Comments on: No News Is Good News?

By: James

James — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:34:36 +0000

I belive that freesat is not trying that hard to get new channels. UKTV channels should be added Five HD, Five US and Fiver.

Sorry clicked Submit Comment to early!!!!!!!!!

By: James

James — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:33:29 +0000

I belive that freesat is not trying that hard to get new channels. UKTV channels should be added F

By: Tony Hales

Tony Hales — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 13:32:49 +0000

Frankly who cares. ITV-HD is a joke. They put out five shows a week one of which is a repeat.

By: towny

towny — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:24:39 +0000

@Derek … I don’t need to do that search – I’m not saying non-Sky boxes couldn’t be made to tune to ITV-HD. I know for a fact that they can. What I’m saying is that *official* Sky boxes could not, when ITV-HD launched, be made to tune to that channel. It simply wasn’t possible. No official Sky box could be made to scan for it because it is broadcast in a deliberately non-compliant fashion.

Now, well, since late March/early April, it suddenly *is* possible. Sky has updated the software in its HD boxes so that they can scan for precisely the same non-compliant broadcast method that ITV-HD uses.

Isn’t it funny how Sky suddenly decides there’s a need to allow its subscribers to manually tune their boxes in a way that they have never before considered necessary? Isn’t it just a teensy, weensy bit coincidental that a matter of months after ITV chooses a very unusual way of wrapping and broadcasting its HD channel, Sky adds the ability to sniff out and add a channel delivered in just that way to its menus?

My original claim was that Sky wants ITV-HD badly enough that it would list it officially in its EPG for free. I have offered the lengths they have gone to to patch their own boxes in order to make it appear for free as proof of this. Effectively, they have already done it, so far as it is possible.

By: derek500

derek500 — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 10:13:08 +0000

@ towny

Do a search on DS of “ITV HD PID” and you’ll find loads of posts about upgrades to software, new firmware etc. for non Sky boxes.

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:09:24 +0000

Hi Alex, in answer to your iplayer question, I use the power line adapters, and they work fine with my satellite receiver, though not sure how well with freesat receivers. You do lose some download speed though, but you probably won’t notice as you have download speeds similar to my own.

By: towny

towny — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 18:13:50 +0000

@Derek – prior to the patch deployed to Sky+HD boxes earlier this year, it was not possible to manually tune a Sky+HD box to ITV HD, due to the way the channel data is wrapped and broadcast. There’s no reason why other FTA box manufacturers should have had a problem with it, because such equipment is designed to be flexible. Sky boxes on the other hand tend to be well locked down.

By: Nigel Whitfield

Nigel Whitfield — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 10:26:36 +0000

Sky almost certainly wouldn’t put ITV HD on the EPG without charging them for it. They’d end up in a tremendous amount of hot water from Ofcom, amongst others.

The principle of access to an EPG is that it should be Fair, Reasonable and Non Discriminatory (FRND). When you have told some channels that they can’t launch because the queue is closed, and others have unsuccessfully fought court cases trying to have the fees reduced because they couldn’t afford them, turning round and saying “Oh, we think we’ll pinch this channel and put it on the EPG without even charging them a penny or asking their permission” is just not going to happen.

By: derek500

derek500 — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 10:02:04 +0000

@ towny.

Sky could easily put ITV HD on the EPG, but they can’t. It’s up to ITV to decide whether to go on or not and agree terms with Sky.

Out of interest what lengths did the techs go to in order to get ITV HD on the new EPG?

The various DVB card and FTA box manufacturers sorted it out pretty quickly.

By: towny

towny — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 09:21:44 +0000

@Derek … calm down dear, it’s only a blog discussion.

As I said, Sky would love to have ITV-HD on its EPG. It would love to have it so badly that it would put it there without ITV paying it. As usual with Sky, its advertising is about quantity, not quality. It wants ITV-HD, pure and simple.

For proof, witness the lengths its techs went to in order to get a patch out to Sky+HD boxes that allows them to manually tune to ITV-HD.