BBC/ITV/ Ch4 / Ch5 HiDef Freeview Trial

FrankJH

FrankJH

FrankJH

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6 Jun 2005
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I have just heard a few minutes ago that I am one of the lucky few to be granted a free STB for the terrestrial HiDef freeview trial happening in London, so thought I would start a thread.

I have been granted a 15 minute slot on Sat 3rd June to pick up my kit from Central London (and a talk thru on how to connect it doh!!)

Will post more when I get the box, anyone else getting this kit?
 
Frank,
I think that you were just about to lets us know where you live, so that we can have one of our less than friendly acquaintances come and borrow the unit from you....

On a more serious note. Nice one, but you're going to have to give us lots of updates on your findings, actual picture quality, the type of broadcasts, reliability of the STB etc.

What TV/av system will you be using it with?
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
Frank,
I think that you were just about to lets us know where you live, so that we can have one of our less than friendly acquaintances come and borrow the unit from you....

On a more serious note. Nice one, but you're going to have to give us lots of updates on your findings, actual picture quality, the type of broadcasts, reliability of the STB etc.

What TV/av system will you be using it with?
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Laughs - If you want to scour the whole of Central London then you will probably deserve it - and even then I will hate you for a long time to come (one of the main reasons I moved recently was because of a plague of burglaries) ... just to be sure no offence taken or meant

Of course I will let you know with pictures and words what the kit is like, from build quality to cables etc and pic quality on my Samsung 32" R41BDX.

I also have a Sony freeview dvd /hdd recorder and Denon 1906 av amp

Obviously I am most happpy about being able to watch the world cup in Hidef goodness, but now I will become seriously interested in all the BBC wildlife progs as well ( as I believe these have been shot in HD for years) amongst other things - I wish Formula 1 (yes I know I am sad but there ya go) was broadcast in HD but Bernie wont pay for it so thats out the window

Wont have many updates until this weekend when I pick up the kit - but as you can possibly tell I cant wait

Personally the questionaires and telephone interviews I have to do will be small penance indeed.
 
I asked about this trial the other week, but I was too late, when did you apply for it mate?

I'm hoping I get pick this up anyway on my MCE machine, just need the right codecs (new version of CoreAVC), as the stream is there, just needs to be reconstructed.
 
I think I applied in early / Mid march - and as there are only 450 places, I am sure they got snapped up very quickly.

I am not that hot on what hardware would be required either in a stb or in a MCE machine for you to recieve it ( apart from the software codecs) but I wouldnt bet on you being able to recieve it.

I am guessing you are also in easy range of Crystal Palace transmitter?
 
I was wondering about others receiving it to as there's several digital PC TV cards that by the sound of it should be able to receive any HD signal.
 
FrankJH said:
I think I applied in early / Mid march - and as there are only 450 places, I am sure they got snapped up very quickly.

I am not that hot on what hardware would be required either in a stb or in a MCE machine for you to recieve it ( apart from the software codecs) but I wouldnt bet on you being able to recieve it.

I am guessing you are also in easy range of Crystal Palace transmitter?
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I do recieve it already, i get sound and a garbled picture, probably just needs codecs. The BBC HD h.264 they use isn't standard, it has some different spec, but the codec will be available soon so i read in time for the World Cup.

Its not going to work in MCE itself, but it'll work using tsreader maybe.
I also pick it up on my TVs DTV tuner, but it comes up as a radio station, so i doubt it has the internals to decode the picture.

Virtually all PC digital TV cards will work, as all they do is recieve the raw streams, its your cpu and software that then converts it.

Set top boxes are different, none have the hardware, there's a Netgem HD box coming out soon that will probably work.
 
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In that case are there any PC's fast enough to handle an h.264 stream on the fly?

Last I heard x264 encodes took about 24 hours for a single film on the fastest pc's around.
 
Goatboy said:
In that case are there any PC's fast enough to handle an h.264 stream on the fly?

Last I heard x264 encodes took about 24 hours for a single film on the fastest pc's around.
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This is why I was surprised that a normal pc would be able to decode it.

But its all new to me, so willing to learn if someone gets it working - glad I got the (hopefully) easy option (-:
 
Im not too sure how people are doing it, im not too up on the subject neither, after some more reading tonight, i think people are capturing the stream, like an hours worth and are then watching it offline, but it seems to decode at 25fps on some peoples PCs apparently. There is no noobs guide to this, its all a bit technical for me.

Encodes always take a long time, but this isnt encoding, its decoding eh.
 
For those of us with a Nebula TV card, they already support h.264 in the latest (3.5.21) software, but it won't lock the HD channels. Supposed to be fixed in the next beta.
 
Goatboy said:
In that case are there any PC's fast enough to handle an h.264 stream on the fly?

Last I heard x264 encodes took about 24 hours for a single film on the fastest pc's around.
Click to expand...


Isn't decoding traditionally much less CPU intensive that encoding?
I know it's much faster to watch an avi/xvid file than it is to encode it for example:)
 
Werewolf said:
Isn't decoding traditionally much less CPU intensive that encoding?
I know it's much faster to watch an avi/xvid file than it is to encode it for example:)
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I will be gutted if My pc does the job better than a "built for the job" stb lol, but either way I get the equipment free, so cant complain
 
I suspect the STB will do a better job (nothing else trying to get valuable cpu time etc) ;)

I'm quite interested in hearing how it works out:)
 
FrankJH said:
{snip}I wish Formula 1 (yes I know I am sad but there ya go) was broadcast in HD but Bernie wont pay for it so thats out the window{snip}
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'think this years US GP will be in HD - but maybe just for the American audience. HD broadcast means also upgrading all track/stadium/etc equipment - quite not cheap :cool:
 
Goatboy said:
In that case are there any PC's fast enough to handle an h.264 stream on the fly?

Last I heard x264 encodes took about 24 hours for a single film on the fastest pc's around.
Click to expand...


This isnt encoding its decoding. Any pc can decode an x.264 file otherwise no one would be able to play divx/xvid, and most normal pcs only take as long as the film lasts to encode it in 264, nowhere near 24 hours.
 
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I know it's decoding but that takes a huge amount of CPU power as well with this codec.
 
hp7909 said:
'think this years US GP will be in HD - but maybe just for the American audience. HD broadcast means also upgrading all track/stadium/etc equipment - quite not cheap :cool:
Click to expand...


I realise that but then Bernie could sell subscriptions to earn even more thick a wad of cash - I would be surprised if it wasnt shot in hd anyway, so its just transmission etc that needs to be dealt with i dunno

Not like he is short of a bob or two to get initial funds from before getting paid back by subscribers
 
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