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Originally Posted by Horizon
Plus, it wouldn't tell you whether a channel was going to launch or not anyway as cable is a closed off system, unlike satellite.
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True, but I don't think he was really concerned about possible launches, more about what additional FTA services cable has. SDR enthusiasts are generally more interested in unusual services they can use than rather than basic tv services they can't use. He did point out that a local tv channel was "present" and encrypted. It isn't available on Tivo, so presumably this is only made available at specific local hubs and not to all properties served by the regional headend. Perhaps a little over-restrictive for a channel available to everyone over the internet.
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But VM's cable system is their own. They could privately have every satellite channel on the cable system "testing", that wouldn't make any difference to cost as they're not renting capacity from anyone, its their's already.
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But if they are running infrastructure and not renting it out
to anyone, there would be operating costs. Having said that, the digitalbitrate scans indicate that TSid 44 had reserved capacity for additional BBC RB services off the EPG.
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The costs to VM come when they increase capacity and that last happened in 2010 when the amount of streams increased from around 36 to 48. Mediaboy has said new streams are testing in his area, but I have not seen them in my area yet.
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Indeed, locally Tivo claims there are 52 transport streams. Ok, there's 45 transport streams carrying national channels (TSids 1-45) and 3 carrying regional services (TSids 101, 102 & 104), 4 used to deliver VOD and a further 4 carrying frequency tests. That's 56 in total, presumably Tivo ignores the frequency tests.
I'd be interested to see confirmation of what is actually testing with actual video/audio streams present in the transport streams in mediaboy's area. If the "tests" are just service descriptions picked up by scanning for cable channels on a basic tv with a cable tuner, they aren't necessarily real tests. I would say that a service description not linked to an actual service doesn't qualify as a test, although it could still be an indication of a service "coming soon".
You raise a point about services testing in certain areas. I thought that NGTV was supposed to bring a uniform delivery across the network. I don't see why different versions of the national transport streams (1-45) would be made available in different regions. All of these "tests" are on those transport streams.
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Many of the tests are done when these new streams are created to check that they are working properly so that when and if VM want to launch new services, they can do so immediately, ie like when BT Sports channels launched. They just appeared.
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BT Sport channels share capacity with pre-existing channels on various transport streams, so it's a given that the transport streams are working. If the feeds arriving at the central headend and the EPG data is correct, substantial testing shouldn't be required and new services should be able to be added quickly. Sure, there are still procedures to follow and tests to be done but it shouldn't take months.
TSid 22 and 23 seem to be held in reserve for new services and have recently populated with BBC Olympics HD channels. The service description tables have entries for "hidden 22" and "hidden 23", so these transport streams presumably go dormant when not in use. Similarly there is a "hidden 103" in the service description tables, so presumably a dormant TSid 103. I'm not quite sure how much demand there is likely to be for a pop-up regional transport stream.
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When VM want to launch something, they will, and I doubt there will be many tests or anything to warn us about this before hand.
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Unless they are BBC channels and the BBC Blog warns everyone long before VM does.
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Analogue cable was more fun!
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Although it didn't have the capacity to satisfy the current level of demand for "more channels".