Alix Pryde has blogged http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/abouttheb...ew-in-Scotland


On all the time. Now

BBC Radio Scotland
BBC Radio 1Xtra
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 Extra
BBC Radio 5 live
BBC Radio 5 live sports extra
BBC Radio 6 Music
BBC Asian Network


Five radio stations continue to be unavailable on Freeview in Scotland while BBC ALBA is on-air in the evening:

BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio nan Gàidheal
BBC World Service

Good. I can start recording Radio 4 comedy at 6.30pm again

Yes, here in England I've grown used to timeshifting in stereo from R4 & R4X. Unfortunately, if you read the article, the "restored" stations are at a lower bitrate and in mono. That is the same or lower quality than DAB. An improvement, but must try harder.

I can see the same happening in England if the DG gets his BBC One+1 unless the BBC either buy bandwidth from another supplier or are allowed to re-engineer the BBC Mux to broadcast at 27Mbps (I think - as in SDN/ARQ muxes) rather than ~24Mbps.
Last edited by EEPhil : 03-12-2013 at 09:13

The TV channel audios have not changed to 192kbit/s yet.

Here's the details of audio bitrates in Scotland now, checked just after 18.00 today

BBC1, BBC2, CBBC, CBeebies : 256 stereo + AD
BBC News : 128 JS
Parliament : 128 JS
Alba : 128 JS
301 : 192 JS + 128 JS

R1X : 128 JS
R4 : 80 mono
R4X : 80 mono
R5 : 80 mono
R5SX : 64 mono
R6M : 128 JS
Asian : 80 mono
R Scot : 80 mono

Yes - I suspect you are right. Can see the reduction of BBC Radio on Freeview to DAB levels plus reduction of the TV audio bitrates as being a handy way to free up space for BBC One+1.

But if you want HD radio then you will have switched to the AAC internet streams ages ago.

Just listened to Radio Scotland at the midnight juncture. A smooth transition to stereo on my Vestel PVR

Here are the daytime audio bitrates for reference

TV channels - same as above

Radios 1-4 : 192 JS
R1X, R4X, R6M : 160 JS
RScot, RnG, Asian Net : 128 JS
R5L, R5SX, WS : 96 mono

-------------
Total daytime radio bitrates : 1920
Total evening radio bitrates : 720

Difference 1200

Recently added evening stations : 384
Old difference : 1584 (i think)

Having just checked, I can state that the 4 main BBC channels in Scotland now have 192 Joint Stereo audio.

This is while BBC Alba is off air.

I just asked about this in a new thread, had not noticed they were back.

Strange that they have decided to still not carry Radio nan Gaidheal in the evening even though BBC Alba is on during that period.

Rather strange that they broadcast radio four and radio scotland- both of which are available on FM- but not the World service which isn't. ...

The blog linked to in post #1 explains why.