Digital TV Category
August 6th, 2010 by FrequencyCast in Digital TV, Freeview
As we’ve reported in recent shows, Sky’s purchased a bunch of channels from Virgin Media – including Living, Bravo and Virgin 1. Obviously, the station has to lose the “Virgin” brand, so Sky’s presumably paid a bunch of consultants to come up with the rather original name “Channel One”. (Our money was on “Chuck 1″ or “Trek 1″.
The rebrand should be happening on the 3rd of September 2010. Apparently, the new “Channel One” will also be carrying the recent re-boot of “V”, the eighties sci-fi classic, where friendly hamster-eating visitors come to us in peace (with hilarious consequences). Watch out for “Anna” (the evil Diana-like lizard), who’s played by Firefly’s yummy Morena Baccarin
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July 2nd, 2010 by FrequencyCast in Digital TV, Offers and Deals
As announced in our July 2010 podcast, which contained our in-depth review of BT Vision, Sky Sports 1 and 2 will be available on the BT Vision platform from August 2010 – and we now know the price!
If you’re a BT Vision customer, you can get Sky Sports 1 for £6.99 a month , or £11.99 for both Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2. Given that you can also get ESPN on BT Vision (free with a Value Pack), suddenly BT Vision becomes an attractive option for anyone into their football.
Add to that, Sky’s just announced a £3 a month price increase on their standard TV and Sports package.
With the 2010/11 season due to start in a few weeks, if you’re with Sky, it’s time to look again at whether the huge fee you’re paying to Sky is worth it. Sure, you won’t get Sky Sports in HD, but you will get a lower bill each month and still be able to watch all of the Premier League action.
With BT Vision, you also get access to their on-demand sport, movies and TV, as well as 7-day catchup from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five.
If you want Sky Sports on BT Vision, you can preorder now
If you’re not up to speed on BT, have a listen to our 15 minute hands-on BT Vision review (released yesterday), or got to btvision.bt.com for full details.
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July 1st, 2010 by FrequencyCast in Digital TV, iphone
FrequencyCast Show 53 was released a little earlier today. Here’s what this bumper show contains:
- News Updates: iPhone 4 has launched, and big changes for local radio.
- Focus: BT Vision reviewed. A cheaper alternative to Sky for TV and Sky Sports?
- Interview: Radio past and present discussed with a leading radio amateur
- Hands-on: An update on the high-tech Fitbug scheme
- Your comments and questions on Freesat, slow broadband and Slingbox
You can download Show 53 direct to your MP3 player or listen online at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html.
If you have an iPod or iPhone, get shows faster by signing up via iTunes.
Links:
Bonus Material!
We hope you enjoy this packed show. If you like what you’ve heard, please spread the word…
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June 29th, 2010 by FrequencyCast in Digital TV
From September, the over 50′s will get their own TV channel.
Vintage TV is set to launch on the 1st of September 2010 on Freesat and Sky.
The face of Vintage TV is set to be former Radio 1 DJ Paul Gambaccini, and the station will show material from the 50s to the 80s, including vintage musical content not anywhere else on TV, as well as archive news and entertainment material from a number of different sources.
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June 4th, 2010 by FrequencyCast in Digital TV
Sky has just spent £160 million acquiring Virgin Media portfolio of TV channels, in a deal confirmed today.
Virgin Media has offloaded Bravo, Virgin 1, Living and Challenge to Sky, as they are looking to consolidate on their core business of cable data connectivity.
This is clearly good news for Sky, who will be rebranding Virgin 1 to be part of the Sky family and strengthening their TV content. It’s also good news for customers of Virgin Media’s TV service, as Sky will soon be offering Sky Sports 1 HD, Sky Sports 2 HD and Sky Movies HD on Virgin. These premium HD channels have previously been exclusive to Sky’s satellite subscribers, but will soon be available on the Virgin platform.
We hope to be covering this in more detail in our next digital TV podcast. Make sure you’re signed up
More on Sky Digital
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May 20th, 2010 by FrequencyCast in Digital TV, Freeview, HD
Details are slowly emerging of the first Freeview HD hard disk recorder from Humax.
Here’s what we know so far:
- Name: Humax HDR-FOX T2
- Release date: July 2010 (too late for the World Cup)
- Hard disk: 500GB (125 hours of HD)
- Price: £349
- Tuners: Twin tuner
- EPG: 8 days
The box will reportedly also support media streaming and Internet connectivity via Ethernet.
More when we have it.
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May 9th, 2010 by FrequencyCast in Digital TV
The Nookie TV Internet-over-TV service as mentioned in Show 48 of our UK podcast, is to cease broadcasting this month.
