BBC One NI HD & Two HD now appear to be available to non-HD subscribers

icdg

Appears that BBC One and BBC Two HD now appear to be available to non-HD subscribers with HD equipment on the same basis as RTÉ Two and TG4 HD. Or to me anyway...

Not sure when this occurred (or if it might be a mistake - there's been no announcement to this effect) - but good news if its a permanent change.

coylemj

There now appears to be a NI version of BBC1 HD so on my Horizon box the BBC1 HD channel (was 139) has moved to take the old BBC1 (SD) NI slot on ch. 108.

Previously the BBC1 HD channel on UPC used to show a red info screen after the 6 p.m. news went to the local BBC news unit, the message said that there was no regional variation for BBC1 HD 'in your area' but as that is no longer the case, UPC have moved BBC1 NI HD to 108 on HD boxes, at least that's what happened in the past few days on my Horizon box.

So ch. 139 which used to be BBC1 HD is now blank.

UPC's succinct answer to a query about this change was as follows..

BBC1 NI which was previously on the guide has been replaced with BBC1 HD. Apologies for any confusion surrounding this.

The Cush

coylemj wrote: »

There now appears to be a NI version of BBC1 HD so on my Horizon box the BBC1 HD channel (was 139) has moved to take the old BBC1 (SD) NI slot on ch. 108.

BBC1 HD NI has been on Freeview in NI since DSO on Oct 24th last and testing on satellite prior to that.

coylemj

The Cush wrote: »

BBC1 HD NI has been on Freeview in NI since DSO on Oct 24th last and testing on satellite prior to that.

Thanks for the clarification. Of course what I should have said is that the BBC1 HD channel on UPC is now the NI regional variation, previously it was a generic non-regional BBC1 so during local news bulletins following the national BBC news there was a bland onscreen message as outlined in my earlier post.

Flip Flop

Shame it was nice having the English version of BBC 1, late night programmes not been time shifted etc. Most other channels have now been replaced by their HD equivalents on my Horizon box except for a few of the Sky channels and BBC 2 HD.

icdg

Good spot, not being a HD subscriber I hadn't realised that they had replaced BBC One HD with BBC One NI HD.

The EPG replacement thing, at the moment that seems to be confined to Horizon subscribers (and we may keep the main chat about it to the Horizon thread) though I had have some concern if they were to do it to BBC Two owing to the fact that there is no NI HD version of BBC Two and none planned for the foreseeable future, though the NI version is of course still available on analogue.

coylemj

icdg wrote: »

The EPG replacement thing, at the moment that seems to be confined to Horizon subscribers (and we may keep the main chat about it to the Horizon thread)

ICDG, since you're a mod on this forum, can I point out that there are 150 pages and >2,200 posts in the Horizon thread. It has become a monster which in my opinion has outlived it's usefulness.

There needs to be several new Horizon threads to discuss (1) the EPG (2) the onscreen menus - how to jump options and scroll (3) the new remote (4) the Horizon apps

and so on.

If you ask a question in the current Horizon thread and it falls off the current page (which can happen in no time depending on what other discussions are active), you'll never get a response.

icdg

Off topic for this thread but I'd have no objection to discussion of seperate aspects of Horizon in different threads once the service is live. Its important to note though that Horizon is still a trial product and still not available to the general public outside of those who volunteered for the trial.

paulboland

icdg wrote: »

Appears that BBC One and BBC Two HD now appear to be available to non-HD subscribers with HD equipment on the same basis as RTÉ Two and TG4 HD. Or to me anyway...

Not sure when this occurred (or if it might be a mistake - there's been no announcement to this effect) - but good news if its a permanent change.

