Recent changes on the VM Network

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  • Update:

    Further to the above. E! HD will complete the HD versions of Comcast channels exclusively available in the Full House packages.

    It is currently testing on 4 internal VM networks - TTA Knowsley DMC (Hayes_RHE), TTA Bromley DMC (Bromley RHE), NGRHEE Knowsley & NGRHEE Bromley.

    The duplicate version of BT Sport 1 HD has been assigned the same EPG slot as the original channel, is missing several flags in the SDT and doesn't appear to be in the NIT at all, so not yet added to (testing on) VM's internal networks. Perhaps this will be an alternative version, maybe if sports rights are not available in one of the nations? A mystery for the moment, at least until VM add more flags / add it to the NIT. TSID 18 is a strange location for this channel given its former and current/interim use.

    I could list the transition of the former Sky Cinema SD placeholders from original to "graveyard" placeholder SIDs, but as the channels are closed it seems pointless. If anyone wishes to see the detail, leave a comment and I'll list the changes.

  • Thanks jj20x.

    No idea about the BT Sport duplicate either. As far as I'm aware, sports rights are held on a UK wide basis, so unless they're going for different advertising regions, in which case they'd be more channels, I don't know why this exists.

    All I can think of would be rights to Irish sporting events across the island of Ireland. As ex-NTL Langley NITs aren't currently included in the scan data, I don't get to see what is happening in Northern Ireland. That said, the service is flagged as hidden in the SDT, so that is confirmation that it isn't active anywhere at this stage. Initial records indicated that the service is using MPEG-2, which seems odd at a time when VM is migrating to MPEG-4.

    As far as I know, there are no internal/test networks on the ex-NTL Langley part of the network.

  • No changes were recorded on the overnight scan. A quiet weekend for VM.


    You might be right there jj. Do you know if VM's Republic of Ireland network is still separate from the UK one or are they running things from a UK super headend now??

    Still separate as far as I know. Combining it into UK networks would be fairly complicated as channels, EPG slots etc are completely different to the UK. They could probably use additional equipment at the UK headends for backup purposes.

  • I don't know about clearing out the old tat. With them adding multiple "Channel Update" SIDs and only using them for a week, rather than using the existing Sky Cinema SIDs, it seems they are creating more tat.

  • Overnight changes:

    TSID 18 SID 1854 (graveyard) Sky Animation reverted to Sky Family. - Hmmm!

    TSID 34 SID 3402 Sky Animation HD reverted to Sky Family HD.

    TSID 24 SID 2407 E! HD - added to extra internal/test network: Code Download Test (Portsmouth).

  • No changes were recorded on the overnight scan. A quiet weekend for VM.


    Still separate as far as I know. Combining it into UK networks would be fairly complicated as channels, EPG slots etc are completely different to the UK. They could probably use additional equipment at the UK headends for backup purposes.

    I wonder if VM Ireland still uses MPEG2. If so, maybe this is a further indicator that this is a feed for Ireland (perhaps they are allowed to show 3pm kickoffs?) and that they intend to further unify the network. Apart from a couple of minor channels, channels in the UK and Ireland now have parity (but, as you say, many have different EPG slots that would be a contractual nightmare to align).

  • I wonder if VM Ireland still uses MPEG2. If so, maybe this is a further indicator that this is a feed for Ireland (perhaps they are allowed to show 3pm kickoffs?) and that they intend to further unify the network. Apart from a couple of minor channels, channels in the UK and Ireland now have parity (but, as you say, many have different EPG slots that would be a contractual nightmare to align).

    MPEG2 is still used for static video slates, so it could even be a case of replacing normal programmes with an information slate if, say, Eir Sport or RTE own rights for the whole of the island of Ireland. At the moment, it doesn't seem to be "active" anywhere, so it isn't offering any clues...

  • Some relatively complex changes overnight related to the migration of services from TSID 104 to TSID 101 and TSID 102 (as predicted in earlier posts).

    BBC ONE HD completing the migration from TSID 104 SID 10407 to TSID 101 SID 10127 across networks in England - other national versions having already migrated.

    The "Old Channel 4 London" (placeholder) moves from SID 10272 to SID 10297 clearing the way for ITV HD services migrating to TSID 102.

    ITV HD services migrated from TSID 104 SIDs 10403, 10404 & 10405 to SIDs 10272, 10273 & 10274. * see update

    UTV HD migrated from TSID 104 SID 10406 to TSID 102 SID 10275.

