³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

Thank you for this opportunity to view in HD. I really hope that you'll extend this to some of the re-runs on the channel too. It's a good stop gap until Freeview HD starts in the SW in early 2010. For those who say get Freesat, I can't without major works, the topography of my home doesn't easily permit it.

Are you removing the annoying DOG from the iPlayer versions?
Until it goes I will not be using your HD in any format.
Or am I behind the times, common sense prevailed, and it's already gone?
Regards Egg

Good to see weekly posts appearing regularly! Thanks.

Will ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD be available on Virgin Media's iPlayer service?

I agree that it's nice to see regular weekly posts. Great to have HD on iplayer. Any date for when it will be available on Virgin Media.Quality is fantastic especially on the Downloaded copy.

More news on future programs please.

Another great step forward, hopefully now all ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ shows will contain an advisory that they are being broadcast on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD and will be avaliable in HD on the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ iPlayer.

But what about the longer term aspects of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD?

By 2010 there will be enough evening content for 2 ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD services and there doesn't seem to be any policy right now or how to deal with the growth of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD as it has now reached its restrictive limits placed by the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Trust. These seem out of date considering ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD content is avaliable to many millions more of people as well as a growing number of homes via satellite and cable and soon via terrestrial tv.

There isn't also a polciy for when 2012 arrives as that is when the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ wants all of its content to be in HD and what will happen to non HD content, will it be upscaled? Will we see ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ1 and the others following the model of Channel 4?

And in the shorter term what programming stratergy there is for the shorter term like the 2009/10 season of Championship football rights that the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ has, and further in year the rugby Autumn internatinals,snooker,darts,match and of the day and the final F1 race and the Winter Olympics.
And then all the future drama and natural history programming and arts coverage that the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ is planning for this autumn and winter.
And whether shows like Top Gear and Spooks will be made in HD as well and other popular series.

Very positive.

Time to buy a new laptop.

Good news but...

The picture is very jerky when streaming, and still quite jerky when playing a downloaded programme - on my new laptop. I tested it using Wainwright Walks, that streams fine in non-HD. I expected problems with streaming but not with download.

Are there any guidelines on minimum hardware requirements to play HD content on iPlayer?

Also, the links from 'About ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ iPlayer' ( to 'HD programmes' ( and from 'Downloading programmes' ( to 'HD' (same URL as above) don't work.

This is very good news. Unfortunately the res is only 720p and the bitrate and end picture quality on the few things I've seen leaves a lot to be desired. However bearing in mind how constrained the creaking internet infrastructure is in this country, people's machines and how bad the standard iPlayer pq was until fairly recently this is a gigantic improvement and I think will be wildly popular. So overall I would say that the end product is adequate and well done, it is sooner than I expected. It will be interesting to see if ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD on iPlayer gives quite a few of those without HDTVs or HD sources a flavour of things in high definition and what they perceive of it. I only wish the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and Virgin Media would team up and offer ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD on their iPlayer service. I fear that's too big an ask anytime soon though.

I don't have any playback issues, although one of my friend's brand new laptops did unfortunately.

Are you considering making the HD content available in WMV format for Windows Media Centre users as well? This would be a great addition to what is already an excellent service.

Thanks for continuing to make your programmes available in WMV. The Media Centre support is much appreciated.

I wonder if this will result in laptop manufactures plugging their products with "Support iPlayer HD" in the way some phone adverts have a little iPlayer logo at the bottom

Its great wasting money on such things as I Player, would the money be better spent though on better encoders or increased bandwith??? What about actually creating shows people actually want to watch in HD??

I Think ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD need to start investing money in other things at the moment.

We have no snooker WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS in HD, but hey we can watch Doctors again on I Player!!!!

Please lets have a management shuffle at the BEEB.

Well i downloaded robin hood in HD and the picture quality was superb, i cant get HD any other way so thank you very much to the bbc! I didnt get any jumping on the video although i do have a pretty good laptop.

People always seem to complain about something that's their was of being happy it seems how can anyone complain about not having snooker in HD over having a whole iplayer HD platform being invested on is beyond rational belief.

