[mitchec1]

Seems the Sky HD have missed this forum but they've announced 3 new HD channels coming in the next couple of months

http://www.skyuser.co.uk/index.php?news=1942


Over the next couple of months, Sky Sports HD 3, Sky Movies Premiere HD and FX HD will be added to the line-up offering a broad range of new programming and a number of UK firsts.

Bringing the number of dedicated HD channels on the platform to 17, these channel will offer brand new HD content:

• The launch of Sky Sports HD 3 will mean Sky will be the first and only broadcaster globally to offer live high definition coverage of European Tour golf. Sky will also show World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in HD for the first time.

• FX HD will bring new series of critically acclaimed dramas to the UK for the first time.

• And Sky Movies Premiere HD will ensure the biggest and best from Hollywood and beyond are available in HD. Upcoming premieres to be offered in HD will include Blood Diamond, Mr Bean's Holiday, Flags Of Our Fathers, Fracture, Babel, and Ghost Rider. In screening 90 of the top 100 Hollywood box office hits each year, Sky Movies Premiere HD will build upon the 220 movies already broadcast in HD each month

[KeanosMagicHat]

Originally Posted by mitchec1

... Sky Sports HD 3, Sky Movies Premiere HD and FX HD ...

Thanks for this.

Mods - Any chance we can change the title to include all three channel names please?

The reason I ask is that there was a campaign that went all the way to senior management at Sky from this very forum that requested a

Sky Movies Premiere HD

channel. I'm absolutely delighted to see this publicly announced !!!



Petition to request Sky to provide HD Movie Premiere Channel

Great to see the others too of course.

[mjcairney]

That's good news - thank you.

Cheers,

Martin.

[Starburst]

Personally I think it's a little disappointing.
There is no particular reason a third movie channel could not have included that current weeks premiers and included catalogue movies as well, having it operate like Premiere SD is just a waste regardless of the status of Anytime.

Still, never gonna please everyone and FXUKHD and SS3HD are welcome

[`BK]

And where pray tell are these gonna go transponder wise... or are we all going to be enjoying 9-10Mbit/s channels in the near future?

[mart1977]

I'm glad more channels are being added but am i missing something? Why will there be another HD sports channel when the existing Hd 1 and 2 are not exactly packed with HD content.

Also i thought Setanta had all the golf now. I thought that was one of their selling points. I'm not really a golf fan apart from the Ryder Cup (sky have the ryder cup still?).

[richard plumb]

Originally Posted by Starburst

Personally I think it's a little disappointing.
There is no particular reason a third movie channel could not have included that current weeks premiers and included catalogue movies as well, having it operate like Premiere SD is just a waste regardless of the status of Anytime.

Still, never gonna please everyone and FXUKHD and SS3HD are welcome

but they have started showing some of the premiere movies on screen1/2HD. So with a dedicated premiere channel, some slots at least will be freed up for more catalogue movies.


edit: looking forward to the golf though. Not really interested in footy or rugby or cricket.

edit2: Not looking forward to FXHD - just looked at the listings for FX. its just JAG, NCIS, Macguyver (prolly not HD), king of the hill and family guy over and over again. going to end up worse than discovery HD at this rate.

[KeanosMagicHat]

Originally Posted by martyates77

I'm glad more channels are being added but am i missing something? Why will there be another HD sports channel when the existing Hd 1 and 2 are not exactly packed with HD content.

I asked the same question and got a pretty good / logical response here ....

New HD Channels

Originally Posted by richard plumb

edit2: Not looking forward to FXHD - just looked at the listings for FX. its just JAG, NCIS, Macguyver (prolly not HD), king of the hill and family guy over and over again. going to end up worse than discovery HD at this rate.

Did you not watch Dexter?

Having shown season 1 last year, hopefully FX will now have the rights for season 2 in HD. Season 1 has just been announced on ITV1.

Also back in 2006 FX showed Band of Brothers, bit optomistic but would love to see that in HD.

[Starburst]

Originally Posted by richard plumb

but they have started showing some of the premiere movies on screen1/2HD. So with a dedicated premiere channel, some slots at least will be freed up for more catalogue movies.

I love the optimism

[mitchec1]

Originally Posted by martyates77

I'm glad more channels are being added but am i missing something? Why will there be another HD sports channel when the existing Hd 1 and 2 are not exactly packed with HD content.

