The end of the affair

As I’ve written about before, the demise of the 4TV programme guide has left owners of several brands of Freeview recorders without an easy way to schedule recordings. And now, I think, we can say that the coffin lid has been pretty well nailed down, and the chances of a resumption of the EPG service are pretty much extinguished.

I’ve said before that I think it would be unlikely, despite the online petition (which now stands at around 1500 signatures), that anyone would step in and take over the service. So why am I even more certain? Because of Sony.

As mentioned in some of the comments to stories on this site, and elsewhere, Sony told the owners of their SVR-S500 that they were “looking into the matter” and some people gained the impression they might consider taking over the EPG service (though given they no longer run their own TVTV EPG on Freeview, that would have been an odd decision).

What makes that look even less likely is this email, sent to an SVR-S500 owner (I’ve removed identifying information):

Thank you for your recent e-mail received on 09/07/2010 08.00 AM.

Thank you for contacting Sony regarding your Sony SVR-S500.

In recent weeks we have been contacted by a number of customers with reference to the loss of EPG service on their SVR-S500 Freeview recorder.

This loss of service is, very basically, due to the EPG data stream, specific for this product, no longer being broadcast as of the 29th June.

Since this date, the electronic programme guide will now only display the ‘Now’ and ‘Next’ information; where before it would display up to 8 days of programme lists.

As a result, we are aware that you will no longer be able to see forthcoming programmes or use the EPG to record them in advance. However all other functions will continue as before, with the product still able to display the Freeview broadcast and record programmes via the manual timer function.

However, with the change in service firmly in mind, we have put in a place an offer to give you the option to trade-in your SVR-S500 and get £100 off of one of the following Freeview HDD/DVD recorders:

RDR-DC200

RDR-DC100

Details of these models and their full features and specifications can be found on www.sony.co.uk. Please note however that new ranges do not feature twin Freeview tuners but these products do come with built in DVD recorders which is an added benefit.

If you wish to participate in the trade-in, you can either do this by contacting our Sony Centre Sales line on 0845 6000 124 (select option 1) where they can arrange for you to reserve and collect the new product via your local Sony Centre, or, you can visit your local Sony Centre directly. The offer will run from midday on 29 July. Details of your nearest Sony Centre can be found via www.sonycentres.co.uk. Please note you will need to return the SVRS500 to the Sony Centre to obtain the discount.

I hope that this offer helps you with the current situation.

I’ve called the number in that email to verify the offer, and it is indeed correct – select option 1 first, then option 3 from the next menu; the person I spoke with told me you have to have registered with the support line first to let you know there’s a problem, but they’ll be able to transfer you.

Sony's offer to SVR-S500 PVR owners: £100 off a new Freeview+ DVD/hard disk recorder

You can see the specs for the RDR-DC200 and RDR-DC100 on the Sony web site; they’re single tuner Freeview+ units with a DVD recorder; the DC100 has a 160GB hard drive, and the DC200 a 250GB drive.

So, if Sony are handing out discounts and arranging trade-ins of their affected PVRs, I think it’s fair to say that they’re not going to be suddenly starting up an EPG service for even fewer people, especially when the majority of those people will probably not even be their customers.

And, I think this is the final nail in the coffin because the other companies involved don’t have a presence in the UK market for PVRs at the moment. Sony is the only company that would perhaps have suffered from goodwill issues if nothing was done, and so they’re addressing that – and good on them for making an offer. The replacement products might not be exactly what you want, but £100 is a pretty reasonable deal, in my opinion.

The only other company that might really be in a position to do something about restarting the EPG is Beko – and while those who are online and reading about this issue will know of their involvement, I suspect that the vast majority of people affected aren’t aware at all. As I’ve commented before, would you be more likely to buy a Beko fridge, if the guide reappeared on a Thomson or Digifusion PVR?

I don’t think so – and so I don’t think Beko will view this as their problem at all. If there was ever going to be a resumption of the EPG, then Sony would have been the best bet. And their offer to affected customers suggests that they’ve done the sums, and decided a trade-in scheme is far more cost-effective than buying capacity, licensing an EPG, and paying someone to transmit it. They got out of that business in the UK with TVTV, and leaping back in for an obsolete product was never likely to happen.

So, unless something unexpected happens, I think that’s the end of the 4TV affair.

