Recent content by sorchard

I was using my PC - ProgDVB w/ Hauppauge DVB-S2 card. My DVB-S2 receiver can't do 4:2:2,

One of the advantages of living in Europe: I can receive the HD feed (35Mbit MPEG2 4:2:2 1080i) with 512k audio.

Until VERY recently (not that anyone has the DVB-T2 equipment to receive it), it was on satellite and cable only. There is a bit of a ruckus going on because of the shambles that is HD terrestrial. The BBC had a multiplex taken away from it (carries ~8 SD channels, so now their SD picture...

A number of channels have multiple audio streams, but not always simultaneous languages. Many just go for one language (if you are German, for example, you'll be able to understand German), or they have English audio with foreign subtitles. Some channels, like the main UK broadcasters have...

I realise that I am not at all in North America, but in an extremely western part of the UK (it is one of two major landing points for transatlantic cables) I can get up to about 45W easy (88cm dish if it helps), with things becoming more and more erratic after that. I think there's some trees...

A dish with 3 LNBs (or a monoblock, I think that may only be 2 LNBs though) is often used to point at 13e (Hotbird, lots of euro porn etc on there), 19.2e (the main continental Europe spot) and 28.2e (completely dominated by UK/Irish channels - desirable outside the UK because it's usually...

Someone in Brazil with a seriously large dish (no off the shelf equipment here) can get very much part-time reception of the Astra 1 19.2 cluster, mainly in analogue:

Wrong. The BBC produces/commissions a lot of content, it also buys imports from the US and international networks. For the latter two, it will only buy UK rights. It therefore has to attempt to stop anyone who isn't in the UK from receiving its channels (high quality widescreen SD programs...

If you want pay-TV. Our free to air broadcasters don't have the money to spend on big name sports or movies, so that stays on the pay channels (the exceptions being certain sporting events that must be free to air thanks to the government, and some football matches). The Sky equipment is a LOT...

Some reasons as to why Freesat (and its predecessor) works: 1) Sky (the monopoly pay-tv broadcaster) doesn't own or control the satellites the channels on its platform broadcast from. They wouldn't be able to tell anyone what to do, and channels are free to appear on the Freesat EPG, the Sky...

The fee technically only pays for the BBC (and the digital switchover costs for Channel 4), but this may change in the future. The list linked to isn't quite exhaustive. This is because some channels, while FTA, are not part of "Freeview" because the channel's owner is not in the Freeview...

Their enforcement consists of sending nastygrams that you are quite free to ignore (even if you are breaking the law), and inspectors who may visit (who you aren't required to let in, unless they have a warrant - so again, unless you're blatantly watching broadcast TV in the front room, the...

Yes, we do have to pay £130-odd per year per household to watch broadcast TV. (note what I said - if you want to use it as a monitor for a VCR, DVD player or games console you don't need a licence. If you want to use a DVB-T box for access to digital radio, you don't need a licence. There are...

Panasonic finally released one over here in the UK, with twin Freesat (DVB-S/S2 with proprietary EPG) tuners. Has HDD/BD-R, and can record the one or two FTA HD channels available. The cost? Panasonic are offering interest-free credit, it costs somewhere in the region of £1000. It might have...

Unfortunately, us licence fee payers don't seem to be getting Top Gear in HD (the series started last Sunday, and usually shows are simulcast on an SD channel plus BBC HD. There doesn't appear to be any plans in the future either).