm thinking "hmm, the prompt hasn't come up... oh, yeah, I'm watching in HD so pressing the red button doesn't do anything".

Greebo

13-06-2013

Originally Posted by chrisy:
“Linking to 301 would have been a start. I've lost track of the amounts of times the announcer has said "..and if you press the red button now..." and I'm thinking "hmm, the prompt hasn't come up... oh, yeah, I'm watching in HD so pressing the red button doesn't do anything".”

I can see that. It would be small so not a significant bandwidth hog.
However have we ever seen a MHEG app switch to another mux? Assuming we haven't, is it possible? Will they be able to do it to switch to 302?

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