Freesat HD ?

Nickybah

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Now that Freesat has began does anybody know wether the HD channels will be obtainable on any HD receiver or will you have to buy one of their endorsed receivers advertised on thier website?

Just considering whether to upgrade to an HD box and would like to stay with something that can be patched for all the current open channels!
 
At the moment itv-hd will be the only one thats not available on non-freesat receivers, but that may change in time. Other than that any free-to-air satellite channel is available on a satellite tv receiver.
 
Nice one PH

Thanks for the info.

I thought that might be the case with regard non scrambled sat transmissions and receivers. Does that mean the itv-hd will be coded into some kind of sub-carrier that only a freesat receiver can decode?

If that's the case it all starts to smell like sly all over again. I wonder how long it will be before they offer channel choices that you have to subscribe to!
 
If it's an encryption like BISS then could be possible to hack?
 
It doesnt need to be hacked,pc sat viewers can get it.It is just broadcast differently,so the sat guys will just have to make some adjustments.shouldnt take too long
 
The itv-hd service wont be encrypted at all, but it will only be an interactive stream to start with. To stop non-freesat receivers viewing the stream it uses a codec header that confuses non-freesat receivers and gives fake a/v-id's.
Some receivers are not tricked and can manually be tuned. The Vantage 7100, Fortec Passion, Arion 8000, Clarke Tech, and satellite pc cards are all able to view at present but others could be available if the firmware is updated by the maufacturer/developer.

I cant see the stream being hidden long term.
 
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Just to update, many HD receivers are now getting firmware updates and solutions for ITV-HD so its only going to be sky receivers that wont be able to receive for now.
 
Just to update, many HD receivers are now getting firmware updates and solutions for ITV-HD so its only going to be sky receivers that wont be able to receive for now.

its about time a platform offered something that sky cannot, and with it being a free service just makes it even better

i really hope that ITV dont allow sky to carry the channel, and when FIVE joins in i hope they have something thats unique to freesat too
 
Theres ongoing rumours that some pay-tv channels will go to freesat sooner rather than later. Maybe europsport or setanta, maybe uktv channels, or virgin1, etc, nothing confirmed though. What would be really funny is if channels started using different symbol rates when free, and not 27500 or 22000. Freesat receivers and non-platform-specific receivers are all capable, but sky's are not. Imagine Eurosport in HD at s/r~25000 or perhaps uktv channels all free at s/r~30000.

I dont think general public will like it though as everyone existing would be forced into a new receiver, but it would at least be a way to make people choose Freesat over sky branded and would be very funny for a short while :).

--oh yeah also ITV-HD have started broadcasting ITV1 programs as from today. Still testing and some content will be upscaled, but that still gives a fantastically improved picture over freeview.
 
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Theres ongoing rumours that some pay-tv channels will go to freesat sooner rather than later. Maybe europsport or setanta, maybe uktv channels, or virgin1, etc, nothing confirmed though. What would be really funny is if channels started using different symbol rates when free, and not 27500 or 22000. Freesat receivers and non-platform-specific receivers are all capable, but sky's are not. Imagine Eurosport in HD at s/r~25000 or perhaps uktv channels all free at s/r~30000.

i still dont agree with virgins decision to allow sky to carry virgin1, after what happened with sky one

but it would be good for stuff to be available that a sky box cant cope with, and would also be a way of ensuring that sky cant just jump on available channels like ITV HD and use them to market their own services
 
i still dont agree with virgins decision to allow sky to carry virgin1, after what happened with sky one....
They allowed it due to contract agreement i believe, but they are taking legal action with regards this anyway. It was only very recent that sky tried to get a court order preventing virgin solicitors from access to certain sky documents regarding carriage of channels, but Sky have lost. The judge ordered sky to pay virgin costs of £30000 this week i believe, and to grant access. Sky will appeal, their argument is that the virgin solicitors could also use this access to influence one of the other claims virgin are pursuing. So i'm not an expert on the cases but i know virgin know what they're doing :).
 
Not looking good for Sky at the moment. First they pay heavy fines to Kudelski and now it looks like they will be sued by various UK TV providers but serves them right I say.
 
for anyone that has a humax2000 here is a chan list that will get you itv hd have it on now
 
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