Unhappy with the quality of the BBC HD channel? Tell the PM.

As we reported recently, various changes to the BBC HD channel bitrate have angered many HD viewers. The change has resulted in a 40% reduction in bitrate, although the BBC deny that this will have any noticeable affect on the viewing experience. That’s not how many viewers see it.

If you’re an HD viewer and are not happy with the reduction. There’s now a petition to ask the UK Government to apply a little pressure on the Beeb to restore the HD bitrate to its former 16Mbps rate.

If you want to sign, the petition is on the Number 10 website.

Proposed Internet TV service codenamed Project Canvas has been given the provisional go-ahead by the BBC Trust.

If you’re not familiar with Project Canvas, this is a venture between the players BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five, BT and TalkTalk, to offer TV and Internet content on your TV over Broadband. Essentially a combination of a Freeview-like TV service and the BBC iPlayer.

Project Canvas will be an open platform offering catch-up TV services, on-demand TV content, Internet services and HD programming over Broadband.

Canvas set-top boxes could be available as early as December 2010. Cost is likely to be £200 for a Canvas box, but this may be subsidised by Broadband providers, to make the costs accessible to potential users.

Good news for DAB radio listeners – another DAB station has joined the national commercial channel – NME Radio.

According to Sammy Jacob, NME Radio’s Managing and Programming Director, “NME Radio is extremely passionate about the music it plays, especially the promotion of great new acts. Being able to share that passion with a wider audience will make it all the more worthwhile.”

The station went live on the national commercial DAB multiplex on 22nd December 2009 – you may need to perform a channel scan / auto-tune to get this new station.

Our podcast lads have been hard at work again, and a new audio podcast has just been released.

Catch up on the latest with Freeview HD, the new BT Vision box, more HD channels, some Freesat updates, plus your latest email feedback.

Listen online or download the update from www.frequencycast.co.uk/update.html. Or, if you have an iPod or iPhone, get us from the FrequencyCast Podcast page on iTunes.

Today sees the launch of another HD channel on Sky, bringing the total to 37 HD channels.

This new movies channel features a back catalogue of MGM movies that have been re-mastered into the HD format. The channel runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

MGM HD launched on Sky channel 345 today, the 14th December 2009.

To watch MGM HD, you will need to subscribe to both Sky Movies and Sky HD. If you don’t want to sign to Sky Movies, you can get MGM HD as a premium service for £5 a month.

See the updated Sky HD Channel Lineup.

From today, 14th December 2009, E4 goes HD.

The entertainment channel from Channel 4 will be broadcasting high definition content on Sky channel 215, bringing the total number of HD channels on Sky to 36.

E4 HD uses the 1080i HD format, and the channel is included in the Sky+ HD subscription package.

See the updated Sky HD Channel Lineup.

BT Vision has updated its BT Vision V+ set-top box

The new-style box now comes in shiny black, to match the BT Home Hub.

So, what’s new with this new box? Sadly, it doesn’t offer any new whizzy functionality. Some were expecting the new Vision box to support DVB-T2 (needed for Freeview HD), but this one doesn’t. What is does offer is a slight re-design, a new colour, and some changes to the components to make the box a reported 12% more energy efficient. In 2008, BT announced that Motorola would replace Philips as manufacturer of the Vision boxes, so this new box may by a Motorola – we can’t confirm that at this stage.

The new BT Vision V+ box is available for free until January 15th 2010 to new customers and so customers can pick up signing up to any of the BT Vision viewing packs. Full details of the BT Vision offer on BT Vision’s site.

The new-style box is not available to existing BT Vision customers.

More on BT Vision

Two new channels have just been added to Freeview, to co-incide with today’s launch of Freeview HD:

BBC HD – Channel 50
ITV1 HD – Channel 51 (due to launch in 2010)

These have been added to the lineup for Crystal Palace, London. We also expect these to be added to Winter Hill (Manchester/Granada) shortly.

As a reminder, there are no Freeview HD receivers on the market in the UK capable of watching Freeview HD.

More Freeview HD

Two new channels have just been added to the Freeview line-up, to co-incide with today’s launch of Freeview HD:

• BBC HD – Channel 50
• ITV1 HD – Channel 51

These channels have been added to the lineup for Crystal Palace, London. We also expect these to be added to Winter Hill (Manchester/Granada) shortly.

As a reminder, there are no Freeview HD receivers on the market in the UK capable of watching Freeview HD. Freeview HD will only be available in the London and Granada areas initially, and ITV1 HD is not set to launch until early next year.

More on Freeview HD on our Freeview HD section.

Our latest free podcast is out – Take a listen to our December edition of FrequencyCast.

FrequencyCast covers Digital TV in the UK, and in this show we look atthe upcoming launch of Freeview HD, an update on Freesat and the iPlayer and other TV and tech news.

In this new show, also look at wireless hotspots, a new kind of magical TV remote control, and a desktop Chumby. We also answer listeners emails, texts and podline calls.

If you’ve not tried FrequencyCast yet, please give us a try. Our shows are free – you can listen online, or download shows to your iPod, MP3 player or desktop computer.

The latest show is available now from http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html

Got iTunes? Add FrequencyCast to iTunes.

We hope you enjoy our Decemeber show!

Setanta Sports used to offer subscription to those with a Freeview TV or set-top box. Those with a Freeview TV needed something called a CAM, which is a metal card that slides into the TV set and accepts a subscription card.

Setanta used to sell these cards to customers. When Setanta ceased to offer their service in the UK, ESPN took over to offer a sports service to the UK, but they didn’t offer a CAM to customers. This left many potential ESPN subscribers scouring the net for old Setanta Sports CAMs

Until recently, viewers had to resort to EBay to get an old Setanta CAM, but a month or so back it became possible to get a suitable CAM direct from Top Up TV, who manage the UK ESPN subscriptions.

