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I have it on good authority that RT HD, which launched fta (free-to-air) in December last year will launch on freesat in February.
When I spoke to freesat a few weeks ago about RT HD, they weren’t aware of the high-definition channel, but clearly this has tasked freesat into action and between them and Russia Today, a deal appears to have been made. This follows the launch of the channel on Sky (free) on Monday 14th January 2013.
Russia Today is the first Russian 24/7 English-language news channel which brings the Russian view on global news. The high-definition quality is good (though not on a par with NHK World HD) and is a very popular channel; the standard-definition version is already available on freesat channel 206.
This would be the sixth freely available high-definition channels on the freesat platform with the possibility of a seventh in the form of another news channel, Arise TV, due to launch soon, though not confirmed as coming to freesat yet.
Update (14/02/13) – No longer a rumour, RT HD will be launching this week on freesat.
January 25th, 2013 at 12:44 am
Brilliant news. RT is by far the best impartial news service currently broadcasting in the UK. If you want to find out what is happening in the so called Syrian “revolution” check out RT News.
Simon TaylorQuote
January 25th, 2013 at 1:03 am
Great news that RT HD is coming to Freesat. I find it mind boggling that the Freesat team hadn’t heard of RT HD untill it was pointed out to them. Maybe we should tell them about a few other TV channels they won’t know about then. I’ll start the ball rolling with RT Documentary & The Travel channel and it’s plus 1 version. Anyone else want to give them a few hints?
SaltydawgQuote
January 25th, 2013 at 9:43 am
I prefer Aljazeera but lets not get into an argument about what is impartial on this board. It is good news for Freesat and other home grown SD news channels should hang their heads in shame that they cannot or will not provide a HD news service on Freesat but do provide a HD news service behind a paywall. HD should be for everyone not just those who pay through the nose to get it.
Richard CrichtonQuote
January 25th, 2013 at 11:07 am
RT HD is already available in none freesat mode. Moved it to freesat mode a few weeks ago using the foxsat hdr custom firmware for convenience.
fatblokeQuote
January 25th, 2013 at 11:31 am
Very true as is Arise TV HD test card . Had it (RT) as a HD favourite for weeks on my Manhattan Plaza.
Richard CrichtonQuote
January 25th, 2013 at 1:04 pm
@1, “RT is by far the best impartial news service currently broadcasting in the UK.”
Certainly not impartial but I agree it’s worth watching for a different perspective – even if I’m not necessarily in agreement with it.
@2, “RT Documentary”
I assume that a number of their programmes from that channel are also shown on RT at the moment.
Kevin McFarlaneQuote
January 25th, 2013 at 2:12 pm
RT does give a different perspective on news; in essence it’s a Russian one but is interesting to see how things on the channel are exposed, particularly where the US is concerned (for which most other western broadcasters wouldn’t venture in to including the BBC and Sky). Al Jazeera is the only other news broadcaster more impartial than most, the US fell out with them channel during the 2nd Iraq war as Bush was ‘in bed’ with Murdoch and wanted his beloved Fox News in the US to tell people what him and Bush wanted to hear! I’m truly glad Fox is behind a paywall in the UK and lets hope that continues – the only non-UK channel to do so!
Some of the documentaries on RT are interesting too, I’ve watched a few here and there.
NeilQuote
January 25th, 2013 at 2:19 pm
@6 . Kevin.
Ive always believed that no news station is truly impartial. Thats why i watch several of the stations regularly, including RT, France 24, BBC, and Al Jazeera. TBH none are impartial, but i do get as wide a perspective on current events as is possible.
In short i am DELIGHTED that RT HD will be coming to Freesat. Great addition, and another HD channel in the bag! Freesat users have craved more HD channels and now we are getting them. If Arise HD comes to the platform that will be SEVEN HD channels. Honestly Freesat is pulling ahead of Freeview in my opinion.
LiamoQuote
January 25th, 2013 at 2:19 pm
It’s nice to have another FTA HD channel come to Freesat;this platform needs all the free SD and HD channels it can get.
AnthonyQuote
January 25th, 2013 at 4:31 pm
This is more like it – another HD channel on the platform.
Hopefully this will put pressure on the BBC to transmit in HD, although I expect we will be watching Sky News in HD before the BBC.
Keith CobbyQuote
January 25th, 2013 at 5:42 pm
excellent news that another hd channel is comming need some entertainment ones too like e4 and itv. about time they realised freesat is the best .
scottQuote
January 25th, 2013 at 7:09 pm
Arise TV is a Nigerian channel and I doubt if it will prove to be any more popular than eNCA (South Africa) has been on satellite in the UK or Europe. Their audience will primarily be ex-pats so it is unlikely that they will have more than a niche audience and become mainstream like CNN, BBC World News, BBC News or Sky News. On the other hand, if they bring technical innovation and impartial news gathering they could make it. Time will tell.
Night WatchmanQuote
January 25th, 2013 at 7:20 pm
Any reason why the BBC News is not in HD.
