iPlayer HD comparison

On 22 Apr, 19:53, Andy Champ wrote:
2Bdecided wrote:

It's possible you looked just before the service went live.

On the BBC Four page of _iPlayer_ you could hardly miss the "watch in
BBC HD" link next to the programme.

On the BBC Four section of the BBC website, the embedded version isn't
HD, but there's a link the iPlayer programme page, a link to BBC HD
(proving that it's available in HD, even if it could be a little more
obvious).

I'll talk you through it. *We'll take Ms Bradbury's "Wainwright Coast to
Coast" which is what I was looking for. *It's on BBC4, so...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/tv

click on BBC 4. **Not* cheat and use the shortcut on the page, or the
most popular - it won't be there by the time you read it. *Instead go to
Thursday schedule. *And find NOW it says "Watch in BBC HD...". *OK,
ignore that and click on the programme. *Hey look, an HD logo there too..
* I think it was *half* up when I looked! *(last night if I went to the
HD channel it was there in HD, but not HD on BBC4)

I can't believe you posted in so much detail to tell me I was right,
but thank you anyway!

If you were disappointed on Monday to see some of the links missing on
the official launch day, you would have been even more frustrated the
previous week - the launch was mis-announced early, the whole thing
was pulled at the last minute, and there were _no_ links anywhere. Yet
if you had certain software, you would have found that the programmes
_were_ there last week, on the server in all their HD glory - but
without a single link to them!

Cheers,
David.

2Bdecided wrote:

I can't believe you posted in so much detail to tell me I was right,
but thank you anyway!

I wrote all the detail to show you were wrong, but then... and having
written it, might as well post it!

Andy

Andy Champ wrote:
2Bdecided wrote:

I can't believe you posted in so much detail to tell me I was right,
but thank you anyway!

I wrote all the detail to show you were wrong, but then... and having
written it, might as well post it!

Andy

Since then I've actually _watched_ the thing. Jules Holland's show.

It is definitely sharper, but _so_ over-compressed. OTOH it was well
over a gig for the hour, so perhaps they can be excused.

Of course, broadcast will be at a much higher bitrate won't it :P

Andy

Andy Champ wrote:
snip

Of course, broadcast will be at a much higher bitrate won't it :P


Exactly, this service is a 'catch-up' service, so one doesn't miss an
otherwise already broadcast programme, not a means of prime viewing...
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On Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:36:04 +0100, Paul Martin
wrote:

Converting an HD iplayer stream to 720x576 MPEG2 requires about 5-6Mbps
to match quality, which is in excess of the 2-5Mbps emission rate of
BBC1.

BBC1 airs at a near-constant 5Mbps on Freeview and satellite anyway,
though... doesn't it? Certainly used to.

--

Zero Tolerance wrote:
On Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:36:04 +0100, Paul Martin
wrote:

Converting an HD iplayer stream to 720x576 MPEG2 requires about 5-6Mbps
to match quality, which is in excess of the 2-5Mbps emission rate of
BBC1.

BBC1 airs at a near-constant 5Mbps on Freeview and satellite anyway,
though... doesn't it? Certainly used to.

I noticed that has changed recently. It used to be what seemed like
fixed 4.5 but now it's far more variable.

On Mon, 27 Apr 2009 22:56:32 +0100, Andy Furniss
wrote:

Zero Tolerance wrote:
BBC1 airs at a near-constant 5Mbps on Freeview and satellite anyway,
though... doesn't it? Certainly used to.

I noticed that has changed recently. It used to be what seemed like
fixed 4.5 but now it's far more variable.

Presumably there must have been a change in the architecture to make
that possible? ISTR that (for English regions) Mux 1 was assembled in
London, leaving a constant 5 meg (or so) for the regions to drop in
their BBC1, encoded at a fixed bitrate matching the gap. (Thereby
avoiding having to have statmuxers for every region and even more
channel feeds to/from them.)

[What things you pick up from reading newsgroups!]
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