Bitrates on FreeviewHD

One of the assertions often found around the internet is that FreeviewHD must be compromised, because there’s not much bandwidth available. It’s true that there’s less capacity than there is on satellite (though for other reasons, there aren’t as many free HD channels there as people might like). But in watching Freeview HD, I have been pleasantly surprised with the picture quality, both from the tuners in TV sets and from stand-alone set top boxes connected via HDMI.

The question that lots of people have been asking is “What’s the bitrate of the channels.” The easiest way to answer that question would be with a PC tuner card, which would let you see the instantaneous rates; unfortunately, there aren’t any available at the moment, which rules that out.

So, I’ve done the next best thing, which is to look at a selection of recordings from the BBC and ITV that I made on the Digital Stream Freeview HD PVR that I’ve just been testing for Register Hardware. I’m afraid that, since nothing actually caught my eye on Channel 4, there aren’t any recordings from that in the list below.

The Freeview HD multiplex is broadcast using what’s called a variable bit rate, or VBR. The total bit rate available for all the HD channels on Freeview is around 40Mbits/second – which is better than was expected when the DVB-T2 system was being designed. The mux is set up so that each channel has a variable amount of capacity, of between 3 and 17Mbits/second. The VBR and statistical multiplexing works is by analysing the video stream, and a channel that needs more capacity, like a fast moving picture of a football match will get more of it than one that, for example, is showing a lovely picture of a painting in a gallery, which isn’t changing at all.

Headline figures

The figures used below are the reported duration and file sizes, as in the Digital Stream's media browser

So, how does it work out in practise? The headline figures for HD, based on looking at the duration and disk space indicated on the Digital Stream PVR, are that the BBC are using around 3.2GB per hour, while ITV is coming in at around 2.75GB per hour. I won’t directly convert those to the bit rate because it’s not quite so simple – not all the data in the file is video, for instance. Some is audio, and there may or may not be audio description too. And, of course, that gives you an average figure.

It’s also important to note that, since in my view ITV makes very few HD programmes worth watching, let alone recording, all the ITV recordings I made were at the same time, each week, and so all will have been affected to the same degree by what was on the other channels, assuming no major scheduling upsets. On the other hand, the BBC HD recordings were from a variety of times, though there are repeated recordings in there and, on the whole the bit rate doesn’t really change much.

For comparison, I also have a couple of SD recordings from the BBC, which are included in the list below.

Updated: 9th August, additional data added for ITV and Channel 4, plus some more BBC programmes.

BBC recordings

These, then, are the BBC recordings, with running time and disk space used.

• That Mitchell and Webb Glimpse, 850MB, 16’28”
• The Thick of It, 1.6GB, 30’3”
• Doctor Who, 2.7GB, 55’14”
• Mongrels, 1.6GB, 29’36”
• Mongrels, 1.6GB, 30’10”
• Mongrels, 1.6GB, 28’17”
• Great British Railway Journeys, 1.7GB, 29’24”
• Top Gear, 3.2GB, 1h 3’24”
• Sherlock, 3.6GB, 1h 29’46’
• FAQ about Time Travel, 3.3GB, 1h 20’17”
• Jonathan Creek, 4.6GB, 1h 35’13”
• Sherlock, 3.5GB, 1h 30’1”
• Doctors (SD, BBC1) 818MB, 30’9”
• BBC 1 (SD), 1.1GB, 41’19”

ITV HD recordings

• Identity, 2.8GB, 1h 0’4”
• Identity, 2.9GB, 1h 2’33”
• Identity, 2.6GB, 1h 0’31”
• Identity, 2.7GB, 1h 0’13”
• Three Kings, 8.6GB, 2h 10’37”
• Cry Wolf, 4.4GB, 1h 38’58”

Channel 4 HD recordings

• Misfits, 2.9GB, 1h 4’54”
• The Core, 7.2GB, 2h 34’53”
• Smallville, 2.4GB, 54’54”
• Hollyoaks, 1.5GB, 29’56”
• The Big Bang Theory, 1.2GB, 24’57”

From this, it looks like ITV are habitually using a slightly lower bit rate than the BBC, but that will of course depend on what’s scheduled against Identity, and the demands of those programmes on the bit rate. So, I’ll find some more HD material from ITV, and update this post with more figures, together with some from Channel 4, to give a more comprehensive overall picture.

Meanwhile, the other useful thing that you can learn from this is that, roughly, you’ll be able to record 100 hours of HD programming on a FreeviewHD PVR with a 320GB hard drive.