TerenceQuote
January 25th, 2013 at 8:01 pm
I have seen 5 or 6 hd tests on freesat one is arisetv and 3 from argiva what ever that is and qvc hd test and another one also i also seen nicktoons testing on non freesat mode are wee about to get a lot of hd and sd channel in the coming months I realy hope so
conorQuote
January 25th, 2013 at 9:34 pm
i thought that nicktoons was behinde a pay wall that’s interesting we could do with a descent kids channel on freesat not including the cbbc
MartinQuote
January 25th, 2013 at 9:38 pm
A bit off topic I know but I can’t seem to find the non freesat mode on my humax freetime set top box is there one
MartinQuote
January 25th, 2013 at 9:50 pm
Ever thought of reading the user manual Martin.
Soldierboy001Quote
January 26th, 2013 at 12:01 am
Not HD, but personally, albeit highly unlikely, I would love to see France 24 en Français (the French language version of France 24) on Freesat. Currently it is on just about every satellite except 28e. Admittedly of minority interest, but my son finds it useful for his A’Level and I enjoy it for trying to improve my (very poor) language skills. A different cultural viewpoint and lots of stories covered that are never featured on English language channels – even differing at times from France 24 in English.
I understand that such channels are only available at a premium (if at all) on $ky, despite being FTA on Eurobird, Astra 1, 5W etc. It might provide useful publicity and qudos for Freesat, if it, and the equivalent Spanish, German and Italian language 24 hour news channels (all FTA on various satellites) were readily and freely available to 6th form students on Freesat. A Polish news channel (if there is one) might have a huge ex-pat audience thus potentially improving the subscription-base.
Keith (original)Quote
January 26th, 2013 at 12:29 am
Yes ha googled it as well no it dosent have one on the freetime epg god I’ve just answered my own question that’s a first
MartinQuote
January 26th, 2013 at 8:38 am
Although not quite the same you could use the French audio channel on Euronews (there are 10 to choose from).
Night WatchmanQuote
January 26th, 2013 at 10:28 am
Sorry to change the subject but any news on whether the volume problem in humax box on HD channels is about to be fixed?
shwanyQuote
January 26th, 2013 at 11:37 am
Most Polish expats have their own countries TV via 13E, where there are dozens of channels available both fta and pay. And 13E can be picked up on Sky sized dishes as the downlink signals are almost as strong as the 28E stuff.
RoscoQuote
January 26th, 2013 at 1:33 pm
I’m not aware the channel actually exists at present and is being set up from scratch as a new international news provider. From what I hear they are wanting to make it an international channel with slight African bias whereas eNCA is purely from an more Southern African (continent, not country) perspective. Like you say, time will tell but an extra news channel offering another perspective is always good, especially if it’s in HD too!
NeilQuote
January 26th, 2013 at 1:51 pm
@20. I hadn’t noticed that before, thanks.
@22. The thought just occurred to me as a potential Polish audience – I guess not.
@both. I have a Humax Foxsat-HDR permanently fixed to Freesat but I use a Foxsat-HD connected to a motorised dish and regularly watch France 24 en français. More occassionally France 2, 3, TF1 Suisse HD, M6 Suisse HD, so it doesn’t matter to me, particularly. There are a number of others available; even Canal+ broadcasts a few hours FTA. Just thought Freesat might be missing an opportunity for increasing their subscriber base relatively cheaply (I’m guessing) since they already have the English language version. It would also be slightly more convenient for me if it was also on Freesat.
TF1 Suisse HD often automatically switches to the English audio track when they show American TV shows, but can be switched back to French if desired.
Keith (original)Quote
January 26th, 2013 at 2:38 pm
@8, “Ive always believed that no news station is truly impartial. Thats why i watch several of the stations regularly, including RT, France 24, BBC, and Al Jazeera. TBH none are impartial, but i do get as wide a perspective on current events as is possible.”
Yep, so do I. I wasn’t knocking RT, merely correcting the impression that they are impartial.
Ironically, even though RT has a general Western-critical theme, you can find a wider range of views expressed to some extent than you do on the supposedly impartial BBC. Almost anything goes, provided it’s not directly critical of the Kremlin.
@8, “In short i am DELIGHTED that RT HD will be coming to Freesat”
So am I.
Kevin McFarlaneQuote
January 26th, 2013 at 3:00 pm
Have you tried ARTE (19.2º) – there is a choice of German or French audio and they have an HD channel on 11494 H 22000 2/3 – fta 24/7.
Night WatchmanQuote
January 27th, 2013 at 10:43 am
I was under the impression that Newsnight is broadcast in HD. A possible reason for the news on BBC1 not yet being in HD is that the equipment used in the studio has to be upgraded and the investment plans have been delayed by the budget cuts. Frankly as most news consists of mobile phone clips HD seems overkill.
