Re: The future of television
 

Freely is a hybrid system with some channels available exclusively via an aerial, others available as streamed DVB with some channels available via both methods. Freely has its own EPG with different channel numbers to Freeview. It's not a con but it is extremely confusing.

Re: The future of television
 

I wouldn’t have thought so. Most people just switch on the TV and select their channel from the EPG. They don’t care how they receive them.

Re: The future of television
 

They might do for sport, if streamed 'live' action is way behind freeview coverage.

Re: The future of television
 

Except that channel selection is not the part that is confusing. The confusion is that Freely via an aerial isn't the same as Freeview. It does confuse people that broadcast DTT is now carried on 2 different platforms which don't share channel numbers if they expect DTT to have a single, uniform, EPG. I suppose though that channel selection could be confusing to viewers if they have Freely in one room and Freeview in another. Not to mention the possibility of even more diverse channel numbers if they own a third tv which has Freeview Play with CLM.

---------- Post added at 16:13 ---------- Previous post was at 16:05 ----------

Possibly something they are trying to mitigate by using a variant of DVB for streamed Freely. Even Freeview has encoding / decoding delay. The challenge is to match them. In the end it will come down to how powerful the processors are in the TV. With manufacturers cutting costs (e.g. Sony TVs now being manufactured by TCL) it probably isn't something that will happen soon.

Re: The future of television
 

Interesting, I have not seen that mentioned anywhere before.
Freely has always been positioned as internet based, thanks for the info.

Re: The future of television
 

Its USP as I understood it was that it was supposed to put FAST (linear streaming) channels into the same EPG as the traditional broadcast channels, and that it would let you select and play as-broadcast stuff from all the main public service broadcasters even if you’re using an internet connection rather than an aerial to feed your Freely box or TV. We don’t have an aerial or a dish (or VM) and at present without Freely we have to go to each app separately to see what’s presently being broadcast. Freely should remove that requirement. But I can see why PVR functionality is a genie the broadcasters would rather put back in the lamp if they can, so I’m not surprised if any PVR functionality a Freely box ships with is restricted to what it receives via an aerial.

Prior to launch, the PSB channels were still refusing to relinquish the need to login in order to access anything they were delivering over IP rather than terrestrial broadcast. I don’t know if they eventually relented, but it’s likely that even if you want to access BBC1, ITV etc via a unified EPG, using only an internet connection, you won’t be able to do so without first setting everything up in your Freely device with individual user names and passwords for BBC, ITV, C4 and C5.

Re: The future of television
 

There's also the possibility that the "over the air" EPG data carries CRID data necessary to support recordings but the online EPGs do not.

Re: The future of television
 

That makes sense.

Re: The future of television
 

'sigh' things were so much easier with a VCR . . . but TV companies didn't make much money from them :D

Re: The future of television
 

Blockbuster and Radio Rentals did though. ;)

Re: The future of television
 

yes, that's true . . where are they now?

Technology is putting all the money into the same few pockets :D

Re: The future of television
 

https://www.advanced-television.com/...tt-switch-off/

[EXTRACT]

The UK’s main TV, radio and cellular mast operator and transmission company, Arqiva, has been plunged into financial uncertainty amid uncertainty over a looming digital switchover.

https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2026...lly-worthless/

Under current legislation, digital terrestrial TV via Freeview is guaranteed until at least 2034. However, broadcasters have argued that maintaining energy-intensive terrestrial transmission alongside streaming distribution is increasingly costly as audiences migrate online.

Re: The future of television
 

The country should have standardised on a free-to-view satellite based delivery system when we did the digital switchover. Vested interests (Arqiva) and snobbery (I don’t want a Sky dish on my house) undoubtedly helped prevent it.

Public service broadcasts are already available over IP, receivable anywhere an end-user has sufficient bandwidth. But it will be some time before the national internet capacity is sufficient for 30 million homes to be streaming possibly multiple channels in HD or UHD simultaneously, even if we get close to 100% super fast broadband coverage of UK homes. As we didn’t settle on satellite as the provider of the universal service when we could have, we will undoubtedly see the government having to bung Arqiva some dough to keep their transmitters going.