I'm blown away at the bit rate you are firing this out at, out of interest what sort of bandwidth does the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ have to work with, and how much does it cost the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ to send that sort of data? I've worked with streaming quite a bit in the past and those bandwidth costs would bankrupt me (though that's not difficult).

Unfortunately since I run 64bit ubuntu running on an AMD 3500 (oldish but can still handle 720p very comfortably natively) there's no way to run those HD streams. The flash 64bit implementation (and generally the linux version) is oh so slow; I'm getting about 1 frame every 10 seconds on the HD streams, and the SD streams already stutter badly (unwatchable). So I was interested how progress is going regarding dirac and the totem plugin in ubuntu. I know there used to be a test stream using dirac but I can no longer find it, only radio. If iplayer content started going through dirac it'd make me a happy man. I love what you are doing regarding opening up patent free standards, gives me a warm fuzzy feeling when I think of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ.

all very well but bbc radio local via real player is poor sound. give me hd radio at 192k aac

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Remove Nick reynolds comment too then because in my opinion this breaks the rules too.

I was wondering how quickly you're getting usage stats for the new ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD programmes that are on iPlayer in 720p at 3.2Mbs? It would be nice at some future point if you could publish some usage stats on this service and how you think it is doing to what you expected.

Also there are an awful lot of programmes with Not Available written next to them (due to not being new programmes?), is there an ongoing process to up this as it doesn't seem to add upto anything like the 40hrs that was quoted somewhere else.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

I like the improvements. It finally makes iPlayer a viable alternative to other sources.

Unfortunately it also shows, yet again, a problem with one of the HD shows. Last of the Summer Wine for the most part looks excellent. However I've noticed that it seems overly bright.

During the opening credits on last week's show the shirts were glowing and the tea set on the white table cloth was almost invisible apart form the blue patterning. This seems to be the case no matter what I watch it on.

I watched an episode of Wainwrights Walks on the HD iPlayer, and have to agree with ropies in describing this welcome development as 'adequate'.

The bitrate and picture quality leave a lot to be desired, but we don't want to cripple the Internet infrastructure, do we.

On the subject of catching-up with content from ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD, Danielle, could we have the schedule added to the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Mobile site at /mobile/tv/?

What happened to the HD download link? It was there last week but has now gone. Absolutely loving iPlayer and thought that I had permanently put on hold buying a satellite dish when it went HD but I really do need to be able to download HD as streaming it is asking quite a bit from my internet connection. Also please can we have the downloads in .wmv. I use a Windows7 media centre and could play back iplayer stuff after downloading them on another PC, which I can’t after the changes last week. I was very pleased to see that Windows7 is now supported by downloads but then gutted to realise they won't play in media centre. Overall iplayer in HD is fab as it is my only HD source, but it could be better with a couple of small tweaks.

Im also a bit annoyed the download links have disappeared as i find the downloaded picture better and the streamed one

i hope its back soon or at least tell us why its gone..

What I have against the I Player in HD is the fact the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ dont seem to give a damn about its actual HD TV channel yet are willing to blow budgets on the internet. Im annoyed that they would rather spend money on internet HD broadcasts than investing in HD coverage for a big sporting event. Also they wont up bit rates to acceptable levels for the TV channels but will waste money and bandwith on Internet broadcasts. Lovely.

Why dont the powers at ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD just step down and let someone take over who has a passion for HD and the channel.

why was the baftas not shown in HD tonight? all it is in indoor studio cameras, im sure you could have done that!

also will the french open be shown on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖHD?

The HD broadcast of the ballet "Spartacus" on Saturday 25th April was so badly publicised that I had already watched the Friday SD broadcast before I knew it was on. I accept that there cannot be a SD/HD simulcast of every progamme but when a SD broadcast is followed by a HD broadcast and the timing is known cannot this be flagged in Radio Times

I'm afraid I have to agree with Wednesday83 to a large extent on iplayer.

