I note that LCN 301/302 on DVB-T now carry full now & next and epg
information, including series link data so that one may set one's
recorder to capture all the emissions of one's favourite sport.

I do hope this will continue beyond the Olympic Games, becasue I'm sick
of playing Hunt the Thimble every time I want to record something that
they have hived off onto on of those streams to make way for Strictly Go
Big Jungle Surviving, or whatever.

Are the six satellite streams similarly accessible via the Freesat epg,
or is it still a red blob job?

On terrestrial, I also see that a third Olympics stream has been made
available by vacating the Parliament channel (LCN 81) but so far there
has been no epg data. 
 
-- 
Alan Pemberton
Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England
To e-mail me directly, please visit
<http://www.pembers.freeserve.co.uk/index.html#Mail-me>

On Sat, 9 Aug 2008 10:16:05 +0100,
Spambox@pembers.freeserve.co.uk.invalid (Alan Pemberton) wrote:

> I note that LCN 301/302 on DVB-T now carry full now & next and epg
> information, including series link data so that one may set one's
> recorder to capture all the emissions of one's favourite sport.

que?

> Strictly Go Big Jungle Surviving

Replace with crap of the day :-)

> Are the six satellite streams similarly accessible via the Freesat epg,
> or is it still a red blob job?

I couldn't find them FTA yesterday by rescanning.
 
> On terrestrial, I also see that a third Olympics stream has been made
> available by vacating the Parliament channel (LCN 81) but so far there
> has been no epg data. 

I don't normally advertise products, but I've been using Digiguide for
some time.  It's cheaper than a copy of the Radio Times or equivalent
every week, very customisable, and, with the exception of one or two
things beyond their control, notably Eurosport's chronic failure to
publish up-to-date data, fairly reliable.  On the down side, the
alerts maddeningly steal the keyboard focus, but they say they've
fixed that for the next version, and one can't select and copy from
the programme information, one can only copy it all, there are no
plans to fix that.

http://getdigiguide.com/

One of the things that can be customised is the channel info search
process, and someone has done so for BBC Sports interactive including
the Olympic channels.

http://community.digiguide.com/default.asp?m=itemreviews&nItemID=269&t=2

"Alan Pemberton" <Spambox@pembers.freeserve.co.uk.invalid> wrote in message
news:1ilehc4.f11o1yor4ajsN%Spambox@pembers.freeserve.co.uk.invalid...
>I note that LCN 301/302 on DVB-T now carry full now & next and epg
> information, including series link data so that one may set one's
> recorder to capture all the emissions of one's favourite sport.
>
> I do hope this will continue beyond the Olympic Games,

So do I. It's just common sense to give these interactive channels their own
EPG numbers and information because it is so much quicker to access them 
this
way than via the Red button.

> Are the six satellite streams similarly accessible via the Freesat epg,
> or is it still a red blob job?

They haven't done the same on satellite but I think they should. Red button
access amounts to an EPG within an EPG. It's an unnecessary complication and
it doesn't work adequately, because it is a very much slower way of changing
channels than the normal way.

No one seems to have the sense to realise that using the normal EPG is a 
better way of doing things. I guess they think it would be a threat to the 
"big idea" of interactive services if people could bypass the Red button, 
but actually I think it would help it along. You do use the red button, to 
find out what streams are available, but each part of the multiscreen would 
have a channel number which you can go to directly next time if you want to.

With proper channel numbers you could surf through all the BBCi streams for 
the Olympics or Wimbledon on satellite in less time than it takes to wait 
for the Red button to say "loading, please wait...".

The same goes for the news multiscreen too. I'd be far more likely to use 
the BBC's Weather loop on Sky if it had a channel number, instead of my 
having to watch the News channel first, mess about with the Red button, 
wait, wait, wait and click through one menu after another before I get to 
it. The Entertainment loop is even more difficult to find, and I'm sure that 
a channel number would greatly increase it's viewership too.

I think that sooner or later the BBCi streams on satellite will get EPG 
numbers, but it's one of those things that will only happen out of 
necessity, or almost by accident, so it could be many more years yet. 
Another stumbling block is Sky's EPG charges, so we might find that if they 
ever do do it, it's only on Freesat.

In article , Java Jive 
wrote:
> I don't normally advertise products, but I've been using Digiguide for
> some time.  It's cheaper than a copy of the Radio Times or equivalent
> every week, very customisable, and, with the exception of one or two
> things beyond their control, notably Eurosport's chronic failure to
> publish up-to-date data, fairly reliable.

