Red Button question. - Freesat

ukdane · 31-10-2009, 14:17

I have a Humax HD PVR box, and have a question about the "red button".
Said button works fine, if I want to read text, or if I want to see the sport Multiscreen (3001). However, I noticed at the end of the last couple of episodes of "Never Mind The Buzzcocks", that there is a post-show red button feature, between the two team captains.
How/where is this feature, I've pressed the red button, but can't seem to find anything about it.
Any clues?
Thanks.

GaseousClay · 31-10-2009, 14:40

Not all services are covered on the freesat platform. Check out the Red Button Blogg and find out how dire the coverage actually is

Clicky

ukdane · 07-11-2009, 01:53

Thanks for the info. No Extra Robbie on Wossy tonight then :-( Is it possible to manual add VPIDs etc? If so then I could add them manually to the non-freesat area, right?

martinwatkins · 07-11-2009, 08:54

Maybe the answer is elsewhere here, but could someone please explain why after 18 months (is it?) of freesat there still isn't full Red Button / Multiscreen functionality?

Maybe I'm missing something but if the streams (0,1,2,3,4,etc) are already up there on the sat, you'd think it would take all of five minutes software tweaking to get it all working for freesat.

Sorry to ask a dumb question....

carvell · 07-11-2009, 09:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by ukdane

Thanks for the info. No Extra Robbie on Wossy tonight then :-( Is it possible to manual add VPIDs etc? If so then I could add them manually to the non-freesat area, right?

Nope! They are there, but the boxes don't recognise them as they're not a proper channel, and you can't manually add VPIDs etc.

carvell · 07-11-2009, 09:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by martinwatkins

Maybe the answer is elsewhere here, but could someone please explain why after 18 months (is it?) of freesat there still isn't full Red Button / Multiscreen functionality?

Maybe I'm missing something but if the streams (0,1,2,3,4,etc) are already up there on the sat, you'd think it would take all of five minutes software tweaking to get it all working for freesat.

Sorry to ask a dumb question....

They claim it's a big job as they need to rewrite the complete front end. Not long ago they were very open about the fact that the job isn't even on their task list at the time, let alone something they were going to complete soon.

jzee · 07-11-2009, 10:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by carvell

Nope! They are there, but the boxes don't recognise them as they're not a proper channel, and you can't manually add VPIDs etc.

Panasonic TVs do (and boxes?) and as far as I know no one has yet reported whether the Metronic or Technisat boxes do, my guess is they might.

Ray Cathode · 07-11-2009, 14:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by carvell

They claim it's a big job as they need to rewrite the complete front end. Not long ago they were very open about the fact that the job isn't even on their task list at the time, let alone something they were going to complete soon.

They decided to write off the Freeview multiscreens last week leaving only one interactive stream. Possibly that's why they are not bothering with a decent FreeSat service.

wgmorg · 07-11-2009, 14:28

Or simply don't have the money...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ray Cathode

They decided to write off the Freeview multiscreens last week leaving only one interactive stream. Possibly that's why they are not bothering with a decent FreeSat service.

jzee · 07-11-2009, 16:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by wgmorg

Or simply don't have the money...

The BBC with billions of income a year don't have the money mmmm....

mutant_matt · 08-11-2009, 01:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by jzee

Panasonic TVs do (and boxes?) and as far as I know no one has yet reported whether the Metronic or Technisat boxes do, my guess is they might.

Any idea where I can get a list of the details, to have a go at tuning my Panny TV to give that a try?

Cheers,

Matt

GaseousClay · 08-11-2009, 11:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by mutant_matt

Any idea where I can get a list of the details, to have a go at tuning my Panny TV to give that a try?

Cheers,

Matt

What I've done on mine is searched for the 7 streams in 'other satellite' they are labled 'Stream-0' to 'Stream-6' and deleted them, then did a manual scan on transponder 12441 vertical and then saved them and they appear at the end of the channel list so I only have to press the channel change button to locate them without having to know the channel number.

mutant_matt · 08-11-2009, 20:10

Done, worked well, thanks!

(though on my PannyTV, they appear in the channel list for non-Freesat, which is very short, just these, plus LuxeHD, so easy to select when in non-Freesat mode).