The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ is far too focussed on "online activities" and spending a disproportionate amount on them. After having watched the "HD" service I am distinctly underwhelmed with its PQ, calling it HD is rather a stretch IMHO.

Can someone actually come up with a cost per viewer hour for iplayer, including the costs of software development, hardware, technical infrastructure and internet broadcasting rights. I have a nasty suspicion it will be very high compared to other "traditional" channels.

I am no luddite, IPTV IS the future delivery platform, BUT NOT YET. Not until the UK internet infrastructure has been upgraded so that the majority have fibre to the home/street cabinet. An upgrade which I saw a predicted cost of >£15 billion!!!!!!

The majority currently have a sub 4 Mb/s internet connection which struggles to sustain broadcast quality SD streaming, let alone HD, so you have to download programs which takes hours and if you have a download allowance will be eaten up in no time.

This is all for a time shifting service which can be achieved via the existing transmission methods, to a far higher PQ and SQ standard, by the end user buying a cost effective PVR. You can get a freeview PVR for £60 and satellite for not much more. After all, 10 years ago did the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ provide VCRs for everyone?

To me watching poor picture and sound quality on a tiny computer screen is a last resort when I absolutely really, really want to see a program that I missed.

So I am not convinced yet as to iplayers value for money.

I am not saying do not have iplayer / spend money on it, but I would far rather see lot of the very high "online activities" budget spent on making tv/radio programs.

I dont think the Beeb will show the French open in HD as I believe this will be Eurosport with full coverage. My guess is the Beeb will just be supplying an occaisonal SD red button feed with maybe the semis/finals on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ 2.

At least with Eurosport HD we are pretty much Guranteed a good quality picture!

Also as well we must remember in regards to picture quality on the I Player peopel should not be critical about the bandwith used as Andy Quested tells us on a regular basis, bandwith does not really matter, its the production lol.

Andy, Any news on why the download links are not there anymore for the hd content? i found the download hd content very good when played on my tv from my laptop

Thanks
Mike

@Danielle - Can the Heroes HD repeat of yesterdays episode please be reinstated,either late Saturday night by stopping The White Stripes performance at 00.45 or showing it late Sunday night after Amazon with Bruce Parry at 00.55, after all it is a bank holiday weekend so surely ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD can extend its hours by 40 minutes. Thanks

@Andy - Is the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ iPlayer HD working on a 1080i with usual surround stream for the Cable iPlayer and the freesat/sky iPlayer?

Thanks Andy

What projects are you currently looking at?
Shouldn't the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ test card at least get its own EPG slot before and after ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD starts so people know when it will be on?

Is there any truth that ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD is looking at a second channel next year for extra Olympics and Wimbledon coverage and to fit in other sporting clashes and the general expansion of HD coverage?



@Danielle - You mentioned in previous blogs you want more peoples views but where should they be directed, surely a blog simply asking for peoples comments would be good so people can be directed towards it for others?

Is there also any chance of Heroes getting a repeat?

Thanks.

Download links are back on the HD content, Thanks!

iPlayer HD has appeared on Virgin Media as an empty folder. Many thanks for this speedy addition!

Virgin Media now have iPlayer HD only 4 programs at the moment but Quality is Excellent.

Cheers Danielle any news on future programs.

im glad the virgin media iplayer is excellent quality. Shame about the actual TV channel ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD. A shame the people in charge of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD dont give a damn about the quality of its actual TV channel.

The iPlayer HD on Virgin is not excellent picture quality at all, it is comparable with the fairly barebones pq on the on-line version. It's a lot better than SD VOD though so I'm pretty pleased.

Actually I've changed my mind. Gardener's World doesn't look too bad in HD so maybe it's fairly good. I'll see what other stuff looks like if it is added.

"Dear wednesday83

Much as you don't believe it, we do care about quality. As I have said many times before the quality of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD Channel matches or exceeds the quality of other HD Channels AND we work to make it better.

Andy "

This statement just about sums up ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD at the moment. Did you watch the masters Golf??? Have you seen Jools Hooland compared to a few year ago??

