Posts by RichardCoulter
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On Sky, the short lived Sky 5* Movies was replaced by the return of Sky Premier +1. Perhaps there's some red tape to sort out and it might be coming back to VM too, so they don't want to scrub the data just yet?? There again, won't Disney/5* need it's own unique data to preserve recordings for a time?
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Do Not Reverse? Do Not Re-use?
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In the past Ofcom carried out a survey and found that Freeview viewers preferred more channel choice over picture quality, so I suppose the broadcasters now feel that they have been given carte blanche to do what they are doing.
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GB News set to join Freeview, but where will the space come from?
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GB News looks set to join all platforms:
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Friday's changes:
Several changes to EPG slots but for placeholder services where (in most cases) the slot changed from a shared 2 digit slot to a unique 2 digit slot. These changes have no impact on end users, so I'll ignore them.
In the SDT root, the conditional access flag of SID 810 HUM EUROPE changed from encrypted to not encrypted. Again, another placeholder so there is nothing there to actually encrypt.
That's all, basically no changes at all but VM decided to change stuff anyway. Because they can.
They seem to like to turn the encryption off when they can, maybe it costs them per channel to use it??
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Those who use it to keep them company do.
And sport is often during the day e.g. cycling can be 6+ hours in the middle of the afternoon, snooker morning through to evening.
VM UHD Channel isn't part of BARB figures (having no advertising means they don't need industry figures they can give to advertisers anyway) and I'm not sure how much "spying" their boxes provide.
On-demand can provide lots of numbers from views to throughput, particularly if you are the host, but if it's a 3rd Party app with its own servers all you can really monitor is data transfer amounts (throughput).
Ad-Smart by it's very nature generates usage data. Tivo from launch learned your favourites, etc. So they definitely know something.
TiVo automatically sets one thumbs up for things that you record (and obviously what we manually input ourselves). It would be interesting to know if it gets any other data about what we watch.
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When I was talking to people in the run up to the referendum, EU immigration was the most common reason for voting to leave. Not one mentioned sovereignty that the media said was the most major concern.
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Any country who is thinking of leaving the EU is bound to be encouraged by what the UK has done.
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In theory DMAX sounds like it should be identical to Quest...but it's just the offcasts and drivel (IMHO). Quest is by no means perfect, but it has regular sport, often live, like a mini Eurosport (which is appropriate in a way
).Apparently, the FTA Discovery channels are doing better than the pay ones (not sure if this means profit or viewing figures wise).
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Wasn't the original Sky / Discovery dispute about Sky not wanting to pay for the whole portfolio of channels? Maybe the agreement was to keep the channels for a short period, conditional on viewing stats improving.
If VM keep the channels dropped by Sky, VM customers aren't really losing out. The free promotion of Discovery+ is something that happens from time to time. VM also has similar promotions and may even do the same when (if) Discovery+ eventually arrives.
I read a post that said that the latest Sky/Discovery carriage contract was signed six months ago, so you may well be right if this is the case.
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Merry Christmas ☺
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I just looked at the Home & Health schedule... it's basically the same sort of thing as TLC, Really and Quest Red...no loose health now even. And with 3 other channels to show that I just have to wonder what took them so long (contracts probably). And current Shed schedule looks like a cross of DMAX, Quest Discovery and Discovery Turbo. So same for that, obvious closure.
There's schedules for both Shed and Home&Health up to early on 6th January on my V6, no channel closing message which you often see in these circumstances. That's the furthest my EPG goes this morning.
Given the Food Network and HGTV are the only remaining Lifestyle category channels on VM, I can see them maybe getting moved to General Entertainment like they are on other platforms.
Right now, my V6 EPG shows programmes as late as 10:45 on 7/1/21 for them both.
I wonder if they will stay on VM as zombie channels until the end of any contractual agreement like the Travel Channel, The Childrens Channel etc have done in the past??
Discovery have given Sky customers their new Discovery+ streaming app for free for 12 months, perhaps this was done as a way of compensating Sky & it's customers for the loss of two pay channels mid contract??
