Hi all,

I haven't been on this forum in quite some time, so I thought I'd say hi. I've been around on and off though for over a decade now!

Inspired by getting a new TV, I decided to have a look around to see what's changed, and finally get around to restarting updates on my multiplex timesharing diagrams. My sources include a516digital's excellent site (though I still miss 10ash!) and direct observation, as well as using my old diagram. I'm amazed at both how much has changed and how much has stayed the same since 2011!

The diagrams are the same style as they were when I last updated them a few years ago — one pixel per minute, showing only video streams (unless other streams timeshare with video streams, see BBC Alba).

They are up-to-date as of yesterday, which is to say, already out of date! I'm currently in the process of updating the diagrams for today, but I need a little more data first (whether or not Tiny Pop has extended broadcasting hours) so I'll hold off until after 7pm.

Due to a lack of data, the Republic of Ireland diagram is now probably quite wrong, but I had a go based on the data I could find. If someone could point me to a comprehensive site about Saorview that would be great.

You can view the diagrams here, with a line drawn on to mark the current time:

http://tim32.org/~muzer/muxdiag.png/viewcurrent.php




(If you are interested in the diagrams as they were when they were last updated (in 2011), have a look here: http://tim32.org/~muzer/muxdiag.png.old/viewcurrent.php )

Any comments about errors, omissions or suggestions are welcome!

Just realised I've missed ITVBe. Is this 24 hours in its own stream on SDN?

I thought it was your job to tell us that!

I've been out of the loop for quite some time! I don't want to hang around watching ITVBe for a whole day to find out it is, in fact, 24 hours

LOL, Welcome back!!

I remember you used to make a lot of interesting and constructive posts in the Freesat forums too!

I did indeed post in the Freesat subforum, thanks! It was coming to uni that killed my interest, living in halls it was rather hard to get a decent setup!

My new TV does have a satellite input (albeit not Freesat) so I might try putting my old Sky dish up, perhaps on a pole or something, in my front garden at some point if I get some time...

I've uploaded the diagrams updated for today to the best of my knowledge.

Welcome back!

Tiny Pop is 3PM-7PM, not 3AM-7PM.

Nothing has changed there yet - the old Community stream on 790 has been running again since after 7. BT Sport 2, as far as I can tell, is still running as well despite the reports it was supposed to close on Monday.


I assure you, you've missed nothing on ITVBe.

Muzer is right: The slate confirms Tiny POP returns at 3am.

BT Sport 2's video bitrate dropped sharply around midnight into the 5th January, and lingered for much of Monday around 1Mbps, before recovering again during Tuesday. I can only go on the letter that was issued to affected customers that I received a copy of. Whether BT TV customers can still access 59 now, I don't know. BT Sport 2 completely ends on channel 59 on Monday morning.

Indeed, but since Community disappeared, the MHEG caption on Tiny Pop states "Programmes return at 3am". So I assumed Tiny Pop is increasing its hours at the expense of Community. Admittedly the EPG still says 3pm, but EPGs have been wrong before... I'll keep the diagram as it is, and if at 3am it turns out to be wrong, I'll change it.


Thanks for the info that Community is still broadcasting, though. I'll hold off and see if it happens again tomorrow — if it does, I'll fix the diagram back.


Yeah, I'm not exactly the target audience

I've just added an option to get the image scaled up, it really helps readability for higher resolutions/poorer eyes (I'm not sure which to blame, I'm sure I used to find it easier to read )

Interesting (to a certain degree), that there is no 10 minute buffer for a stream to switch from an adult channel to a kids channel (Party which continues until 7am and Tiny POP) starting as done (but perhaps not now) with TVX and 5*, Babestation and Ideal World.

The streams on the COM multiplexes are dynamic. Multiplex diagrams are a graphic representation of how the multiplex capacity is split up. Unlike in the early days of Freeview, where literal timeshares took place (remember British Eurosport on Top Up TV going free-to-air at 10:57pm before the stream switched to something else?), the channels can have their own PIDs etc so that there is no need of a buffer. The overnight content won't get played out on the other channel, unless something went catastrophically wrong on the multiplex - but then you'd have to have no children's channels on the same multiplex as the adult channels...