Nookie TV offered a rather innovative adult content service using an Internet-enabled set-top box. The remote control had a large friendly “panic” button for use in viewing emergencies.
The Nookie TV Box Set-top box
The Nookiebox site is today stating:
“Unfortunately, due to financial hardship, we are ceasing all operations and discontinuing NookieTV broadcast service as of May 15th 2010″.
Sorry lads…
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May 1st, 2010 by FrequencyCast in Broadband, Digital TV, Podcast, Radio, iphone
The first of the month means a new episode of your favourite TV and Tech Podcast. FrequencyCast Show 51 is a bumper edition, looking at the following topics:
- News Updates: New iPhone details leaked, 3D TV is here, HD news and HomePlug hassle.
- Focus: How the rushed-through Digital Economy Act affects you, TV, radio and the Internet
- Hands-on: We get to go outside and play with a few sets of walkie talkies
- Your comments and questions on catch-up TV, MP3 players, ITV 1 HD and more
You can download Show 51 direct to your MP3 player or listen online at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html.
If you have an iPod or iPhone, get shows faster by signing up via iTunes.
Links:
We hope you enjoy this packed show. If you like what you’ve heard, please spread the word…
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April 29th, 2010 by FrequencyCast in Digital TV, Freeview, Technology
3D TV in the home is now a reality. For £1,800, you can now own a 40 inch HD TV that supports 3D.
In the race to bring out the first 3D-Ready TV, it seems that Samsung was the winner in the UK, releasing the Samsung UE40C7000 40 inch 3D Ready TV a few days back.
It’s am impressive-looking TV set, and it’s also very capable.
These TV sets use LED technology – LED lights use less energy than standard LCD, and offer more precise control of colour, contrast and clarity. The UE40C7000 has a built-in Freeview HD tuner, supports SRS Theatre Sound, offers full 1080p HD, supports streaming video (DLNA) and has Internet connectivity.
At the moment, this TV set is only available from John Lewis (online or instore). Link: Samsung 3D TV at John Lewis
Here’s Samsung’s new 3D TV commercial:
This first HD TV from Samsung uses Active Shutter technology – the 3D glasses switch on and off 50 times per second to create the 3D illusion, although you might want to check out the 3D Usage Notice issued by Samsung recently, which warns about possible side effects including seizures, strokes, altered vision ,muscle twitching, confusion, motion sickness, disorientation, eye strain and something called ‘decreased postural stability’.
3D TV is finally available for the home, it seems. Let us know your views on 3D, and we’ll cover the subject in more detail in an upcoming FrequencyCast podcast.
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April 1st, 2010 by FrequencyCast in Digital TV, HD, Podcast
Happy April! It’s the start of a new month, and that means it’s time for a new FrequencyCast – and this is show number 50!
Here’s what we look at in Show 50:
- News Updates: Lots of HD news, tablets, cancellations and 3D.
- Focus: Getting more from your MP3 Player
- Hands-on: Who needs and iPod or Apple’s iTunes?
- Your podline and email questions on HD, OS, Freesat and weather
You can download Show 50 direct to your MP3 player or listen online at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html.
If you have an iPod or iPhone, get shows faster by signing up via iTunes.
Links:
Download the show now – you’d be an April Fool not to!
If you like what you’ve heard, please spread the word…
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March 10th, 2010 by FrequencyCast in Digital TV, HD
Virgin Media is going to be the first digital TV service to get E4 HD and Film 4 HD – news not so hot for Sky and Freesat’s HD services.
E4 HD is set to go live for Virgin customers in April 2010 at no extra cost to Virgin customers, with Film 4 HD set for “Summer 2010″
More on Virgin Media on our Cable TV page, or at virginmedia.com
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February 17th, 2010 by FrequencyCast in Digital TV
New TV-over-IP service SeeSaw has just launched.
Offering TV shows from the BBC, Channel 4 and Five, plus catch-up TV shows, this complements the BBC iPlayer very well and offers over 3,000 hours of TV shows that you can watch online. In return for the free content, you have to watch an unskippable TV ad.
Premium paid-for content will be added later this year.
Give SeeSaw a try at www.seesaw.com
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November 18th, 2009 by FrequencyCast in Digital TV, Gadgets
Lovers of the Nintendo’s Wii can now access TV and radio from the last seven days for free.
Sure, it’s been possible to watch the BBC iPlayer via the Nintendo Wii web browser for a while, but from today, the 18th of November, you can now install a free BBC iPlayer channel from the Nintendo Wii Store.
After a few hours of watching Doctor Who, flicking through content, and testing the Listen Again radio service, we’re very impressed.
The quality of video playback is a huge improvement over watching video via the Wii web browser, and the interface is well laid-out and optimised for the Wii. The channel works well, TV and radio streaming is smooth, and setup was a breeze.