Kevin Ver1Quote
January 27th, 2013 at 7:16 pm
BBC World News is now at their new studios, overnights comes from there on BBC1 but is still SD as the feed is routed through the existing SD Galleries in TVC. The One, Six and Ten o’clock news on BBC1 is planned to move to the new studios in NBH early March so will from that point be HD (studio-wise), the BBC News channel moves at the end of March and although will have no HD outlet of it’s own, the overnight BBC1 simulcasts will then be in HD along with all new fancy graphics.
NeilQuote
January 28th, 2013 at 10:33 am
PhilQuote
January 28th, 2013 at 2:27 pm
You get them on robs satilite
ConorQuote
January 28th, 2013 at 3:23 pm
Looked on Robs but I can’t seem to mind a clear list of HD channels and tests. I find Robs a bit higgledy-piggledy… Sorry Rob…
PhilQuote
January 28th, 2013 at 5:38 pm
Admin – after the RT HD debacle are Freesat aware of the new channels currently testing on 28E?
Arise HD News / Arise 360 and the third one is Nigerian news channel TVC News.
technical details for those wanting to have a look
TVC News – 12607H27500 2/3 tagged as 55275. Just epg info atm
Arise Network – 12560H 27500 2/3 & currently carrying B&W filler progs
Arise HD – 1123V 27500 2/3 & carrying test card
RoscoQuote
January 28th, 2013 at 10:36 pm
Hmm interesting, all of them FTA ? Which sat do you get them from ?
DaveQuote
January 28th, 2013 at 10:41 pm
The Nigerians are taking over!!
I think ‘Arise Networks’ may be the other channel they are launching, never heard of TVC News before but will do some digging.
NeilQuote
January 29th, 2013 at 8:29 am
Top right on Robs home page under frequencies shows HD channels on 28E,19Eand 13E.
Richard CrichtonQuote
January 29th, 2013 at 8:30 am
What’s the details of Rob’s page, please
KeithQuote
January 29th, 2013 at 9:16 am
http://robssatellitetv.webs.com/
Richard CrichtonQuote
January 29th, 2013 at 10:40 am
I read elsewhere More 4 HD launches next Monday on [choke] Sky… Freesat left out as per.
PhilQuote
January 29th, 2013 at 11:32 am
I think Sky pay them. Freesat don’t so no brainer from their point of view. Pity Sky don’t pay the BBC for their channels.
Richard CrichtonQuote
January 29th, 2013 at 1:32 pm
Yep, paid to keep them off other platforms, anti-competitive if you ask me. Sky are due to release their quarterly figures on the 31st and it’s expected TV subs will have fallen further as they near saturation. Lets hope BT Vision get a foothold in to the pay sport market to erode Sky’s market share further then they’ll be no money to ‘pay’ broadcasters from putting their HD content FTA.
NeilQuote
January 29th, 2013 at 4:29 pm
It’s also worth remembering that not all Sky subscribers will be able to pick up More 4HD, or any other of the public service broadcasters HD channels, unless of course they are willing to fork out a further £10 per month on top of their package for the privilege.
Over a barrel springs to mind.
RussQuote
January 29th, 2013 at 6:11 pm
BBC 1 HD Wales is up and running.
Richard CrichtonQuote
January 29th, 2013 at 6:44 pm
Forget 4K Ultra HD. Using HEVC a codec so efficient it can stream 8K Ultra HD across the internet could well be the anwser for the next generation Freesat boxes. What we know as HD today will look decidedly SD soon.
http://www.homecinemachoice.com/news/article/forget-ultra-hd-8k-is-closer-than-you-think/14385
Richard CrichtonQuote
January 29th, 2013 at 9:20 pm
Apologies for the off-topic query. Just experienced my first real problem with my Humax HDR. The ‘find’ facility in the guide causes the unit to reboot after the key word has been chosen and then ‘search’ is pressed. This morning it wouldn’t let me cancel an existing scheduled recording when it detected and warned me of a conflict. Everything else appears to be working properly. Anybody any ideas – (haven’t gone down the route of factory reset yet in case there’s a better way forward).
Jonboy8859Quote
January 29th, 2013 at 10:38 pm
Without the extra money its very likely More4 HD & several other HD channels wouldnt even exist. At least with them up and running even behind the paywall, theres a chance of them going fta once the economic climate improves.
RoscoQuote
January 30th, 2013 at 1:43 am
Hmm… the economics of that are surely interesting in the real World. Whether a channel recieves more vewers (and advertising reach) when FTA v. the cost of non-FTA broadcast offset by $ly’s kick-back fee for adding to their portfolio of channels…
It does rather make a mockery of the concept of commercial TV, funded by commercial breaks. The channels which stick with $ly might as well abandon adverts, as they will never pay the bills whilst they stay hidden behind the pay-wall, and watched by the dwindling minority who can afford such things. C5 take note!
Brian DamageQuote
January 30th, 2013 at 9:43 am
I would have thought that sky having such a huge customer base and large amounts of channels it just dilutes the amount of people watching. With Freesat’s smaller base you have more chance of someone tuning in. But then if the programmes aren’t worth watching, no one would tune in anyway.