    That covers all versions of ITV HD other than Granada and Wales. I mentioned in an earlier post that there isn't room to transfer both HD versions (Granada & Wales) onto a single version of TSID 102 on the Manchester / Wrexham networks. It appears that, for the moment, VM hasn't migrated ITV HD to TSID 102 on any of the regional networks carrying ITV HD (Granada) or ITV Wales HD. It will be interesting to see how VM resolve this problem, maybe 2 versions of TSID 104 in the Manchester/Wrexham region as they currently have for TSID 104...

    TSID 104 has been completely removed from service on all networks not carrying ITV HD (Granada) or ITV Wales HD, becoming part of the cleared frequency cluster.

    This update is based on a very basic scan comparison from the scanners, because of the complexity of the changes they haven't completed the initial analysis stage. The scan data will now be submitted for initial analysis and subsequently for detailed analysis. A further update will follow when more information is available.

    Update: * Central, London & Meridian versions of ITV HD respectively.

  • MPEG2 is still used for static video slates, so it could even be a case of replacing normal programmes with an information slate if, say, Eir Sport or RTE own rights for the whole of the island of Ireland. At the moment, it doesn't seem to be "active" anywhere, so it isn't offering any clues...

    I didn't know that, you could well be right then and it may simply be for an information slate for the ROI to blackout programming when required.

    They might not even bother to upgrade the information slates to MPEG4 (especially if this costs them money). They won't use much capacity and nobody is likely to record them (in fact, IIRC, I don't think that the STB allows you to).

  • I didn't know that, you could well be right then and it may simply be for an information slate for the ROI to blackout programming when required.

    They might not even bother to upgrade the information slates to MPEG4 (especially if this costs them money). They won't use much capacity and nobody is likely to record them (in fact, IIRC, I don't think that the STB allows you to).

    On VM, slates are just static video images, there won't be any significant changes in the GOP sequence, so compression isn't a major factor. (Put simply, the whole picture is only broadcast every few frames and intermediate frames only record movement. Obviously with a still image there won't be any movement.)

    I'm not sure why VM still use MPEG-2 for slates, maybe MPEG-2 works better with still images than MPEG-4. Fewer artefacts perhaps, I don't know, just a guess. :)

  • The initial summary of the overnight scan shows the migration of services from TSID 45 to TSID 9 has been completed.

    SIDs 4501-4509 migrating to SIDs 901-909 (SptsETV01-SptsETV09 respectively). - Sky Sports Extra red button streams.

    A new placeholder has been added to SID 4501 "TS45 Dummy".

    The scans were submitted for detailed analysis overnight, so if any further details are revealed I will update the post later in the day.

    Update:

    All of the Sky Sports standard definition channels (other than News & Mix) were given additional flags in the EPG section of the SDT. The extra flags are "hide" and "unhide+" (the names allocated in our analysis database not VM official terms). These flags are already present on Sky Sports HD channels.

    Presumably this flag / descriptor combination "hides" the channels from the EPG of certain set top boxes but leaves them in the EPG of Tivo / V6 boxes.

    The unhide+ flag was also added to BT Sport 1 HD but not to the other BT Sport HD channels, so it's a little unclear what is happening with this.

  • Further updates from Wednesday's scan:

    In the NIT root:

    2 changes were made to linkage records (Tivo download services) for TTA Knowsley DMC (Hayes_RHE), which is an internal network, so won't affect customers.

    In NIT services:

    TSID 18 SID 1815 was added to all NITs. I guess that indicates that this additional version of BT Sport 1 HD isn't meant as a placeholder service to replace Irish sports rights in Northern Ireland. So there goes that theory. So now there are 2 versions of BT Sport 1 HD, both mapped to EPG slot 527 and both added to the NIT of all VM networks. Strange! One to watch.

    A slight adjustment to ITV HD (London) which VM had apparently (erroneously) added to the NIT of NGRHEE Knowsley rather than Haringey. This has now been corrected.

    I think that concludes the scan detail for Wednesday. There were several changes to the SDT, largely relating to the relocation of the SptsETV services. Some of the changes relating to the subscription pack codes etc will possibly be rolled back shortly as these red button services normally use a different set of descriptors. I won't go into detail as it is somewhat beyond the scope of this thread.

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