I was hoping there would be a stream somewhere on Dsat, which is the same as the now single Red Button stream on Freeview, just not-linked to by the Freesat Red Button, but there isn't, is there....?

Having said that, there seems to be a bunch of streams for News Multiscreen on Sky, so they must be available somewhere in non-Freesat mode also? Presumably, Sky doesn't have the same Red Button content that Freeview does? (as I understand it, anything BBC wise on Sky, should be tunable by Freesat though, right...)

Cheers,

Matt

martinwatkins · 09-11-2009, 09:26

Thanks for the explanations with regard to my original question about lack of red button facilities.

I think "farce" is the word that springs to mind, after 18 months! Will see if I can add the streams to my Grundigs (yeah, yeah, don't laugh too loudly!)

GaseousClay · 09-11-2009, 09:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by mutant_matt

Having said that, there seems to be a bunch of streams for News Multiscreen on Sky, so they must be available somewhere in non-Freesat mode also? Presumably, Sky doesn't have the same Red Button content that Freeview does? (as I understand it, anything BBC wise on Sky, should be tunable by Freesat though, right...)

Cheers,

Matt

The closest you can get to having news multiscreen on freesat is by tuning at 11954MHz Horizontal 27500, 2/3 in non-freesat mode/other satellite, and saving the stream labled 'T7 STRM-0'.
This displays the 6 thumbnail screens together and you will then need to press the button on your remote to toggle the audio stream. (Humax; the button with a speaker icon and question mark, Panasonic; the option button followed by the left/right cursor button)

kylerickards · 09-11-2009, 15:02

The Doctor Who animation is not being shown on the red button either but is previewed on BBC HD preview loop.

Why do people have to go to Sky if they want a full complement of channels and services it seems?

K.

BBCi Tech Team · 09-11-2009, 15:51

Hello,
The system that provides the interactive features for the services you describe was created before Freesat. This system has not yet been updated to support Freesat as we have been working on Freesat iPlayer. We have trialled how we might provide some access in a limited fashion which we did for Glastonbury. We learnt a lot from that. It comes down to complexities in the multiplatform scheduling and skinning software which is used to create and manage the services. If it were a simple tweaking of the software, we'd have done it. We are continually reviewing our services across all platforms and as soon as we can provide access to the extra content for all we will announce it.

Lengster · 09-11-2009, 16:50

Thanks for the hard work on iPlayer, but please - if you have any say in this at all - get Freesat up to parity with other platforms before doing anything else once iPlayer is up and running.

On a related note, can anyone access the beta once it's running?

mutant_matt · 09-11-2009, 19:31

BBCi Tech bod, thanks for replying on this thread (but a comment on your own blog would be good also). Can you give us *any* idea when the Freesat Red Button service might be available? (i.e. hopefully some time next year, the first half would be nice!

)

Cheers,

Matt

BBCi Tech Team · 10-11-2009, 12:48

There's no plans at this time to add the non-sport video onto Freesat in the same way that we do it on Freeview and Sky. We are only a small department and we have a lot of different competing demands on our team. That said, there is actually a lot of work going on on our Freesat service - iPlayer has obviously been announced, and there are some other projects working to enhance the Freesat service. Can't talk about them just yet I'm afraid but we are hard at work.

mutant_matt · 10-11-2009, 19:50

Many Thanks. Sad to hear about the lack of plans for Freesat, but hoping the Freesat iPlayer is going to be useful!

(and that all the same content available via the web, will be available via the FS interface (I'm especially interested in the HD content)).

Anybody know the manual tune details for the "Sky Red Button" stream? <goes off to do a search for this also...> (or, is one of the streams used/shared with the "Sport Multiscreen streams" on 12441V?)

Cheers,

Matt.

31-10-2009, 14:17	#1
ukdane Forum Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 17	Red Button question. I have a Humax HD PVR box, and have a question about the "red button". Said button works fine, if I want to read text, or if I want to see the sport Multiscreen (3001). However, I noticed at the end of the last couple of episodes of "Never Mind The Buzzcocks", that there is a post-show red button feature, between the two team captains. How/where is this feature, I've pressed the red button, but can't seem to find anything about it. Any clues? Thanks.