I emailed the travel channel again about coming to Freesat, this time they haven’t bothered to reply as the last reply was the next day, no news could be good news I suppose 8-/
SaltydawgQuote
January 30th, 2013 at 11:00 am
If the commercial broadcasters want to protect revenues then they need the likes of all the platform operators to come up with a way of disabling fast forward control during ad breaks as it’s costing the PSB commercial operators. Yes, I accept people don’t like watching ads but if we want to protect the future of FTA TV it’s something people should live with.
In HD terms it’s not just the extra distribution costs but HD acquisition costs for transmission. These should fall over time as HD becomes ‘the norm’ which will make the FTA transition for HD channels also easier.
NeilQuote
January 30th, 2013 at 2:10 pm
The BBC licence fee as been frozen for 6yrs. Sky is free to increase its subs each year. The BBC needs to save money and are cutting BBC local radio shows and having a networked show instead. So why is CBBC on during school hours when children have to be in school.? I would support an immediate 10% increase in the licence fee after all $ky can increase their subs at will and people pay £600 to watch that dross.
Richard CrichtonQuote
January 30th, 2013 at 2:14 pm
Even if they disable FF during breaks people are free to mute the sound or switch channels during ad brakes and do make tea etc. so what use would disabling FF do?
Richard CrichtonQuote
January 31st, 2013 at 1:46 am
People will always get up during ad breaks and do other things if watching something live but disabling the FF facility means to the ad agencies that those watching time-lapsed or recorded programmes stand a better chance at seeing their ad.
NeilQuote
January 31st, 2013 at 9:34 am
Hmmm – I don’t think it’s you as this happened to me last night as well. Anyone got any bright ideas?
Could it be a function of the Episode Guide? Or has it magically started working again today?
John HQuote
February 1st, 2013 at 11:53 am
The same thing has just started with my Humax HDR. I’ve tried a factory reset and the problem still persists. On another website a poster suggested formatting the hard drive. That’s going to be my next move. Anybody else got any ideas?
RNCQuote
February 1st, 2013 at 1:28 pm
Arise (SD) showing Christina Aguilera live in concert at the
Royal Albert Hall with a huge full intensity Arise News DOG.
Richard CrichtonQuote
February 1st, 2013 at 4:32 pm
Re-formatting the hard drive will erase all the recordings if I’m right, so pretty much a last resort for me. I e-mailed Humax a couple of days ago, but no response as yet. I may try ringing the helpline if I don’t hear anything soon as it looks like this may be a wider issue – I’m not aware of any software updates that may have caused this. Admin – do we have any contacts in Humax we can approach direct?
Jonboy8859Quote
February 1st, 2013 at 4:38 pm
Sorry, no direct contact details; Humax aren’t exactly in favour of communicating with me! You’ll just need to call, but don’t expect a quick reply!
adminQuote
February 1st, 2013 at 4:40 pm
Thanks Admin – at least your response was quick! Much appreciate the reply.
Jonboy8859Quote
February 1st, 2013 at 6:28 pm
I read somewhere that the next generation PVR’s will not have a FF option due to the issue of ads being skipped.
ScotorcaQuote
February 1st, 2013 at 9:29 pm
Had a quick glance at this earlier. This channel was labelled ‘Diverse’ as a placeholder, seems it just sort of ‘morphed’ itself in to Arise Networks, first with a label (and Sky EPG) change and only now is starting to put out programming. I suspect this is the entertainment based channel otherwise it would be in Sky’s news Genre, the PQ on what they were broadcasting earlier looked shocking, VHS looked better!!
NeilQuote
February 1st, 2013 at 10:07 pm
Have you tried a external hardrive to copy your things over too.
steve123Quote
February 1st, 2013 at 10:13 pm
There is some great deals in Curry’s at the moment Clearance display unit Foxsat HDR’S at a clearance price of £99.97 500gb hard drive. a great deal
steve123Quote
February 1st, 2013 at 11:37 pm
The bit rate is about 2800kbps which is fairly reasonable for a SD channel.Believe me Ive seen FAR worse.
Looks like its not stat muxed so will suffer when there is fast moving action, ticker tape parades etc
RoscoQuote
February 2nd, 2013 at 6:31 am
Yep, it’s probably the source content they were playing.
NeilQuote
February 2nd, 2013 at 8:49 am
Thanks Steve. Yes, have a couple of drives already but would probably need another to have enough space. If all else fails that might be the way I have to go. Has anyone discovered whether re-formatting works (I’m still waiting to hear back from Humax)?
Jonboy8859Quote
February 2nd, 2013 at 11:16 am
Just for info – all appears to be working now – apparently down to some data corruption in the epg – thanks Graham T.
Jonboy8859Quote
February 2nd, 2013 at 3:13 pm
Arise are hiring, big time:
http://www.arise.tv/careers
Sensible Paul.Quote
February 2nd, 2013 at 5:49 pm
They’ve updated their website a bit now. I thought they were planning two channels, one general entertainment and the other news. Just watching Arise Networks now, the news looks ok but you can tell it’s a bit flaky in parts, guess once things bed in it may be quite a good outlet for news provision from another perspective. The HD feed is still showing bars.