Ok so you will state the decline in quality is all down to production. Since the bit rate decrease to 16 mbps, what different about the procuction on shows such as Jools Holland?? And why not go back to the old production styles??

Dear Andy Quested

I can't beleive you had to fight for a slot during the preview trailer loop, if time can be spent on that though does it mean there is time being spent on a second ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD channel for next year along similar hours to the current ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD channel?
One thing I would mention is that currently on the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD sound test there is no scale. Does 1 on the test represent 10ms? Some equipment allows a user to alter the sound in multiples of 10ms but currently the sound test card carries no scale.

As well as the rise in ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ programming in HD taking place which means there will be more primtime shows in HD than slots on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD the ability to screen more than one Winter Olympics event and two World Cup games when clahses happen in the early rounds in HD surely means that it is being looked into and that a meeting with the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Trust will take place soon?
These of course aren't just the only situations where a clash would happen, there is the option for a far greater amount of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Sport content to be shown in HD including the 10 Championship fixtures the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ will have and its small amount of live Carling Cup coverage as well as Formula One. This is on top of the programming produced in HD like dramas and natural history and science , the arts and comedy.

I'm assuming your mention of work on smaller cameras is for programmes like Top Gear, Strictly Come Dancing and The Apprentice which is excellent news.
Have you looked into the onboard camera equipment the Top Gear team used for its polar expedition or was the onboard car footage when James flew into the camera after Jeremy hit a huge chunk of ice just upscaled?

Does your other work concern looking into hardware upgrades. If the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ was to push ahead with a second ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD channel if it changed its broadcast method to DVB-S2 it would leave 2 extra HD slots avaliable which could be used for interactive purposes or for testing 3D HD.


@ Danielle - Is it possible for the repeat of the last episode of Heroes to be shown in HD or did the rights only allow it to be shown in HD at the same time as its ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ2 transmission?

Thanks.

Andrew,

Regarding the sound sync testcard to quote from Andys blog

" A travelling bar marked in frames starting 12 frames before the audio clap and going on for 12 more frames after."

So, 40 ms per mark.

Danielle/Andy

Something still perplexes me!! With your channel in over 1m Sky homes and maybe 300,000 Freesat homes plus whatever in Virgin homes, how come with a potential audience of maybe 4m plus, your channel's reach (according to BARB) for w/e April 25 is only 500,000?

Surely Freesat HD's total potential viewers, which must be a million or so, would watch your channel? After all why did they bother to get HD if they're not going to watch the only 'proper' channel they can receive?

Thanks for that information Andy and tagmclaren.

Andy, can't the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ develop even a secondary HD interactive channel borrowing the ITV HD stream which spends most of its time off anyway?
It would allow at least a secondary stream for the World Cup, Winter Olympics and Wimbledon on top of coverage from the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD channel.

Considering freesat is a joint venture between the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and ITV it would enable more HD content to be made avaliable to viewers.

When is the next review with the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Trust set to take place so the public can give its opinions? And so the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD service can expand with a second channel?
Considering ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD has now reached its current limits and it has plans to launch on freeview surely there needs to be a new consultation on how the service moves forward.

iPlayer was already amazing, and the HD has taken it to new levels. Love it! Can you tell me details about the sound? The sound is first rate - how is it encoded and what quality is it?

Is there any chance of the HD iPlayer coming to the Playstation 3? Since many PS3s are connected to both the internet and a HD TV it seems like a perfect match. (My PS3 is broken at the minute so if it already is available then feel free to laugh at my stupidity)

Andy,

For the techy geeks amongst us, can you say what the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖHD test channel ID 3853 on 11856V is for?

Is there any reason for the lack of HD coverage of the French tennis?

The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ have it on an interactive stream and most likely will have some coverage on its channels towards the end of the week or if Murray plays.

Is there a reason why coverage on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD isn't possible? Even at the weekends?

Just to echo the above comment from Andrew.

If HD feeds are available, which I beieve they are for the tennis, the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ should really commit to providing HD coverage for all the sport it broadcasts.

Does it really costs that much more to obtain an HD feed from the host broadcaster and uplink back to UK?

