Virgin loses iPlayer exclusivity

**Chris** · 03-11-2009, 21:47

The BBC's iPlayer will launch on the Freesat platform as early as the end of November.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technol...5875-21795517/

They've been promising this ever since Freesat launched, and here it is at last. It will be delivered via the ethernet port that is built in to every branded Freesat box and integrated Freesat TV.

I have got to get me one of these now!

03-11-2009, 21:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

The BBC's iPlayer will launch on the Freesat platform as early as the end of November.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technol...5875-21795517/

They've been promising this ever since Freesat launched, and here it is at last. It will be delivered via the ethernet port that is built in to every branded Freesat box and integrated Freesat TV.

I have got to get me one of these now!

I was worried then, cause all I seen was "Virgin loses iPlayer", but long as we keep it, thats all Im worried about

BenMcr · 03-11-2009, 21:58

Though will the HD quality be the web version or the Virgin OD version?

**Chris** · 03-11-2009, 22:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by BenMcr

Though will the HD quality be the web version or the Virgin OD version?

We'll have to wait and see, won't we ... there are precious few details out there at the moment. The Beeb sneaked the announcement of the beta out in the Internet Blog so they're not ready to sound a fanfare yet.

Although I bet it's fair to say they won't be so keen to use MPEG-2 as Virgin was.

Kymmy · 05-11-2009, 10:49

Now reported on the BBC news (weird how they got it last

)

It's only available on the HD service.. I wonder how they'll do the request communications? Do freesat HD boxes have ethernet?

**Chris** · 05-11-2009, 10:51

This is on Freesat, not Freeview - and yes, all Freesat boxes have ethernet. It's been in the spec since launch.

Kymmy · 05-11-2009, 10:55

Woops, nice bit of word blindness there (too busy with website and forum stuff going round in my head for a reconfiguration

)

Will correct my post...TnX Chris

**Chris** · 05-11-2009, 11:06

It seems that it will be restricted to HD boxes only, because (if I'm reading it right) only the HD boxes use the very latest standards published by the Digital Television Group. The latest version of the standard (D-Book 6.1, which I had never heard of before yesterday) uses a version of MHEG-5 that has been extended to allow it to handle internet video, and that is what they need to use in order to make iPlayer work on TV.

Kymmy · 05-11-2009, 11:15

Weird as most older boxes can usually be designed to handle streaming (my old kiss player I bought in 2001 handles internet streaming and so does my mutant sat player with the right firmware image)

Do the SD boxes all have ethernet?? If not then it's probably the case that they wanted to not only promote HD over the old SD but also wanted all units within a scope to have this feature..

**Chris** · 05-11-2009, 11:31

Yes, they all have ethernet, even the cheap-as-chips Goodmans SD box I bought for the in-laws' holiday flat just over a year ago.

I think the problem is, from before they launched Freesat they knew they wanted the iPlayer on it but they didn't know how they were going to do it. About all they could predict was that it was going to require ethernet. It seems that they've been casting about looking for a solution and now they've settled on something that allows them to do what they want, at the expense of ignoring the SD kit.

I don't think the BBC could be seen to be trying to drive sales of any particular kind of box as they would risk getting in trouble with the Trust over commercial activity. As it happens, IIRC comfortably more than 50% of all Freesat boxes sold so far are HD anyway. It really does seem to be a happy coincidence that the Freesat box specs (which are set and enforced very strictly by the Freesat consortium) only force D-Book 6.1 with MHEG5-IC into the HD boxes. This could be for all sorts of reasons I'm not going to pretend to understand, but I would speculate that there are hardware constraints - the cheapest SD boxes are very, very short of memory. Waiting for the EPG to load and populate on my Goodmans box is like pulling teeth.

alferret · 08-11-2009, 08:40

My Humax HD box is sat here all connected awaiting iPlayer

Hopefully it will surpass the online\PC version on my TV as even HD content can look washed out and blocky.

**Chris** · 25-11-2009, 12:30

More info:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8378394.stm

ITV Player is coming to Freesat as well.