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!