When I got my freesat stb and HDTV I was so excited at the prospect of watching some great programmes in high resolution and surround sound. When I saw what was actually on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD, and how infrequently ITV HD was broadcast, I was a little disappointed. Then I found this Blog and I was cheered up; seeing that so many other people shared my disappointment and were clearly spelling it out to ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ management I assumed that things could only get better. Now though, several months later, I've virtually given up on HD and don't even bother looking to see what's on it most nights because I know that I'm not missing anything. When I do have a quick check, like tonight, I always see that things have not improved one bit; actually they seem to be getting worse. Not only that, but I also see that virtually everyone else has given up complaining on this blog. Danielle seems to have got fed up with the blog too. So, now I'm going back to full-time low-res ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ4, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ 2 and Channel 4 where I know, at least, that they'll be something on in the evening that I find interesting. I fear that ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD has, thus far, been a missed opportunity for the Corporation. New management must be inevitable and I'm afraid to say that, for this disappointed viewer, it can't come too soon.

I'm afraid Dannielle I have to agree with the above comments to a large extent.

Is ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖHD really "the best of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ" or is it producing content that is generally (there are exceptions of course) .....

cheapest
easiest
have large export market

.....to make in HD?

Danielle?

I agree with the above two comments it should read asmall bit of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ in HD repeated over amd over again. The scheduling is a mess, for instance South Pacific not simulcast on Sunday and not even on Tuesday nights repeat. The most we get is a couple of programmes simucast if that every night. Danielle has disapeared again from the Blog and lots of queations remain unaswered. I used to look every day at the website for next weeks programmes now I dont bother. What a wasted opportunity, come on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ put some effort in as Mr Sugar would say a shambles

Hi Nick, what can be expected?

Is Top Gear going HD when its new series starts?

Will the Championship football games the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ have be shown in HD from this summer?
Or the Autumn Rugby Internationals?

Is there any news on planning for HD from the Winter Olympics?

What is the lastest news on F1 going HD.




F1 is avaliable over 17 race weekends so on average shown once every 3 weeks throughout the year, though in reality its closer to every 2 weeks over 31 weeks.

During its off season you have both the Rugby Autumn Internationals and the Six Nations.
You also have Darts coverage.
Next year you will also have the Winter Olympics.

Championship football fits inbetween as it is broadcast throughout the year as are various golf events.

During the F1 season you have Wimbledon, French and Australian Tennis and for next year The World Cup.

There is also the chance to broadcast both Premiership and Championship highlights in HD as well. And the rugby league show as well.



From this summer to the end of next year marks a huge chance for the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ to push ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD through its sports coverage.

People aren't going to make the investment in a HD reciever via one of the platforms unless they get a good return. With such a variety of sports avaliable to be shown in HD there is something for everyone.

Sport is the easiest way forward and then with a higher viewer base it becomes easier to get other programming produced in HD on top of what is already broadcast in HD.

Dannielle,

just to rebalance some of my negativity, thanks for listening and moving kids tv pre 6pm, I think it is appropriate.

Also just noticed queens is on HD. So although I have just watched Murray lose in glorious SD fuzz-o-vision, there will be some sport to look forward to on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖHD.

Ta

How long will it be till ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD trust goes back to expand to a second channel and extend its current hours?

Freesat is already under pressure with rumours ITV could switch some of its channels away from the platform.

Next year offers a chance for ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD to really show what HD is about, there is alown a wealth of sporting events the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ will be able to cover in HD.

Danielle,

Just started watching a recording of superstorm (Sun31 23-24hrs) and I am surprised to find a DOG on screen. Drama isnt it? Should it be there?

Tagmclaren, that's interesting. Although I've given up watching ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD due to its lack of original programming and variety (see my earlier post), whilst I was channel hopping tonight I noticed there's yet another repeat on - Shogun. Like Superstorm, it seems to be a case of a drama that's been DOGged!

mmmmm......are the dogs there "by accident" or should I be cynical?

Are they testing to see if people complain.

Yes Paul, I concur regarding the repeats.