Get installing, y’all…
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September 30th, 2009 by FrequencyCast in Digital TV, Freeview
If you’re reading this on Wednesday the 30th of September 2009, today is Freeview Retune Day.
If you get your digital TV from Freeview, you will need to get your Freeview box or TV set to re-scan its Freeview channel lineup, to make sure you get all of your channels.
The changes that are being made at transmitter sites will do a number of things:
1. Improve reception of Five for around half a million Freeview viewers (as a result of a change of multiplex). The downside is that affected users may start having problems with ITV3 and ITV4 instead.
2. The longer-awaited Quest TV documentary channel from Discovery will appear on Channel 38.
3. A bunch of channels will be renumbered – and you’ll find that the following channels won’t be where they were yesterday – Price-drop TV, Super Casino, Rocks and Co, Smile TV2, Babestation and Partyland.
Changes at transmitter sites should be complete by lunchtime, so get ready to re-scan as soon after lunchtime as possible to make sure you don’t loose out.
If you’re not sure how to retune, it’ll be a setting somewhere in the on-sceen Freeview menu, possibly labelled “Channel setup”, “Tuning”, or “Scan for Channels”. BT Vision users should select BT Vision > Settings > TV Settings > Add channels,
If you need help rescanning for channels, see the instructions at www.tvretune.co.uk or call the automated Freeview Retune helpline on 08456 05 11 22.
Happy retuning, everyone!
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September 25th, 2009 by FrequencyCast in Digital TV
From October, X-Box 360 users will be able to get TV shows from Sky.
Sky subscribers will be able to watch selected channels from their Sky package on the X-Box 360 once a planned software update is rolled out in October. Sky Player will also allow you to create an avatar of yourself and watch live events with friends.
As well as adding Sky Player, the software update is also expected to bring Facebook and social networking to the X-Box platform.
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September 16th, 2009 by FrequencyCast in Digital TV, HD, Phones, Podcast
Hot off the press, over 16 minutes of tech and TV news from the team at FrequencyCast.
In this update we look at the merging of two mobile networks, what Apple’s been up to this month, Freeview HD testing, BT Vision updates, a Sky offer, the latest on iPhone sat nav applications, and a new DVD release.
The show is attached to this blog entry, or you can listen at www.frequencycast.co.uk/update.html
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September 13th, 2009 by FrequencyCast in Digital TV, Offers and Deals
If you’re looking to get Sky in the next few weeks, there’s an opportunity to get a £50 Tesco voucher if you sign up to Sky’s TV service online and take out a subscription to Sky Sports, Sky Movies or Sky+ HD.
The £50 Tesco voucher offer is only available until 30th September 2009. Snap it up at the following link: Choose your Sky options
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August 14th, 2009 by FrequencyCast in Broadband, Digital TV
Tomorrow sees the start of the 2009/2010 English Premier League footy season. In case you’re not kitted out with Sky, Virgin, or any other digital services offering sporting coverage, you can still watch tomorrow’s matches, coutesy of an online service from Sky:
Everton vs Arsenal (EPSN) and Chelsea vs Hull (Sky Sports) are both available from skyplayer.sky.com – free to some Sky subscribers, otherwise there’s a special offer until 31st August.
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August 12th, 2009 by FrequencyCast in Digital TV, Freeview, Top Up TV
As we discussed in today’s podcast update, it’s now possible to get ESPN on a Freeview box or TV that has a suitable card slot (known as a CI slot). The CI slot accepts a CAM, which accepts a subscription card.
If you were previously able to get Setanta Sports on Freeview, then you should be able to get ESPN – You’ll just need to get your old Top Up TV or Setanta subscription card activated by calling 08444 15 20 20.
If you’re looking for full details on how this works, please see the following summary of the ways to get ESPN: http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/espn.html , or listen to our 12 August update
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August 1st, 2009 by FrequencyCast in Digital TV, HD, Podcast
Show 42 of FrequencyCast, the UK’s TV and Tech podcast, has just been released.
In our regular online radio show, we discuss all that’s new with digital TV and technology. Here’s what we cover in this show:
- News Updates: ESPN launches Premier League service, 4 HD channels come to Virgin, half-price mobile broadband and robotic luggage.
- Focus: Catch-up TV – Ways to watch BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five shows you’ve missed.
- Hands-on: The TubeStick – the smallest Freeview receiver around?
- First-look: Truecall phone call screener as seen on Dragon’s Den
- Your questions on TV with PVRs, slow iPhones, Nintendo Wii S-Video, and the future of Ceefax.
You can download Show 42 direct to your MP3 player or listen online at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html. If you have an iPod or iPhone, get shows faster by signing up via iTunes.
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