All HD Channels are working based on package and are working I only don't have discovery HD
As my package is Digital Select Extra
I don't subscribe to HD package
I am using the Horizon HD Box
Last Week all HD channels became free to watch depending on what package your on
How long this lasts not sure but I expect it will remain free if you have a HD upc Box at least for next 3 months and I take a guess will remain free after that as Horizon HD Box is rolled out to rest of customers later this year
By making it free will put sky in a fix as they will have to follow and offer hd free as upc now own Virgin Media in the uk

Infoanon

icdg wrote: »

Appears that BBC One and BBC Two HD now appear to be available to non-HD subscribers with HD equipment on the same basis as RTÉ Two and TG4 HD. Or to me anyway...

Not sure when this occurred (or if it might be a mistake - there's been no announcement to this effect) - but good news if its a permanent change.

With BBC HD available to Sky SD subscribers (without a HD package), I can only hope that UPC realised it was not helping their businss strategy and its a permanent change.

mackersdublin

Is it just me, or is the picture on BBC One NI HD inferior to BBC One HD?

totallegend

paulboland wrote: »

All HD Channels are working based on package and are working I only don't have discovery HD
As my package is Digital Select Extra
I don't subscribe to HD package
I am using the Horizon HD Box
Last Week all HD channels became free to watch depending on what package your on
How long this lasts not sure but I expect it will remain free if you have a HD upc Box at least for next 3 months and I take a guess will remain free after that as Horizon HD Box is rolled out to rest of customers later this year
By making it free will put sky in a fix as they will have to follow and offer hd free as upc now own Virgin Media in the uk

Call me cynical but... is this a bit of a Trojan horse to increase the uptake of HD?

OK, so you get 3 months free HD access. At the end of it, UPC hope that you continue on with it and pay the extra €5 per month. If you don't, you're back to SD but now you have a blank channel at 105 (Setanta HD) and 108 (BBC1 HD) which makes flicking difficult... will people say "F**k it, I'll just pay the fiver"? Hmmm.

paulboland

totallegend wrote: »

Call me cynical but... is this a bit of a Trojan horse to increase the uptake of HD?

OK, so you get 3 months free HD access. At the end of it, UPC hope that you continue on with it and pay the extra €5 per month. If you don't, you're back to SD but now you have a blank channel at 105 (Setanta HD) and 108 (BBC1 HD) which makes flicking difficult... will people say "F**k it, I'll just pay the fiver"? Hmmm.

Horizon customers will most likely get the HD channels for free after the 3 months those who already had hd package are getting €5 credit for next 3 months at the moment so I take a guess after the 3 months it will remain free as that's just happens to be when horizon is rolled out on general release

Heisenberg1

mackersdublin wrote: »

Is it just me, or is the picture on BBC One NI HD inferior to BBC One HD?

No way is it HD picture quality is poor.

zg3409

Heisenberg1 wrote: »

No way is it HD picture quality is poor.

Actual real HD relies on HD cameras, HD editing and production and all stages in the system being capable of HD, which may not be the case for all shows. One HD camera can cost €100,000 hence parts of system may not be capable.

icdg

totallegend wrote: »

Call me cynical but... is this a bit of a Trojan horse to increase the uptake of HD?

OK, so you get 3 months free HD access. At the end of it, UPC hope that you continue on with it and pay the extra €5 per month. If you don't, you're back to SD but now you have a blank channel at 105 (Setanta HD) and 108 (BBC1 HD) which makes flicking difficult... will people say "F**k it, I'll just pay the fiver"? Hmmm.

They will not take BBC One away from Horizon customers who refuse to pay for HD. That would be one way to send people to Sky. Either taking HD will be compulsory for eventual Horizon customers or they will have to make any HD-swapped channels available to SD only customers (as they appear to have done already for the BBC channels).

I should point out though that I don't have Horizon - I have a regular UPC Mediabox HD (two of them, along with an SD DVR) but only an SD subscription. I can now access BBC One NI HD and BBC Two HD, along with RTÉ Two HD and TG4 HD. But no other HD channels. As I say I don't pay the extra for HD (as I don't think its worth it) so I wouldn't expect to have these channels available and am treating the availability of the BBC HD channels as a welcome bonus.