BBC Three to close

BBC Three and Four were channels launched by BBC on freeview before the digitial switchover, as a way to encourage people to move over.

Successful shows would then get re-shown on the regular one and two channels.

But not BBC Three is to close because of budget constraints - the license fee has been frozen for a few years now.  Some of the programming will continue but in an iPlayer only format.

Here is a breakdown of the current budgets:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-26447089

Interesting times for the BBC, who have lost a lot of goodwill and trust over the last few years.  There is still a consensus that the organisation is too management heavy and pays said managers beyond industry levels.  The lower level programme making employees are more marginalised and squeezed with short term contracts.  Rather than lose a channel I'd like to have seen more rationalisation of management.

iPlayer is not something the BBC can charge a licence for from its charter, and it should be listed as a "channel" in terms of costs (the BBC must have many CDN storage deals to get the iPlayer out to the consumer).

The charter comes up for renewal in 2016 - it will be interesting if it becomes an optional thing as it should be in the this day and age.

Topfield Retirement

I've had this Topfield 5800 PVR since 2006, I've used it everyday since then and it has been a good piece of hardware. When I bought it Freeview PVRs were very rare and this was one of the better ones. I had a bad experience with a Pace Twin recorder that I suffered for a couple of years (now that was unreliable!)

It had a couple of firmware upgrades to get series link and recommendations, also to improve reliability as it crashed a little in the early days. I particularly liked the record two channels at once with playback of a third (if on the same multiplex as one of the recordings), also it had simple resume and skip functionality.

The user interface was a little clunky and dated but was functional. It did provide a USB interface for archiving, but at USB 1.0 speeds! Still it was a little project to get the tools working on Linux that could do this.

Sadly Topfield have not really kept pace with the market place, here is an interesting blog summarising the decline:

http://gonedigital.net/2010/12/30/how-topfield-lost-the-plot/

So I've switched to a Humax, having been impressed by the earlier model I bought my parents. I'll write up a review once I've used it for a while, but so far it feels a well executed piece of hardware - and gets ready for the switch to HD services.

Still thank you Topfield for the years of service.

TV Wishlist 3

It is now getting time for me to replace my old TV setup, and 7 year old early LCD TV, and trusty Topfield have lasted me well.

I wrote a blog almost two years ago, anticipating the arrival of a TV with PVR features, just supply your own hard disk!

http://dontgetdemoralised.blogspot.com/2010/02/tv-wishlist-2.html

But sadly it only got as far as recording, and live pause - no schedule features, no twin tuners, and definitely no series link.

That is a real missed opportunity, I suspect it the big manufacturers Samsung and Panasonic not wanting to "compete with themselves" on their STB offerings which might already offer this.

So the replacement with be both a box, and a HD freeview TV - although I can tune down the TV requirements given the vendors have failed to live up to the early promise!

TV Wishlist 2

Well it looks like Panasonic maybe doing something like this, albeit in a higher end model:

http://dontgetdemoralised.blogspot.com/2010/01/tv-wishlist.html

The register is reporting a TV with HDTV, plugable storage - ok plasma. Get this in an LCD and sub £500 - it will sell well I think.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2010/02/19/comet_sells_panasonic_freeview_hd_tv/

Can't wait to replace my current setup.

BBC Freeview HDTV

There maybe a DRM component to the HD broadcasts the BBC puts on Freeview. The theory is that content providers will not be happy unless there is some protection of their content.

All this will probably imply decoder upgrades for the sector of the public that is happy with the Freeview service.

That's just not fair. I do not expect that the BBC will have premium HD content as in the latest films or dramas just as they do not now for SD content. If I wanted that I'd go elsewhere...

But I do want to be able to buy a TV or decoder and choose from a range of suppliers who have all been able to compete on open standards. As far as I am concerned that is what my license fee was for.

The same discussion was had over codecs for iPlayer - the BBC eventually got hounded into making sure that could be multi platform. The uproar here was more the "Windows only" of the initial trials but a similar principle applies here.

TV Wishlist

I bought an unbadged LCD TV about four years ago, along with a Topfield freeview STB. Both have served me pretty well, but the TV has a fault with the sound which gradually fades when watching. I'm ok for the moment as I can play the Topfield audio through my stereo, just a bit inconvenient.

This has got me thinking what I would get next for my TV setup. I really like the Panasonic TV's I have seen, HDTV is coming to freeview, so ideally I'd like:

• HDTV capable freeview decoder in a Panasonic (at last the HD ready would mean something!)
• PVR type functionality in the TV, series/recommendations support.
• USB support for external drives for recording or SD cards.

All that would make me pretty happy. If it can be done right then I do not mind having all that in a single device (save on plugs, cables, and hopefully expense).

HDTV on freeview

HDTV is going to come to FreeView, trialing in 2010. A little surprising as it's a fragmented platform with little commerical drive. It is where the licence payers who do not want Sky or Virgin will seek refuge after the digital switch off.

On the face of it I should be pleased but it maybe compromised, bandwidth issues and not all of the freed up analogue spectrum being available for television use. At the moment the government would love another "3G" sell off of that space given the state of the public finances!