As usual, VM customers lose out again!
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As Sky Premier +1 is replacing the Sky Cinema Disney channel SD & HD, you'd think that they'd have made this relaunch HD.
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Sky have announced the following channel name changes, closures and additions that I assume will also take place on VM:
27th December
Now Christmas > Now 80s
Now 80s > Now 90s
31st December
Sky Cinema Disney HD/SD > Sky Cinema Five Star Movies HD/SD
1st January
Sky Cinema Christmas HD/SD > Sky Cinema Drama HD/SD
3rd January
Christmas 24 > Movies 24
Christmas 24 > Movies 24 +
4th January
Sky Cinema Harry Potter HD> Sky Cinema Feel Good HD
Sky Cinema Musicals HD/SD > Sky Cinema Greats HD/SD
5th January
Sony Movies Christmas > Sony Movies Classic
MTV Xmas > MTV Classic
BoXmas > The Box
Sky Sports Darts HD/SD > Sky Sports Arena HD/SD
6th January
Discovery Home & Health removed permanently
Discovery Shed removed permanently
Discovery Home & Health +1 removed permanently
Sky Cinema Five Star Movies HD/SD removed permanently [ex Sky Cinema Disney HD/SD]
Sky Cinema Premiere +1 relaunches
Nick Jr. Paw Patrol > Nick Jr. Too
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It sounds like the Sky UHD content will be for the premium film & sports channels.
The VM UHD channel is broadcast in the usual way (easier for them as they own their own capacity), but I believe that Sky broadcast their UHD content via the internet.
If VM do it their own way for this new content, maybe we will see something in the scans in preparation for it??
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Not long to go before Sky UHD content arrives according to this thread. The delay is said to be because of covid (the standard VM excuse for all their shortcomings these days):
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I don't think there will be much, if any, change as a result of this 'consultation'. Johnson has decided to delay a decision on decriminalising non payment of tje TVL until at least 2022:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ne…s-plan-decriminalise-non/
Maybe this is a sign that this Government is softening their approach to the BBC, there again it might simply be because they have one or two more pressing things on their mind at the moment..
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Well STV is a different company, they have different concerns. You could ask the same of several other channels where the HD versions are on the same packs as SD e.g. why do C5/CBSViacom keep SD Paramount, MTV, etc around on VM?
ITV are probably using it to keep the EPG number. STV only have Channel3 in common with ITV so they don't have to think of a channel portfolio.
It probably also keeps their rivals out of guide positions for minimal (or at least worthwhile) cost.
And BBC1 and Channel 4 aren't fully regionalised in HD, so the choice for at least BBC1 viewers will have programming differences. C4 viewers likely don't care about regional adverts, it only matters to the broadcaster and its advertisers.
I meant why do those with obsolete hardware who now only get channels 1-5 get a choice of SD or HD for ITV only. They have to have BBC1 in SD, BBC2 in HD, Channel 4 in SD & Channel 5 in HD (apart from Scottish viewers who have to have STV in HD only).
It seems odd that VM didn't just give them ITV HD on 103 and be done with it, like they have with the other 4 channels.
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Ah! I didn't mean ITV2 SD, just the ITV regional SD channels. Unlike STV, which closed down the SD slots after putting the HD version on 103, ITV put the SD channels on 113.
161 will still be BBC Alba in the other nations.
As 113 isn't used in Scotland, I wonder why 113 is available for ITV SD on the old boxes everywhere outside of Scotland. These people don't get a choice of SD or HD for BBC1, BBC2, Channel 4 or 5, so why is ITV any different??
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The quotes I saw would suggest that it was staff but not someone I've actually heard of before.
The arrogant one was told by SP that his box had old software on it and was not representative of customer facing boxes, thus channels would appear to be available on the EPG, but would not actually be accessible.
When I said that I thought that only channels 1-5 would be viewable, interestingly SP said that some of these boxes were still on the network because these channels are all that these customers want and that there were no plans to force them onto more up to date hardware. SP also said that channel 113 was xtill available to them, for what reason I do not know.