I was thinking that as well but I suppose it does no harm to visually represent as shared streams still to keep things simple.

Indeed, I should have mentioned that caveat. It does indeed help, though, since it can still usually be considered in terms of "streams" with comparatively few services breaking the pattern (see Xpanded and Party).

Nice to see I'm not the only one making a comeback

It's been quite some time since I've seen mux timeshare diagrams! There were several sites devoted to all things DTT for quite some time, but in recent years I think the novelty has faded as the service has become the 'ubiquitous defacto' and there are more multiplexes than you can shake a stick at.

I remember the 'good old days' on SDN with several TUTV/shopping/porn channels timesharing a single stream... and the fiercely competitive auction for capacity from Crown Castle on muxes C and D with the slot going for millions of pounds. Not at all like that today!

Yes, I do remember those days. I still have to stop myself from slipping into referring to them as Mux A, Mux C and Mux D

Why would you make it so garish and hard to read?

The colours are for distinguishing the genres of channel, and basically were chosen by the default colours that are easy to hand in the program I use to edit it

I don't personally find it hard to read; have you tried the larger versions I added yesterday?

Seeing as everyone else is making a comeback, I will too! Well, I still come here regularly, just don't post any more.

The mux diagrams are a good idea, and the larger versions are better. But they are hard to read still. It would help if you used pastel colours instead of bright ones. But most importantly, can you change the font? That for me is the biggest issue. But thanks for doing this though!

Hurrah for another comeback!

I can't remember who it was, but there was definately a HTML version back in the day somewhere. It may have been the (much missed) deeteetee website? Regardless, nobody does this kind of thing anymore so it's good to see again.

Just look how the timeshares compare on MuxA SDN between 2011 and today! Absolute madness to think one stream could be carved into so many LCNs in those days.

a516digital actually has a similar diagram ( http://www.a516digital.com/2014/11/d...ity-guide.html ). I believe mine originally predated that though, plus I wanted one that was completely proportional, hence making it an image. This allowed me to produce the PHP script that draws a line on the diagram at the current time. I was also very bored

Yes, I remember deeteetee. Did that originally evolve from the SDN site (was that its name)? I can't remember. Aside from 10ash which was more recent, I also remember another site I used to really like, but I can't remember its name, sadly. I think it was the first that I remembered using on a regular basis to close. Except I think I'm wrong, there was another site that had a lot of OnDigital related content that I used to look at too. Memories!

WRT the font, that will be rather hard to change, as the text is actually all hand-drawn (this was to allow me to fit in much more information in a smaller space, so that the diagram could be a reasonable size). Perhaps if I were to break it up into multiplexes using a real font would be more feasible. But I won't be doing this for now, since I have exams soon!

Ray Cathode's site was also very good, bsaoc.com memories!

Ah, yes, that's the one I meant when I said 10ash. Was that actually a different one?

The other one I'm thinking of was from a LONG time ago. Must have been around the time I joined (2004) ish, perhaps for a couple of years afterwards. I seem to remember that I found it the main comprehensive source, at least for news, at its time (a title currently held by a516 IMHO, but it has been passed from site to site for a few years, most recently before this being held by the aforementioned Ray Cathode's site).

In a sudden fit of inspiration it came to me — kev's tellyaerial! It's still up, and closed in 2008.

http://www.tellyaerial.kjs.me.uk/

I'm still missing the name of that site that closed earlier which had a lot of interesting detail about ONDigital/ITV Digital.


A current site that contains lots of interesting information, both historic and current, is http://www.terrestrialtv.co.uk — I really must recommend it.

Yes - TellyAerial (as you noted) was a great source, and I'm glad that it was not taken down when it closed, it has a lot of good stuff still knocking around on it.

There was also DTT Boxes, which closed, but later became part of deeteetee.

There is also ONhistory, which is now really a nostalgia site.