NeilQuote
February 2nd, 2013 at 6:28 pm
When you say “BBC News” I assume you mean the BBC News channel, If so then Yes there may be quite a few reasons it is not in HD, these may include money, technical issues etc.
But why oh why do people get so hung up about any type of broadcast HD television?
Its not that great compared to 1080P Blu Ray.
Big AlQuote
February 3rd, 2013 at 10:45 am
Any chance of it coming to Freesat EPG.
Richard CrichtonQuote
February 3rd, 2013 at 10:48 am
Obviously but that’s why SES Astra is testing 4K Ultra HD which will blow Blu-ray away.
Richard CrichtonQuote
February 3rd, 2013 at 12:18 pm
Yes but I am talking about what we have now, not what may be available in a few years time. http://www.onastra.com/12587959/2012-09-14-even-higher-definition
Also if people want Ultra HD it will mean buying a new TV set at the very least, and they are not cheap.
Wonder how many are regretting buying that 3d TV now?
Big AlQuote
February 3rd, 2013 at 6:46 pm
In time the cost of 4k TVs will fall. The main problem will be content. There is only a handfull of programs made in 4k and I suspect the BBC will not be investing in it.
Kevin Ver1Quote
February 4th, 2013 at 1:17 am
Hopefully if the HD version remains FTA as I suspect it might as Globecast, rather than Sky, are uplinking it. Watching Arise Networks the PQ from the studio shots look better than what I saw the other day, I suspect they’ll ramp up output slowly to make it a rolling 24hr news operation (if that’s what it’s intended to be), interspersed with documentaries and features.
NeilQuote
February 4th, 2013 at 9:14 am
I would not expect sky news or any of there channels to become available in HD on freesat in the very near future. They like to keep there own behind a pay wall as if we didn’t know. Although I do expect the bbc news to become HD at some point this year along with all the others cbbc etc.
TonyQuote
February 4th, 2013 at 9:58 am
Interesting about HEVC needing less bandwidth than H264 so I would expect the BBC to become engaged with 4K.
http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/itu-hevc-h265-codec-201301272615.htm
Richard CrichtonQuote
February 4th, 2013 at 5:54 pm
Admin – a new Punjabi channel has launched fta on 28E & may be a candidate for FS – PTC Punjabi has replaced Music India
11488V 27500 2/3 for any Punjabi speakers who want to add it.
RoscoQuote
February 5th, 2013 at 9:19 am
We didn’t expect to see Sky News on Freesat so anything is possible. The BBC have plenty of money it’s just their priorities that are wrong.
Keith CobbyQuote
February 5th, 2013 at 10:25 am
Terence said:
Any reason why the BBC News is not in HD.
BBC1 network news is SD but BBC1 Scottish news immediately after is HD so I would guess they haven’t upgraded the network news studio for HD yet.
Richard CrichtonQuote
February 5th, 2013 at 1:36 pm
Thre ‘One’, ‘Six’ and ‘Ten’ PM news broadcasts on BBC1 will go HD when they move to the new Studios in New Broadcasting House early next Month, The BBC News channel moves at the end of March. That’s the current plan, BBC World News is in there now and acting as the ‘guinea pig’ to iron out issues. Apart from the odd snag things have gone well for World so fingers crossed the domestic news planned moves will stick to their current timetables.
NeilQuote
February 6th, 2013 at 3:55 pm
I see Sky (boo) has introduced 7 day catch up with on demand. Why do they have to copy everyone else. I suppose we can blame the Broken Biscuit Company for that giving them iplayer in exchange for Sky News and a couple of low res Sky barker channels. Meanwhile where is 4OD etc on Freetime. How can Sky do it all in a flash but it seems to take Freesat half a year to do anything?
Richard CrichtonQuote
February 6th, 2013 at 4:01 pm
Er that’s the Kremlin… they have FSB guys overseeing output. You like that? Good luck with that…
PedroQuote
February 6th, 2013 at 5:21 pm
If you want to know what is happening in the financial world you can watch Bloomberg or you could watch Max Keiser on RT.
Keith CobbyQuote
February 6th, 2013 at 6:30 pm
I have good idea for every body to badger channel 4 and 5 and Freesat about more hd on it I say overload there telephone lines with this subject and may be get HD from channel 5 and 4 I mean film4 hd or more4 hd
conorQuote
February 7th, 2013 at 9:16 am
He’s an odd character is Max Keiser, wonder if that’s his actual real name?
NeilQuote
February 7th, 2013 at 6:39 pm
Seeing as More4HD has just launched behind the paywall, there is no chance whatsoever of it going fta for *at least* a year, possibly 2
RoscoQuote
February 7th, 2013 at 7:49 pm
every body need to badger freesat and channel 4 and 5 and others on there hd channels on to freesat and they will crack in face of load off public pressure on them to do what the viewing public wants
conorQuote
February 8th, 2013 at 8:53 am
There are 15 million(ish) pay tv viewers but no one knows how many Freesat viewers there are because the figures for device sales are no longer made public so I don’t think 4 and 5 would care. It seems the public want to pay. Anyway most of these so called HD channels only exist because they are behind a pay wall. In fact they were specially created because they were going behind a pay wall.