Presumably these customers must still be paying ths minimum TV subscription; you'd think they'd want what they'rd paying for.
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I love how VM staff posting on other forums don't seem to know how pack codes work.
I guess it makes a change from them arguing amongst themselves about which channels legacy boxes can receive. The recent claim that legacy MPEG-2 boxes can still receive channels that have subsequently been upgraded to MPEG-4 was very interesting.
Ahhh you saw that 😃
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A mistake??? By Ofcom??? Surely not!!
Yeah, they do make a few.
The GOLD licence is still listed on the Ofcom website. It does have the same reference number as Dave and DaveJaVu and it is normal for some broadcasters to list several channels against a single reference number. UKTV, however, usually lists new channels on new reference numbers. Unusual though, the original licence is for Dave and DaveJaVu, so how on earth did it get listed as GOLD (as well as the Dave channels)?
Could be a mistake, but with the quality of advice & information you get these days it could well be a mistake in saying It's a mistake!
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Yeah. As it wasn't confirmed I decided to only post on the Freeview thread. I was surprised, I've been expecting Eden for aeons.
If they do bring it (and maybe Eden
) to Freesat I can see them officially adding the various +1s they've gradually being making FTA at the same time.Yes, i'm also surprised that it's GOLD, I thought that it would be a poorer performing channel to get the ratings up. Maybe Sky are kicking GOLD out of the Sub Club??
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Looks like GOLD could well be coming to Freesat. UKTV usually put their channels onto Freeview before making them FTA and it now has a licence to broadcast on Freeview.
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Looked for myself yesterday and Netflix is currently £2.50 per month!
Now been reduced to £2 a month!!!
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Yes, I don't think that anyone is suggesting that the V6 boxes currently in circulation could be utilised, they don't have a return path and DOCSIS isn't one way traffic. It would need a modified box with a return path.
If you look at the configs using the "DL_Sam_TiVoBL_16MB_CM" stream, there are a few pointers that suggest a different model (in other words, not the V6 model currently in mainstream use). It is level 155, which is a unique configuration not used for any of the other NIT Linkage streams, so something "different". It is only added to the Knowsley DMC (Hayes_RHE) network, an internal test network, which suggests that it could be a test config for a new box. The stream service name includes the "TiVoBL" element, which is the same element used in the streams thought to support the V6. As with DL_Sam_TiVoBL_10011 & DL_Cisco_TiVoBL_10066, the configs started at version 1 and haven't changed, suggesting that this isn't being used for incremental firmware versions.
I guess this, together with the "CM" in the name has fuelled the speculation that this could be a test config for a modified V6 box (V6-CM maybe?) with a return path. As far as I know, nobody has taken a look at the SID 10068 stream to see if there are any clues as to what the stream supports, nor are there any plans to do so.
As far as the 8 tuners are concerned, what's point with a 1TB harddrive? It would just encourage customers to record more of the dross and then complain that the box was under-resourced as the harddrive filled too quickly. Maybe enable them on a modified box with a larger harddrive or enable them on a modified box with a return path and bond a couple of DOCSIS channels together for more download capacity...
With hindsight, could this have been for the TV360? Also, SP said at the time that it was unlikely that the 2 unused tuners on the V6 would be utilised with the TiVo software, but "who knows after that". I wonder if the TV360 (SP said the other day that this is what the new box is now referred to as they no longer use the H word 😄) will eventually have 8 tuners?
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Did you quote me, Richard?! 😂
Partly, yes, and a satellite forum ☺
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Sounds about right. So Sky Animation didn't increase the number of Sky Cinema channels for very long. Even Premier +1 in HD isn't going to increase the number of movies available.
True. On Sky Netflix is now £2 A month, so why anyone would pay for their now awful movie channels is beyond me. I keep being offered them for half price and refuse. I had them for free the other month and there were only a handful that I fancied. I didn't enjoy any of them!