31-10-2009, 14:40	#2
GaseousClay Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Worcester Services: ♫Avanti flow♫ Posts: 2,081	Not all services are covered on the freesat platform. Check out the Red Button Blogg and find out how dire the coverage actually is Clicky Last edited by GaseousClay : 31-10-2009 at 14:46. Reason: changed the word poor for dire, it reflects my feelings better

07-11-2009, 01:53	#3
ukdane Forum Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 17	Thanks for the info. No Extra Robbie on Wossy tonight then :-( Is it possible to manual add VPIDs etc? If so then I could add them manually to the non-freesat area, right?

07-11-2009, 08:54	#4
martinwatkins Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 333	Maybe the answer is elsewhere here, but could someone please explain why after 18 months (is it?) of freesat there still isn't full Red Button / Multiscreen functionality? Maybe I'm missing something but if the streams (0,1,2,3,4,etc) are already up there on the sat, you'd think it would take all of five minutes software tweaking to get it all working for freesat. Sorry to ask a dumb question....

08-11-2009, 20:10	#13
mutant_matt Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 18	Done, worked well, thanks! (though on my PannyTV, they appear in the channel list for non-Freesat, which is very short, just these, plus LuxeHD, so easy to select when in non-Freesat mode). I was hoping there would be a stream somewhere on Dsat, which is the same as the now single Red Button stream on Freeview, just not-linked to by the Freesat Red Button, but there isn't, is there....? Having said that, there seems to be a bunch of streams for News Multiscreen on Sky, so they must be available somewhere in non-Freesat mode also? Presumably, Sky doesn't have the same Red Button content that Freeview does? (as I understand it, anything BBC wise on Sky, should be tunable by Freesat though, right...) Cheers, Matt

09-11-2009, 09:26	#14
martinwatkins Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 333	Thanks for the explanations with regard to my original question about lack of red button facilities. I think "farce" is the word that springs to mind, after 18 months! Will see if I can add the streams to my Grundigs (yeah, yeah, don't laugh too loudly!)

09-11-2009, 15:02	#16
kylerickards Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 1	The Doctor Who animation is not being shown on the red button either but is previewed on BBC HD preview loop. Why do people have to go to Sky if they want a full complement of channels and services it seems? K.

09-11-2009, 15:51	#17
BBCi Tech Team Forum Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: BBC Broadcast Centre, W12 Posts: 142	Hello, The system that provides the interactive features for the services you describe was created before Freesat. This system has not yet been updated to support Freesat as we have been working on Freesat iPlayer. We have trialled how we might provide some access in a limited fashion which we did for Glastonbury. We learnt a lot from that. It comes down to complexities in the multiplatform scheduling and skinning software which is used to create and manage the services. If it were a simple tweaking of the software, we'd have done it. We are continually reviewing our services across all platforms and as soon as we can provide access to the extra content for all we will announce it.

09-11-2009, 16:50	#18
Lengster Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 588	Thanks for the hard work on iPlayer, but please - if you have any say in this at all - get Freesat up to parity with other platforms before doing anything else once iPlayer is up and running. On a related note, can anyone access the beta once it's running?

09-11-2009, 19:31	#19
mutant_matt Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 18	BBCi Tech bod, thanks for replying on this thread (but a comment on your own blog would be good also). Can you give us any idea when the Freesat Red Button service might be available? (i.e. hopefully some time next year, the first half would be nice! ) Cheers, Matt

10-11-2009, 12:48	#20
BBCi Tech Team Forum Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: BBC Broadcast Centre, W12 Posts: 142	There's no plans at this time to add the non-sport video onto Freesat in the same way that we do it on Freeview and Sky. We are only a small department and we have a lot of different competing demands on our team. That said, there is actually a lot of work going on on our Freesat service - iPlayer has obviously been announced, and there are some other projects working to enhance the Freesat service. Can't talk about them just yet I'm afraid but we are hard at work.

10-11-2009, 19:50	#21
mutant_matt Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 18	Many Thanks. Sad to hear about the lack of plans for Freesat, but hoping the Freesat iPlayer is going to be useful! (and that all the same content available via the web, will be available via the FS interface (I'm especially interested in the HD content)). Anybody know the manual tune details for the "Sky Red Button" stream? <goes off to do a search for this also...> (or, is one of the streams used/shared with the "Sport Multiscreen streams" on 12441V?) Cheers, Matt.