BBC FTA Tests

Charles Slane

According to Nate Dogg on Digital Spy -

"The BBC have started testing Astra 2D they have about 10 regional tests at 10847V Symbol Rate 22.0 & FEC 5/6"

Can't see them here. Are they viewable on an FTA box ?

watty

There may have been region feeds / tests. But they wern't FTA, and currently ther is only BBC LN which does not work at the minute on any card or FTA. It did work for a while on any Digibox card, not FTA.

By my definition an FTA test is Free To Air, i.e. works on a Digibox with upside down card re-powered on (The only way to have a "no-Card" Digibox since Ver 3.xx SW) or a non-Digibox Digital Receiver.

IMO there is a lot of nonsense and rumour at the mo. mostly as result of ill researched "opinion" passed as fact ( by a certain Newspaper) & Sky announcements passed off as BBC or ITC decisions (which they obviously arn't).

www.lyngsat.com shows

V
tp 50

SR 22000
FEC 5/6

BBCi 8
Videoguard 6900 2305 2306 E 2D Anonymous
030501


BBCi 9
Videoguard 6901 2324 2325 E W Zaremba
030503


BBCi 10
Videoguard 6902 2331 2332 E W Zaremba
030503


BBCi 11
Videoguard 6903 2337 2338 E W Zaremba
030503


BBCi 12
Videoguard 6904 2341 2342 E W Zaremba
030503


BBCi 13
Videoguard 6905 2345 2346 E W Zaremba
030503

http://www.lyngsat.com/dig/skyuk.shtml

johnnyq

Originally posted by Charles Slane
According to Nate Dogg on Digital Spy -

"The BBC have started testing Astra 2D they have about 10 regional tests at 10847V Symbol Rate 22.0 & FEC 5/6"

Can't see them here. Are they viewable on an FTA box ?

I also noticed that the post was posted at 11:00

like they would be doing tests at that hour

johnnyq

Originally posted by me
I also noticed that the post was posted at 11:00
like they would be doing tests at that hour

I would expect that tests will take place on tuesday next, because monday is a holiday and it will be a full week after it started. I predict we will see more unencrypted action with new channels starting on that day myself, any insights ?

DMC

Just in regard to the two threads... This one will discuss any tests we see, like the BBC ONE LN, the sticky will continue to discuss the politics of it all. I wont move any posts that are already there.

CHRIS GREER

Zak, back on Saturday, Tony asked you a question as to where your "information" was sourced from. So far, you have failed to supply an answer, either the source of the information (as we all hope it is) or an admission that it was an untruth (which we hope it wasn't) Now, Zak, the question is-are you prepared to furnish us all, but especially Tony, who asked in a polite manner (Congrats Tony!) with whatever information you do or do not have?

ShaneOC

Originally posted by CHRIS GREER
Zak, back on Saturday, Tony asked you a question as to where your "information" was sourced from. So far, you have failed to supply an answer, either the source of the information (as we all hope it is) or an admission that it was an untruth (which we hope it wasn't) Now, Zak, the question is-are you prepared to furnish us all, but especially Tony, who asked in a polite manner (Congrats Tony!) with whatever information you do or do not have?

Stop stirring :rolleyes:

Tony

Originally posted by Tony
And the source of this information is ?

Tony

Zak any chance of an answer? I think its a fair question.

Tony

watty

Still nothing that looks like a "real" FTA test.
5 of the 6 supposed "tests" appear to not exist. The BBC LN test may be nothing to do with the FTA move.
Be assured if my PC finds any new BBC channels I'll post the details.

I have searched the BBC site extensively, nothing about any 1 month delay, Sky wishfull thinking perhaps?

Icehouse

Originally posted by watty
Still nothing that looks like a "real" FTA test.
5 of the 6 supposed "tests" appear to not exist. The BBC LN test may be nothing to do with the FTA move.
Be assured if my PC finds any new BBC channels I'll post the details.

I have searched the BBC site extensively, nothing about any 1 month delay, Sky wishfull thinking perhaps?

I reckon/hope the BBC will go ahead without any delay. As for the source of the info on the BBC's tests, the same said person (on another board) frequently spreads satellite related rumours/half truths and he has been pulled up on it (including by myself this morning btw).

johnnyq

It is probobly still too soon

arkles

BBC1 LN testing this morning (only on FTV card) showing bbc1 london.

Icehouse

Originally posted by irishgeo
Can anyone actually see it happening.

Anyone can watch it happen as we 'speak'

BBC ONE, BBC TWO, BBC NI, BBC NEWS 24, CBBC Channel, CBeebies and BBC R Cymru are currently testing (encrypted for the moment) on transponder 45 10773H 22.0 5/6.

DMC

Thats Tp 45 alright, but Lyngsat has not show that that tp is active???

Icehouse

Originally posted by DMC
Thats Tp 45 alright, but Lyngsat has not show that that tp is active???

Sorry, I should have qualified my info - this is from a thread on Digi Spy, and i have not yet been able to verify it. the Thread says it is a newly activated transponder.