My thoughts exactly. Also, it shows the programmes for about three weeks 
ahead, unlike the Radio Times or the on-screen programme guides, which 
only manage one.

Rod.
-- 
Virtual Access V6.3 free usenet/email software from 
http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtual-access/

Alan Pemberton wrote:

> Are the six satellite streams similarly accessible via the Freesat epg,
> or is it still a red blob job?

It's the red blob job on Freesat.

I just had a play with the Red Dot BBC Olympics service on my Sky box. All I 
managed to do was crash it, which required getting up from the sofa and mains 
cycling the box. Is that what the Beeb mean by 'interactive' ?

> On terrestrial, I also see that a third Olympics stream has been made
> available by vacating the Parliament channel (LCN 81) but so far there
> has been no epg data. 

We're obviously not grown up enough to be trusted with proper channels and EPG 
data for the extra sports coverage.


-- 
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

On 2008-08-09 10:16:05 +0100, Spambox@pembers.freeserve.co.uk.invalid 
(Alan Pemberton) said:

> Are the six satellite streams similarly accessible via the Freesat epg,
> or is it still a red blob job?

The six streams are available on FreeSat but not via the standard EPG - 
you have to load up the "Other Satellite Services" and then elect to 
keep the "Streams" channels. I don't think they are in HD.

Stan

Java Jive wrote:

>On Sat, 9 Aug 2008 10:16:05 +0100,
>Spambox@pembers.freeserve.co.uk.invalid (Alan Pemberton) wrote:
>
>> I note that LCN 301/302 on DVB-T now carry full now & next and epg
>> information, including series link data so that one may set one's
>> recorder to capture all the emissions of one's favourite sport.
>
>que?

If you have a box that can search the EPG automagically you can leave
it to search for say "cycling". If you are reliant on Mk1 finger
pokery it still makes it a heck of a lot easier to press a button to
record the interactive stream.
-- 
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"

Yes, thanks for the explanation but I understood it this morning  -
think I must have been tired last night, or something, because I
didn't make the obvious connection LCN = Logical Channel Number!

I'm reliant on the Mk 1 :-)

On Sun, 10 Aug 2008 11:41:13 +0100, Phil Cook
 wrote:
> 
> If you have a box that can search the EPG automagically you can leave
> it to search for say "cycling". If you are reliant on Mk1 finger
> pokery it still makes it a heck of a lot easier to press a button to
> record the interactive stream.

Any idea if I would be able to get them via Dreambox 7000S FTA?

On Sun, 10 Aug 2008 11:11:12 +0100, Stan The Man 
wrote:
> 
> The six streams are available on FreeSat but not via the standard EPG - 
> you have to load up the "Other Satellite Services" and then elect to 
> keep the "Streams" channels. I don't think they are in HD.

On Aug 9, 3:46 pm, "Stephen" 
wrote:
>
> I think that sooner or later the BBCi streams on satellite will get EPG
> numbers, but it's one of those things that will only happen out of
> necessity, or almost by accident, so it could be many more years yet.
> Another stumbling block is Sky's EPG charges, so we might find that if they
> ever do do it, it's only on Freesat.

BBC has been quite clever here I think - imagine the uproar if (heaven
forbid) we were to have BBC FIVE and BBC SIX transmitting only
parttime.  But call them "interactive channel 301/302" and no-one
complains.

Worth noting that although the Freeview EPG is updated with the
301/302 schedules (and 81 is not), the 4TV transmitted EPG which some
PVRs (Thomson DHD4000 for example) use has no data in the epg for
these schedules, which means that recording them is still a manual
process for me at least.

Matt

In article <fcad2ebb-63c1-4c61-81f5-
f50ed9cd0aea@l42g2000hsc.googlegroups.com>, Larkim wrote:
> BBC has been quite clever here I think - imagine the uproar if (heaven
> forbid) we were to have BBC FIVE and BBC SIX transmitting only
> parttime.  But call them "interactive channel 301/302" and no-one
> complains.

BBC THREE and BBC FOUR only transmit part time. It would be nice to have 
more (of the latter at any rate), but I don't feel as strongly motivated 
to complain about the lack of it as about the vandalism of what they do 
transmit in the name of "presentation" or "branding", or whatever it is.

Rod.
-- 
Virtual Access V6.3 free usenet/email software from 
http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtual-access/