Now, ESPN CAMs are much easier to find, and you can pick one up quite cheaply online from Laskys.co.uk. These kits come with a CAM and subscription card (plus a month’s free ESPN).

For more details on getting a CAM for your Freeview TV, see our ESPN CAM page.

Nintendo Wii users will find a nice little present today – The BBC iPlayer channel.

Catch up with TV and radio from the last seven days streamed to your Wii console.

TV channels available are BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4, CBBC, CBeebies, BBC News, BBC Parliament and BBC Alba.

Initial tests by the team here show the the service works well – and the picture quality is a huge improvement over the previous method of watching BBC iPlayer via the Wii’s web browser application.

The BBC iPlayer channel is free, and available from today on the Wii Shopping channel.

More on the BBC iPlayer

The BBC has just released their official timetable for the rollout of Freeview HD.

Manchester and London will be getting Freeview HD at the start of December, as the Winter Hill and Crystal Palace transmitters get the upgrade – although there are unlikely to be any set-top boxes available on the market at the time of launch.

The Freeview HD rollout has been accelerated with an advance network to allow Freeview viewers in London, Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, Bradford and Birmingham to get Freeview HD by the end of March 2010, with 50% of the UK able to get HD by the end of June 2010.

Freeview’s Managing Director, Ilse Howling, said: “This is great news for the millions of Freeview homes and viewers who are looking forward to getting high definition with no subscription next year.”

For the full Freeview HD timetable, see our Freeview HD Information section.

Seen the ads for the o2 Joggler? The device that sits in your home replacing the fridge door?

When the o2 Joggler was launched earlier this year, the big selling point was the shared diary to keep the family in touch. In reality, is so much more than that – A wi-fi enabled device that pull down news, weather, sports and travel news, and allows you to stream music and video from your PC or the built-in memory. It’s also a digital picture frame, and from today – an Internet radio. Check our the FileSaveAs Joggler review for more.

Partnering with DAB experts, Pure, the o2 Joggler is now running Pure’s Lounge digital radio service, providing free access to around 100 radio stations.

o2′s decided to drop the price of the Joggler too, and this powerful media device is now below the crucial £100 mark – just in time for Christmas – until 31st December 2009.

More details on o2′s Joggler site

On Wednesday the 18th November, the Nintendo Wii will get a dedicated BBC iPlayer channel.

It’s been possible for some time to access the BBC iPlayer from the Nintendo Wii web browser, but now, the iplayer will get its own channel – making BBC content easier to access, and will offer a “faster, high quality and improved viewing experience”.

The BBC iPlayer channel on Wii will, of course, be free.

Our podcast boys have just released an audio update. Nearly 12 minutes of digital TV news and comment.

Presenters Carl and Pete look at the BBC’s Points of View appearance explaining why BBC HD’s quality hasn’t dropped, Channel 4′s 3D week starts next Monday, problems with Winter Hill and Welsh TV, plus it’s the end of the road for ourkindofmusic.

Listen online or download the feed update at www.frequencycast.co.uk/update.html, or get us from the FrequencyCast Podcast page on iTunes.

Babestation 2, another jiggly girl channel, has today been added to the Freeview channel lineup.

If this type of channel floats your boat, it’s on Freeview Channel 99.

The BBC’s Head of HD, Danielle Nagler, appeared on BBC1′s Points of View this afternoon to address viewers concerns about the recent changes in quality on the BBC’s HD channel.

Ms Nagler confirmed that there has been a 40% reduction in the bitrate used on the BBC HD channel, as a result of new BBC HD encoders that were introduced at the start of August 2009 to reduce bandwidth.

Viewers complaints featured in the show talk about a major reduction in picture quality, making it little better than standard definition.

In response to criticism, Ms Nagler responded that there is “No evidence that reducing the bitrate has an impact on picture quality or that there’s an absolute relationship between bitrate and picture quality” – implying that the complainers are just imagining the deterioration of HD picture quality shown by the BBC.

There’s also discussion of the Beeb’s commitment to offer 75% of the content on BBC HD in HD, delays in transmission of HD shows, and display of DOGs (the digital on-screen graphic logo).

From looking at comments on today’s Points of View, many seem pretty unimpressed with Ms Nagler’s defense of the changes to the HD encoding, with accusations of “denial and spin” being posted in threads on the BBC’s Internet Blog.

If you missed the show, look for Points of View from Sunday 8th November on the BBC iPlayer. Direct link to show

If you’re one of the BBC HD viewers that appear to be imagining the quality drop after this 40% reduction, we’d welcome your comments…

As we reported a few weeks back, Channel 4 is planning a week of 3D programming.

The date has been confirmed, and 4′s 3D week is set to begin on the 16th of November – If you want to be part of the Channel 4 3D week, pick up one of the 10 million pairs of 3D coloured glasses available now from Sainsburys supermarkets up and down the land.

More on 3D TV: http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/3d.html

A quick update on the Digital Switchover:

In the Granada region, the Winter Hill transmitter (servings areas including Liverpool and Manchester) has just completed the first stage of the Switchover, with BBC2 analogue being switched off. The remainder of the analogue services will be switched off on the 2nd of December. This also affects around 70 relay transmitters. Freeview viewers served by Winter Hill will be the first to benefit from Freeview HD, when the service is enabled in December.

In Wales, the Long Mountain transmitter (East and Central Wales) has also completed the first round of the Switchover. The North Wales service at Moel y Parc has also switched. The remainder of Wales will complete the switch by March 2010.

Need help on the Switchover? Go to www.switchhelp.co.uk/