BBC iPlayer to launch on Freesat

[bagg3rs]

Interesting news, wonder if this will be available through Media Centre with Sat card?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8343350.stm

"BBC iPlayer to launch on Freesat

The BBC iPlayer has proved popular on television as well as online.
The BBC iPlayer will be trialled to a limited number of Freesat viewers at the end of November.

A full service on Freesat should be launched in 2010, said a BBC spokesperson. All Freesat HD boxes will be able to receive it.

Rahul Chakkara, head of TV platforms at the BBC, announced the beta trial on the BBC internet blog.

He also said that a quarter of BBC iPlayer viewing is now done through the TV via Virgin Media.

The BBC iPlayer became available on Virgin Media in June 2008.

Mr Chakkara said that 200 million programmes had been viewed on the catch-up service since then.

It is also available via the Nintendo Wii and Sony Playstation 3 games consoles, although Wii users have experienced some problems with the service. The BBC says a new version is being developed for that platform.

Adapting the technology behind the BBC iPlayer interface for television had been "a challenge" he added.

"This is a fast changing and evolving industry," he wrote on the blog.

"Many of our assumptions will be challenged with time. We will keep coming back to the products and update them where appropriate." "

[RitchieTheBrit]

Hmmmmm, very interesting...

Good find dude!

[bagg3rs]

Looks like it users the internet anyway so guess tunerfree is still the business.

[Stephen Neal]

Yep - I think the Freesat HD (and forthcoming Freeview HD) use a broadcast MHEG5 application (like digital text and other Freeview/Freesat interactive apps) but will then use the MHEG5 Interactive Channel functionality to pull the content (text, thumbnails and video) over the Ethernet connection that all these boxes have, rather than over-the-air.

[Bossworld]

Might struggle to get it to work I reckon.

I've got the DVB-S MHEG hack in the registry for ITV HD, and although I can now go to BBC news and enable the sports multiscreen, I can't actually select the one I want, and typing a number to choose just changes the channel. There is a workaround - i've moved the 'BBC stream' channels (usually paired with radio 1/2 etc.) to separate channels in the 350-356 region.

Without the hack, it just loads standard teletext.

[Biffa001]

bet this won't work with MediaPortal.......

[jameson_uk]

Originally Posted by Biffa001

bet this won't work with MediaPortal.......

If it is MHEG5 then not directly (same way you can not access ITV HD via the red button but can via tuning to it directly and the same with 301-305 on freeview)

That said I am not sure it will be via MHEG5?? I thought that was just a way of tuning to different streams. Surely the whole point of iPlayer is that you can start when you want? If that is the case I am very interested in how this will work as I can not quite get my head round how the BBC could transmit hundreds of programs to users on demand. Cable does this as that is basically a network and there is two way communication. Sky only gets as far as having box office events starting every few minutes and you need to be connected to a phone line to get two way communication

Edit:Ummm just read the linked blog post. and they are using MHEG5. I am very interested as to whether this is on demand now

[jameson_uk]

Actually reading blog again (long day )

This part caught my eye

We will define a media playback API that will allow 3rd parties to play the iPlayer media assets. The API uses the ongoing work in the W3C HTML working group, for playing video and audio. Third parties can now use the APIs to interface to their media players.

This sounds much more promising for integration into MP / Media Center etc

[Stephen Neal]

Yep - it's an MHEG5 app running on Freesat HD (and in the future Freeview HD) boxes that uses the MHEG5 Interactive Channel functionality I believe. The interactive channel stuff defines how MHEG5 apps can talk back to broadcasters and access the internet via a network connection. It can also be used for sending back interactive voting information to broadcasters or for making internet purchases in the future etc. (Though I guess many broadcasters prefer the premium rate phone line functionality that charges as you dial and is used by Sky Digiboxes for interactivity)

AIUI this means that the MHEG5 iPlayer app is broadcast on the BBC transponders, just like the other MHEG5 apps are (for Digital Text, Sport Interactive etc.) This app is then downloaded and run on the Freesat HD box in just the same way as the Digital Text or Sport Multiscreen app is. However rather than picking up the video streams from an MPEG2 transport stream on a BBC satellite transponder (as the sport app does), they instead use the interactive channel to use the Ethernet connection on Freesat HD boxes to connect to BBC iPlayer servers over the internet (so your Freesat HD box has to be connected via it's Ethernet socket to your home broadband or other internet connection) and will stream iPlayer content via the internet, just as the other iPlayer implementations (apart from Virgin Media's cable app which is based on VM VOD tech I believe)

I suspect that all of the iPlayer variable data - listings, programme details etc. - will be pulled down via the internet connection rather than broadcast, as there is no point broadcasting this stuff if the only users who can make use of it have to have an internet connection? The only thing that presumably needs to take-up broadcast bandwith is the core iPlayer MHEG5 app?