Also i thought Setanta had all the golf now. I thought that was one of their selling points. I'm not really a golf fan apart from the Ryder Cup (sky have the ryder cup still?).

There's not enough HD sport channels for live sporting events, with HD sports being shifted over to sky one or on an interactive screen.

The link below gives you a list of golf in HD

Golf in HD

[Starburst]

Originally Posted by `BK

And where pray tell are these gonna go transponder wise... or are we all going to be enjoying 9-10Mbit/s channels in the near future?

As you know there has been 1 transponder under test for a while so that's two HD channels and CH4HD is very likely to move to it's own transponder when it goes FTA later in the year. Factor in 2C then there may be another 1 or 2 transponders on the way, the encoding performance/efficency and/or bandwidth has to be addressed since SBOHD already suffers and NG/Disco/History can fluctuate wildly.

[derek500]

Originally Posted by martyates77

Also i thought Setanta had all the golf now. I thought that was one of their selling points. I'm not really a golf fan apart from the Ryder Cup (sky have the ryder cup still?).

Setanta only have the PGA Tour from the US.

Sky have:- European Tour, Ryder Cup, All the WGC's, US Open, PGA, Ladies European Tour, three US Ladies Majors and the Samsung.

[Bachstrad]

Originally Posted by martyates77

I'm glad more channels are being added but am i missing something? Why will there be another HD sports channel when the existing Hd 1 and 2 are not exactly packed with HD content.

Also i thought Setanta had all the golf now. I thought that was one of their selling points. I'm not really a golf fan apart from the Ryder Cup (sky have the ryder cup still?).

Setanta has the USPGA tournaments, but Sky has the Ryder Cup, European Tour and the two US Majors, plus things like last weeks matchplay tournament. The BBC has the Masters & The Open, but it's anybodies guess at whether they will appear on BBC HD since it became a 'channel'.

ATB

Max

[loz]

How come they didn't include Paint Drying TV?
I was sure that was going to be part of today's announcement.
New HD channel coming

[mart1977]

Thanks for putting me straight

[derek500]

Originally Posted by Starburst

As you know there has been 1 transponder under test for a while so that's two HD channels and CH4HD is very likely to move to it's own transponder when it goes FTA later in the year. Factor in 2C then there may be another 1 or 2 transponders on the way, the encoding performance/efficency and/or bandwidth has to be addressed since SBOHD already suffers and NG/Disco/History can fluctuate wildly.

Currently there's four HD channels testing on 11856.00 V.

The general rule is to have two HD channels per transponder.

The exceptions being:-

Sky Arts HD, Discovery Hd who share with part time channels Sky Retail HD and Sky Box Office HD2 on 12324.00 V.

Nat Geo HD, History Hd and Sky Box Office HD1 on 12363.00 V.

As there seems to be a problem with the PQ on the SBO HD channels it doesn't bode well.

[Abstrakt]

There’s also Astra 2C, which was recently relocated to 28.2° E. Right now it has 31 empty transponders waiting to be put to good use. Granted, a lot of that bandwidth is reserved as a “hot spare” should any of the other satellites at 28.2° E fail. But the bottom line is that there’s still plenty of unused space available to launch dozens of new HD channels over the next few years.

[KeanosMagicHat]

Originally Posted by derek500

... part time channels Sky Retail HD ...

What's Sky Retail HD?

At a guess I'd suggest it was a looping channel with demo material for retailers is that correct?

Originally Posted by Abstrakt

There’s also Astra 2C, which was recently relocated to 28.2° E. Right now it has 31 empty transponders waiting to be put to good use. Granted, a lot of that bandwidth is reserved as a “hot spare” should any of the other satellites at 28.2° E fail. But the bottom line is that there’s still plenty of unused space available to launch dozens of new HD channels over the next few years.

I wasn't aware of that.

Sounds good ...

[Scapegoat]

FX HD - on the cards for ages.

Dexter (great programme) starts July I think. Nip / Tuck starts March, though is it available in HD as Sky never showed it last series?

Any new HD is good news generally.

Sports channels - issue with sports is that for most of the week there is nowt on, then come Sat/Sun its everywhere. A 3rd channel allows for 3 live events at once - a chance to channel hop even more and annoy the missues

[Abstrakt]

Originally Posted by KeanosMagicHat

What's Sky Retail HD?