Richard CrichtonQuote
February 8th, 2013 at 9:50 am
I particularly want the BBC channels in HD because paywalls are not an issue here. I also want Film 4HD because Channel 4 transmit films with the respect they deserve ie in the format they were made, unlike the BBC who zoom/crop images.
Keith CobbyQuote
February 8th, 2013 at 1:18 pm
Correct aspect ratio of films is great yes but adverts during films are a no no for me. No respect for films from Film 4.
Richard CrichtonQuote
February 8th, 2013 at 8:07 pm
this is not a lot to do with this but I paid for a humax freesat 1000s with the promise of having 4od and 5 before xmas 2012 . I am really REALLY annoyed .
Ive been ripped off !
robert moseleyQuote
February 8th, 2013 at 8:36 pm
So what happens if they are forced to go fta? There a good chance services will be closed down thats what.
RoscoQuote
February 9th, 2013 at 9:21 am
Promised by whom? Do you have it in writing? If you do you could demand a refund from the retailer and/or report it to your local trading standards. I am always wary about promises of future services (vapourware) from retailers or manufacturesrs and have resisted the temptation to upgrade until the promised services are delivered. Also it never pays to be a early adopter of any new product as there will be upgrades and price reductions later on.
Richard CrichtonQuote
February 9th, 2013 at 6:04 pm
I wonder when 4OD and Demand 5 are coming to freetime as it’s been over a Month since the last update about delays. It’s not doing the brand much favour with all these delays, the saving grace at present is 4OD still not being available on freesat’s closest competitor, Sky, until Easter.
NeilQuote
February 10th, 2013 at 9:50 am
If they ever do you mean. It seems to me that Freetime has been an almighty flop so far with only one box and no ISP’s offering it. 4OD was on YouView from the start and very good it is too.
Richard CrichtonQuote
February 10th, 2013 at 9:58 am
Hardly a flop, the HDR-1000S is selling in huge volumes, far more than Youview (ignoring the “free” subsidised give away); but agree that these on-demand services do need to show their face soon.
adminQuote
February 10th, 2013 at 11:26 am
Steve Hewlett’s Media Show on BBC R4 was discussing youview last week and when you strip out of 90,000 units the subsidised ones it doesn’t leave a lot of actual sales. I presume your tied in to a 24 month deal with talktalk if you take one, at a higher per month cost than straight broadband cost to recoup the box subsidy?
NeilQuote
February 10th, 2013 at 11:30 am
Glad to hear that it’s selling in huge volumes. Some Freesat good news at last then but only because it’s a Humax perhaps not because of Freetime with it’s very limited on demand section. Promises promises cut no ice with me and I have no faith in 4 and 5 delivering on their promises. Perhaps they have been got at by Sly and their 7 day catch up service.
Common sense suggests no one is going to buy YouView retail if they can get it for free as part of their broadband package.
Richard CrichtonQuote
February 10th, 2013 at 1:36 pm
It costs slightly more yes but you are required to upgrade to “unlimited” broaddband rather than the 40gig limit I had before. Also my monthly line rental costs were reduced to £9.99 from £14.99 by paying a year upfront saving £60 plus I got a years free Lovefilm instant with the package so I have been enjoying 24, Lost and Battlestar complete series with excellent picture quality so I am well happy. All in all I am actually paying less than I was before. Freeview is no Freesat but at least there are 8 on demand players including TalkTalk player which has free ABC, Warner and Sony on demand . Warner has Fringe which is brillinant and Alkatraz.
Richard CrichtonQuote
February 11th, 2013 at 7:53 am
I’ve just read that YouTube and Netflix are going live on Freesat in the Telegraph. Admin do you have any news on this?
SaltydawgQuote
February 11th, 2013 at 7:57 am
Links to the articles I was talking about
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/9515879/Threat-to-BSkyB-as-Freesat-partners-with-Netflix.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/9860880/Google-to-launch-YouTube-on-TV.html
SaltydawgQuote
February 11th, 2013 at 8:26 am
The netflix link is from back in September last year and is still an outgoing discussion. Youtube will on freesat next month:
http://www.joinfreesat.co.uk/google-to-launch-youtube-on-freesat/
adminQuote
February 11th, 2013 at 12:43 pm
Admin – 2 new fta channel launches for the FS team to chase up. Twinkle TV & Sparkle TV. Both from the QVC stable.
Not particularly exciting but every channel helps raise the profile.
RoscoQuote
February 12th, 2013 at 2:36 am
Dave,
All FTA.
France 2, 3, 5 & Ô (France Télévisions) are all from 5W along with TV5 Monde.
ARTE Français HD and TV5 Monde (SD) from 13e – as is France 24 Français (SD) which is also available from 19.2e.