I guess from then on the Freesat HD MHEG5 iplayer app works just like any other internet connected iPlayer implementation (replacing the funcitonality of a web browser browsing the iPlayer website on a PC), streaming content from BBC servers in a given format (my bet is H264 - as all Freesat HD boxes have to support this for HD broadcasts) It will be interesting to see if they stream in 576/50i (i.e. broadcast interlaced resolution) or whether they run at 25p progressive and at a lower resolution? It will also be interesting to see if any iPlayer HD stuff is streamed (and whether it is also at the lower quality 25p that the current PC HD streaming is in)

So effectively the MHEG5 broadcast app bit just replaces the HTML/Flash front-end that we run in our PC/MAC/Linux/PS3/Wii/iPhone browsers, but the back-end internet-delivered on-demand bit uses the same techniques to deliver the video to the box as is used to deliver H264 or similar content to the Flash player on our PCs etc?

I wonder how many end-users will actually be able to get cabled ethernet connections to their Freesat HD boxes, and how long before someone does a Freesat/view HD box with integrated WiFi!

I also wonder how many people are under the misapprehension that Freesat HD iPlayer will just work with their existing set-ups - and think it is like Sky Anytime (overnight download to reserved hard drive capacity)

[Stephen Neal]

Originally Posted by jameson_uk

Actually reading blog again (long day )

This part caught my eye


This sounds much more promising for integration into MP / Media Center etc

Yes - it sounds interesting doesn't it?

[Stephen Neal]

Originally Posted by Bossworld

Might struggle to get it to work I reckon.

I've got the DVB-S MHEG hack in the registry for ITV HD, and although I can now go to BBC news and enable the sports multiscreen, I can't actually select the one I want, and typing a number to choose just changes the channel. There is a workaround - i've moved the 'BBC stream' channels (usually paired with radio 1/2 etc.) to separate channels in the 350-356 region.

Without the hack, it just loads standard teletext.

I don't know if MS have implemented any of the MHEG5 interactive channel functionality. They wouldn't need to do for basic Freeview MHEG5 to work.

[Bossworld]

Originally Posted by Stephen Neal

I don't know if MS have implemented any of the MHEG5 interactive channel functionality. They wouldn't need to do for basic Freeview MHEG5 to work.

On Windows 7, freeview MHEG works as expected through the red button, can go through teletext, I often use it to check sky sports news stories. Only slight bug I can find is when you press left or right, it's not in the same order as listed on the previous menu - who knows, maybe it's the same with a standard box.

With DVB-S, without that hack, you just get standard old school teletext on a couple of channels. With the hack, you lose that, but gain a bit more functionality on BBC News, and of course you get ITV HD.

[Stephen Neal]

Originally Posted by Bossworld

On Windows 7, freeview MHEG works as expected through the red button, can go through teletext, I often use it to check sky sports news stories. Only slight bug I can find is when you press left or right, it's not in the same order as listed on the previous menu - who knows, maybe it's the same with a standard box.

With DVB-S, without that hack, you just get standard old school teletext on a couple of channels. With the hack, you lose that, but gain a bit more functionality on BBC News, and of course you get ITV HD.

Yep - have used both in 7MC - but neither use the Interactive Channel (i.e. the internet link back to the broadcaster) - so it is difficult to know whether MS have implemented support for it. It isn't part of the core SD Freeview MHEG5 implementation required for Freeview SD (and Digital Tick) compliance AIUI - as there is no requirement for Ethernet (or modem) functionality on these devices.

[bagg3rs]

Thought i would throw in an update though not strictly PC related.
Freesat BBC iPlayer trial coverage widened • Register Hardware

[dmce]

I tried it last night and it just sat with the main tv picture and a connection... box in the top right. Does the BBC do something at its end to limit it to HUMAX boxes?