At a guess I'd suggest it was a looping channel with demo material for retailers is that correct?

Correct.

It’s a promotional HD channel destined for retailers’ showrooms. It is time-shared with Sky Box Office HD2 -- technically it’s the same channel: when SBO HD2 isn’t running, between 8 AM and 9 PM, it becomes the HD Retail channel.

[KeanosMagicHat]

Originally Posted by Abstrakt

Correct.

It’s a promotional HD channel destined for retailers’ showrooms. It is time-shared with Sky Box Office HD2 -- technically it’s the same channel: when SBO HD2 isn’t running, between 8 AM and 9 PM, it becomes the HD Retail channel.

Hmm .... shame we can't access that.

I'm always greedy for new demo material.

[derek500]

Originally Posted by Bachstrad

The BBC has the Masters & The Open, but it's anybodies guess at whether they will appear on BBC HD since it became a 'channel'.

ATB

Max

Masters - Yes , The Open - No

[Bachstrad]

Originally Posted by derek500

Masters - Yes , The Open - No

It was the same last year, if I remember correctly. I'm glad to hear that they still intend to do the Masters in HD though. With the debarcle over the HD footie and BBC HD in general, I did have my doubts whether the Beeb would be taking the HD feed this year.

ATB

Max

[rm010]

This is great news. I'm especially looking forward to FXHD - that should have some seriously good content.

[Silver Serpent]

Originally Posted by Abstrakt

There’s also Astra 2C, which was recently relocated to 28.2° E. Right now it has 31 empty transponders waiting to be put to good use. Granted, a lot of that bandwidth is reserved as a “hot spare” should any of the other satellites at 28.2° E fail. But the bottom line is that there’s still plenty of unused space available to launch dozens of new HD channels over the next few years.

I really hope that's the case, as I'm not prepared to pay for a watered-down service.

[Abstrakt]

Speaking of 2C, there’s an HD channel testing on 12606 V, 27500, 2/3. It is titled “55355”, currently FTA and displaying a test card in 1920x1080. It fits the profile of channels uplinked by Sky, so it could very well be the future location of Sky Sports HD3.

On the other hand, the ongoing H.264 tests over on 11856 V, 29500, 3/4 look like they might be uplinked by a third party -- possibly from that new Arqiva playout & uplink facility that Uno mentioned in another thread.

But this is all just speculation, of course… All we know for certain is that Sky Sports HD3 will launch on March 17th.

[derek500]

Originally Posted by Abstrakt

Speaking of 2C, there’s an HD channel testing on 12606 V, 27500, 2/3. It is titled “55355”, currently FTA and displaying a test card in 1920x1080. It fits the profile of channels uplinked by Sky, so it could very well be the future location of Sky Sports HD3.

On the other hand, the ongoing H.264 tests over on 11856 V, 29500, 3/4 look like they might be uplinked by a third party -- possibly from that new Arqiva playout & uplink facility that Uno mentioned in another thread.

But this is all just speculation, of course… All we know for certain is that Sky Sports HD3 will launch on March 17th.

I thought as the four tests on 11856 were using 29500 symbol rate, it fits in with Sky's transmissions.

Whereas the channel on 12606 is using 27500 receivable on 'add channels', maybe for ITV HD?

[KeanosMagicHat]

Originally Posted by Abstrakt

Speaking of 2C, there’s an HD channel testing on 12606 V, 27500, 2/3. It is titled “55355”, currently FTA and displaying a test card in 1920x1080. It fits the profile of channels uplinked by Sky, so it could very well be the future location of Sky Sports HD3 ....

Just added that one, in case we get any pre-launch footage.

As an aside, on that same frequency there's also 55300 which appears to be something to do with BBC2.

[Abstrakt]

Originally Posted by derek500

I thought as the four tests on 11856 were using 29500 symbol rate, it fits in with Sky's transmissions.

Granted, at first glance the tuning parameters match those of all the other Sky HD transponders, but the way this MUX is configured doesn’t look like any of the other Sky-uplinked multiplexes.

[KeanosMagicHat]

Going back to FX HD.

According to the link below it's a part-time evening channel BUT the good thing is that from the start 90%+ of the content is to be HD !!!



http://www.hdtvuk.tv/2008/02/sky_hd_lineup_e.html#more