TF1 Suisse HD, M6 HD, W9 (SD only) are available from 9e. However, they are on a high frequency, DVB-S2 – they require very precise alignment and are highly subceptable to rain-fade (even the SD versions, although very slightly less so). In clear weather the signal is great. The best thing is to use either the EbS or EbS+ channel which don’t appear to suffer rain-fade to check alignment.
So far as I can tell, the Suisse variants carry identical programming as the national channels (which are not FTA), just some regional adverts and occassional regional news.
France 4 is not/no longer available FTA.
Googling ‘Lyngsat ‘ or ‘Lyngsat ‘ will give you the details of all these, plus others.
Incidentally, there are also a lot of FTA German HD channels on 19.2e, although many are just regional variants of national channels. If you like tennis, there is an Italian Supertennis HD channel FTA from 13e – although it’s mostly recorded stuff. They did show the final of the Davis Cup live, though. The commentators are somewhat different from their BBC equivalents.
Keith (original)Quote
February 12th, 2013 at 7:53 am
@103
Forgive me for sounding daft. What do I need (in addition to my Foxsat HDR setup) and how do I access these channels?
John NaylorQuote
February 12th, 2013 at 2:56 pm
You’ll need either a larger dish or a couple of extra ones of normal (zone1) size. I’ve got an 80cm dish (around £20 from eBay) pointed at 13E, with a homemade bracket for LNBs receiving 28E, 23E, 19E, 13E, 9E, 1W and 5W. These feed 2 diseqc switches- one for each freesat box. Humax Foxsat boxes only allow diseqc switches with 4 inputs, but there is a way to squeeze in 5 satellites. On my box with french channels, I’ve got 28E, 19E and 13E going into inputs 1,2 and 3 on the switch. Eutelsat 9A (TF1, M6, W9) only uses high band frequencies, whereas Eutelsat 5W uses low band frequencies for France 2,3,5,Ô, TMC, TV5Monde. I got a 22kHz switch off eBay, and feed 9E into the 22kHz input, and 5W into the low band (0kHz) input. The output then goes into port 4 on the diseqc switch, effectively merging the two satellites.
Setting up the channels on the box is as follows: http://foxsat-hdr.wikispaces.com/DiSEqC
HarryQuote
February 12th, 2013 at 4:19 pm
Wow! Thanks very much Harry.
John NaylorQuote
February 12th, 2013 at 5:10 pm
I meant to add that transponder for TF1, M6 and W9 on 9e needs to be added manually. Humax’s transponder and satelitte lists are significantly out-of-date and are not updated. In general anything broadcast DVB-S2 will need to be added manually.
John,
This will require straying rather off-topic. However, if people will indulge me a little…
I would not recommend using the Foxsat-HDR to receive these channels. It is a great bit of kit but not ideally suited for this purpose. It can handle multiple satellites, but Humax have made support for non-Freesat mode fairly minimal and the set up for multiple satellites is behind hidden menus (red>green>yellow>blue>green>yellow>blue from the setup menu).
The satellite details I gave were their position in the sky in degrees. To receive these channels you would need to have a way of pointing your dish away from its current (presumably fixed) position pointing at 28.2 and 28.5 east to the other positions. You can do this two ways; firstly, with a motor drive which physically re-positions the disk or secondly, by using automatic switches to switch between different separate dishes or multiple separate LNBs attached to a single fixed dish. Using separate LNBs with switches only works with satellites that are relatively close in the sky and there is a compromise between which gets the best signal since only one can be positioned in the optimal position for one satellite. 5 degrees west is normally too far away from 28 degrees east to use a single normal dish – although there are specialist, very expensive and unusual looking, dishes which can achieve this.
The greatest problem with the Humax HDR is that you are restricted to a single cable input when using multiple satellites and these modes are fixed once selected. They are essentially independent configurations. Changing between these modes wipes out any channels you have setup each time, requiring you set everything up again. With single-cable mode, you lose the ability to record more than one programme simultaneously. Whilst in non-Freesat mode it will not record any scheduled recordings. If it was currently pointed at a different satelitte it wouldn’t be able to anyway. In non-Freesat mode there is also only a now-and-next programme guide. The HDR will happily record anything using immediate mode, from the next programme on the guide, or manually scheduled recordings. Whilst recording you can only watch a different channel which is of the same polarity and frequency band (high or low) since you only have a single LNB effectively.
Because I want to use Freesat to its fullest, I have my Foxsat-HDR connected to a dished fixed on 28e (28.2 & 28.5) and use a separate Foxsat-HD (receiver only) attached to motorised 60cm dish. The favourites feature is very limited in non-Freesat mode
Other receivers and recorders are probably better suited for the purpose of receiving different satellites.
Keith (original)Quote
February 12th, 2013 at 5:17 pm
It took me a while coming back to this from time-to-time over a few hours, when i had a moment. In the meantime, Harry supplied a better reply.