DMC

Moving to the tests thread... Can anyone verify this?

dmeehan

no sign of it on Lyngsat

Icehouse

Originally posted by dmeehan
no sign of it on Lyngsat

Hopefully it will appear when confirmed : http://www.lyngsat.com/astra2d.shtml

arkles

yep
all the said mentioned channels minus bbc1 ni ( bbc1 ni blocked )are there with picture and audio
only on FTVcard though, irish sub card says channel not available zzzz

Tony

quote:

---

Originally posted by zak
BBC have put their plans to go FTA back until the 1st of July. The UK regalator has instructed sky to keep BBC transmissions enqrypted until this date while the regalator trys to sort out the problems between BBC & Sky. It is not 100% certin that the BBC will go FTA yet.

---

And the source of this information is ?

Tony

I guess the lack of response (despite two requests) says a little about the validity of this information.

Tony

watty

10773 H SR22,000 5/6
I do have
BBC ONE
BBC ONE NI
BBC TES 3
BBC TWO
CBBC Channel
CBeebies

Now and Next EPG but Encrypted. I guess not FTA till 1st June.
(Island /Iceland test on 10729V)

I'm scanning to see if the "originals" are gone. If the originals are gone, then these arn't tests ;-)


some minutes later...

Hmm. The aforementioned are the ACTUAL channels, not tests.
This means a lot of folk in Malta, Cyprus, Greece, Southern Itally, Balkans, Nrth Africa with big dishes and Digiboxs with FTV/Sub cards have no BBC1 tonight.

My theory is that anyone in Europe who wanted BBC via Sky got it long since and FTA on 2D really does reduce then number of viewers compared with not 2D & Encrypted.

I expect the expats etc in those places will lose the rest of the BBC channels tomorrow

DMC

Watty, how does one know which frequency the EPG info for the BBC channels are aimed at? I mean, when there are two identical channels broadcasting on two different transponders, how do you know which broadcast of the two is appearing on the EPG?

jabarrett35

Reading on digispy they still have BBC in southern Spain but Malta appears to have lost it.

watty

Originally posted by DMC
Watty, how does one know which frequency the EPG info for the BBC channels are aimed at? I mean, when there are two identical channels broadcasting on two different transponders, how do you know which broadcast of the two is appearing on the EPG?

Unless you can spot some differenvce there is no way to know what the Digibox is using..

But when there is only one set of channels and they have changed, then you know what the Digibox must be using.

The Digibox you can't even know what the "Other Channels" were unless you wrote it down.. very frustration when they added sw and it wouldn't store 50 anymore.. So I got fed up near about a year an half ago, and swithered about a Humax F1 or a PCI card for the PC.

The PC card is way better for "exploring", recording etc than Humax. It even feeds all the TVs in unlikely event something FTA not on a Digibox is worth watching.. I watch a lot on News & Current Affairs stuff on it NIle TV, BBC World TV, Ebs (All english). It good for radio too.

I can enter newly discovered lists of transponders for a Satellite in Notepad, go get cup of coffee and 300 odd channels updates automatically. U have to know Freq, H/V and SR, but is does FEC automatically, and there is even a slow autosearch for unknown transponders unknown FEC if you set Polarity & SR. It does ALL SR certinally so far from 2,110 to 30,000 (I think it does up to 45,000)

DMC

Thanks for that, watty, I was fairly sure it was like that.... Like no lay person would know the difference between the two RTÉ Radio 1 feeds, but as we know that the version on the EPG is the mono WRN feed.

And just reading on other forums about Lyngsat, it seems a lot of folk are now knocking it, its not as quick as it used to be

Charles Slane

Originally posted by watty
The aforementioned are the ACTUAL channels, not tests.

Isn't it amazing how quickly they can do these things when they put their minds to it !!!

carrolls

.

how do you know which broadcast of the two is appearing on the EPG?

They are still using the old BBC frequencies on the EPG. I put the 9.75 frequency up to 10.20 in the LNB menu and ITV/RTE were disabled, but BBC was still working.

Although having said that, the Beeb might be up to some software trickery to disguise the fact that they are using only the lower freq's.

watty

Seems I shot the gun a little..
The problem is I never stored the BBC 2A channels as they are encrypted.

I expected to see the original BBC show up in the "New" channel list, and sure enough only the BBC not on 2D (and stored) came up on the "New" channels list. The SW regarded the "original" "A with copies on 2D as "Updates" so didn't lit them in the new channels view.

Still, it shows the BBC *IS* going ahead with the move.

Also show Carrolls is smarter than Guardian Newspaper and Watty..

Never thought of doing that to the Digibox..

Charles Slane

So does this mean that the 2D broadcasts are still "tests" ? In other words, what we're seeing on 214/5 are not off 2D ?

I thought it seemed to be a very quick (and painless) switch-over.

I guess we can expect to see other transponders firing up over the next couple of days.

Is it reckoned they'll use three, or will they need more if they're going to bring more of their sub-regions on air ?

Good work on the test-checking guys !

DMC

Originally posted by Charles Slane
Good work on the test-checking guys !

Watty's in his element

Many thanks so for and good stuff, guys, these BBC tests and the info the guys are finding are just like the BBC, to inform, educate and entertain!