Keith (original)Quote
February 12th, 2013 at 6:10 pm
RT HD is expected to join the Freesat epg on Thursday according to a post on a certain forum. (info from a trustworthy member)
RoscoQuote
February 13th, 2013 at 12:05 am
@105, Harry,
Off-topic again, sorry, but I am curious to know if are you able to receive Rai HD from 5W (11179V, DVB-S2, 30000-3/5, 8PSK)? I’ve not been able to receive any of the relatively new RAI channels. Interestingly, they are listed (Lynsat) as different streams on the same transponder. I’ve not encountered this streaming previously, so I’m not sure if this is something beyond the Foxsat-HD.
Also, since you have an 80cm dish, do you find TF1, M6 (SD/HD) suffer significantly from rain-fade? My setup does need a little re-alignment, which I’m putting off until better weather, but it would be good to know if I am likely to get better reception if I improve/correct the alignment or use a larger dish, or whether it is just something I have to accept?
@109, looking forward to a new HD channel on Freesat. Have Freesat looked into also getting RT documentaries HD on Freesat?
Keith (original)Quote
February 13th, 2013 at 12:21 am
@110 (continued)…
There are also a group of 6 new HD French channels on 5W on 12648 V 29000 3/4 DVB-S2 8PSK, grouped into two streams (1 & 2) on same transponder. Again, I am unable to get any signal, so I’m curious to know of anyone else can.
Alternatively, does anyone know if ‘streams’ are supported by the Foxsat-HD? They’re not data-streams, in other words, ‘red button’ services, I hope?
Keith (original)Quote
February 13th, 2013 at 8:16 am
Keith@111
The French HD channels and the Italian channels on 5.0W are all encrypted channels – you need an appropiate card+decoder to view them.
Pingu
PinguQuote
February 13th, 2013 at 9:03 am
@107 Thank you very much for your information.
I really do appreciate the amount of information given to me by very clever people.
Admin! The knowledge available on this site you have created here is absolutely brilliant, thank you.
John NaylorQuote
February 13th, 2013 at 12:19 pm
I cannot receive the Italian or French multistream transponders on 5W with the Foxsat, although it should be possible with some PCI tuners- the TBS6925 card works. The same goes for the Italian channels on 12.5W- they broadcast as multistream (ACM/VCM), not CCM- which is used for the majority of broadcasts and works with the Foxsat.
The French channels at 9E do suffer quite badly from rain fade, but the dish is focused at Hotbird (13E), and there is a fair amount of loss due to the signals passing through the 22kHz switch, diseqc switch & then 25m of cable. Naturally, the signals hold up better when the dish is pointed at 9E and there is a direct connection to the box. All the other channels at 9E work OK in all weathers- I only really have trouble with the French signals. It’s sometimes better to watch the SD channels (MPEG2) as they suffer from less breakup, even though they’re on the same transponder as the MPEG4 HD channels.
HarryQuote
February 13th, 2013 at 2:37 pm
@114. Thanks Harry.
I find the SD channels, although a little more resilient, drop out too with rain. I increased the skew slightly a while ago, which helped a little, but they still often drop suddenly from the normal 100% strength, 80% quality, down to zero signal. Sadly missed the final two episodes of Terra Nova on M6 HD, which my son and I were rather enjoying in French due to this. The reported less than sparkling English dialogue possibly making translation easier to follow.
We may get to watch those episodes on Pick TV, but I wouldn’t put it past $ky to not show the last couple of episodes on their bait channel.
Are these multi-stream channels simply feeds, or is this the way things are heading – meaning we may be able to receive fewer channels in future?
Keith (original)Quote
February 13th, 2013 at 3:12 pm
@113, John.
You’re very welcome. Three years or so when I first got my Hunax-HDR, I knew absoltely nothing about satellite TV. Anything I now know has come from trial and no little error, and information posted by more knowledgeable people such as Harry. This forum/site has often proved especially helpful and informative – thanks admin.
Very recently, I discovered there are distribution systems which, with a normal quad LNB, allows one or more boxes to access all modes on an LNB (low-band, high-band, vertical, horizontal) simultaneously, no matter what channel is currently being watched. This would allow the viewing of any channel even when two recordings are currently taking place. With my, or Harry’s setup (Harry’s would work better), it should in theory allow any channel to be received on any box (subject to switching to non-Freesat mode). I can’t find the particularly informative link at the moment, but this may be something worth considering. I don’t know about costs, but I suspect they’re not cheap.
Incidentally, I find tvtv.fr is a great schedule listings site for French TV. Very sadly, it appears to be closing at the end of this month. I find http://www.tvtv.fr/tvtv/index.vm?weekId=0&epgView=list&dayId=0&lang=fr&groupid=0 is my preferred default view style.
Keith (original)Quote
February 13th, 2013 at 5:43 pm
Keith – I dont think the various multi streams popping up across the satellite arc are possible on any receivers, atm – just pci computer cards. We get occasional reports about them on the satellites.co.uk forum where folk have managed to configure their software to see them.
RoscoQuote
February 13th, 2013 at 11:40 pm
@117, Rosco. Do you know their intended purpose?
Keith (original)Quote