Why so few HD channels on sky?

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Why so few HD channels on sky?

mrzen256

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Wannabe Geek

#25840 3-Sep-2008 10:38

Hi all. I just got Sky HDi installed the other day and I really like it but the channel selection really is quite poor.

Does anyone know why Sky doesnt have more HD channels available? Is it something to do with licensing?

The Aussie HD service Foxtel HD+ has BBC HD, Discovery HD, National Geographic HD, ESPN HD, a movie and another sport channel in HD.

Adding discovery & national geographic HD would make Sky HDi much more worth while.

Spyware

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#161786 3-Sep-2008 10:59

Fellet is getting HD bandwidth FREE for 1 year from Optus. He wants to add (instead of putting Prime in HD) either Discovery or National Geographic in HD but also wants to simulcast the HD version in SD. Disc/NG won't agree as both have different SD feeds. All to do with keeping the service cheap unless they get large uptake of customers after 1 year.

EDIT: National Geographic HD/Discovery HD provision is dependent on 45 Mbps fibre feed from place of distribution, being Hong Kong/Singapore respectively.

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ajobbins

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#161790 3-Sep-2008 11:06

And let's not forget probably the biggest reason we do not have more HD channels: Transponder space is limited, which also makes it expensive. HD obviously has much higher bandwidth requirements than SD, so for every HD channel you are broadcasting, that is about 3 SD channels you cant.

mrzen256

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#161792 3-Sep-2008 11:09

Well, hopefully Sky get lots of new HDi subscribers so we can get more channels then lol

testing123

176 posts

Master Geek

#161793 3-Sep-2008 11:11

adamj: And let's not forget probably the biggest reason we do not have more HD channels: Transponder space is limited, which also makes it expensive. HD obviously has much higher bandwidth requirements than SD, so for every HD channel you are broadcasting, that is about 3 SD channels you cant.

Vibe, Alt and Food TV.... theres 3 you could lose without annoying me. complete rubbish.... lets not even get mention C4's new programming

(tongue in cheek, of coarse, but i still think they're a waste of bandwidth)

ajobbins

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#161796 3-Sep-2008 11:17

testing123:
adamj: And let's not forget probably the biggest reason we do not have more HD channels: Transponder space is limited, which also makes it expensive. HD obviously has much higher bandwidth requirements than SD, so for every HD channel you are broadcasting, that is about 3 SD channels you cant.

Vibe, Alt and Food TV.... theres 3 you could lose without annoying me. complete rubbish.... lets not even get mention C4's new programming

(tongue in cheek, of coarse, but i still think they're a waste of bandwidth)

E!, MTV - And get your 1,2.3 and C4 feeds from freeview already. There is space for another 2 HD channels, not to mention the increase in SD quality for 1,2,3 and C4 seeing as Freeview use much higher bitrates and are on the same satellite.

testing123

176 posts

Master Geek

#161803 3-Sep-2008 11:26

adamj:
testing123:
adamj: And let's not forget probably the biggest reason we do not have more HD channels: Transponder space is limited, which also makes it expensive. HD obviously has much higher bandwidth requirements than SD, so for every HD channel you are broadcasting, that is about 3 SD channels you cant.

Vibe, Alt and Food TV.... theres 3 you could lose without annoying me. complete rubbish.... lets not even get mention C4's new programming

(tongue in cheek, of coarse, but i still think they're a waste of bandwidth)

E!, MTV - And get your 1,2.3 and C4 feeds from freeview already. There is space for another 2 HD channels, not to mention the increase in SD quality for 1,2,3 and C4 seeing as Freeview use much higher bitrates and are on the same satellite.

VIVA LOS REVOLUTION!

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mrzen256

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#161805 3-Sep-2008 11:37

testing123:
adamj:
testing123:
adamj: And let's not forget probably the biggest reason we do not have more HD channels: Transponder space is limited, which also makes it expensive. HD obviously has much higher bandwidth requirements than SD, so for every HD channel you are broadcasting, that is about 3 SD channels you cant.

Vibe, Alt and Food TV.... theres 3 you could lose without annoying me. complete rubbish.... lets not even get mention C4's new programming

(tongue in cheek, of coarse, but i still think they're a waste of bandwidth)

E!, MTV - And get your 1,2.3 and C4 feeds from freeview already. There is space for another 2 HD channels, not to mention the increase in SD quality for 1,2,3 and C4 seeing as Freeview use much higher bitrates and are on the same satellite.

VIVA LOS REVOLUTION!

They have 15 box office channels also. Hell, who even uses box office channels.

They only need 3 maxium.

There is heaps of crap they could axe and no one would miss.

ockel

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#161839 3-Sep-2008 13:29

Dont forget that the Foxtel HD movie channel is PPV only @ $7/movie.
So its not really in their HD tier, just OnDemand HD movies. But understand the viewpoints on Lifestyle vs Movies in HD.

Does anyone know if the Foxtel Sports HD channel is 100% HD (or a mixture like NZ dependent on the native HD feed)?
Interested to know if they can use surplus capacity on the transponder to push HD movies down to the STB while the Sport channel is broadcasting in SD. Or whether they broadcast 5 full channels in HD 24/7 - cant imagine they use capacity to push HD movies to the STB 24/7.

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cyril7

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#161850 3-Sep-2008 14:21

The Foxtel movie channel which is OnDemand PPV is run in non realtime, so has an effective bitrate probably not much more than a baseline SD channel.

I think Spyware is on the money (scuse the pun) regarding NatGeo/Discovery, but beyond Movies, Sport, and NatGeo/Discovery and the primetime stuff on TV1/2/3 you will quickly run out of HD stuff anyway.

Cyril

ajobbins

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#161856 3-Sep-2008 14:35

cyril7: The Foxtel movie channel which is OnDemand PPV is run in non realtime, so has an effective bitrate probably not much more than a baseline SD channel.

I think Spyware is on the money (scuse the pun) regarding NatGeo/Discovery, but beyond Movies, Sport, and NatGeo/Discovery and the primetime stuff on TV1/2/3 you will quickly run out of HD stuff anyway.

Cyril

For now. Hope they can conjure something up in a few years time when the availability of HD programming far exceeds what there is today.

cyril7

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#161862 3-Sep-2008 14:50

I think its been well noted on other threads that Skys HD expansion will most likely happen on Optus D3 once its in service early next year.

That said I dont think there is an immediate capacity issue on D1 the current HD channels are on two muxs in TP10 which based on 8PSK 22500 FEC2/3 gives a usable payload of around 45Mb/s, and from all accounts the HD channels are running around 8-12Mb/s so thats 4HD channels per mux so one mux is only partially used at this time, and then there is another two muxs at TP9 to go, so thats potentially another 9-10HD channels before D1 is full (assuming no more SD expansion is needed).

So, my guess is it all comes down to money and the business case needed to put up more channels, not currently a technical limitation.

Cyril

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openmedia

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#161931 3-Sep-2008 19:00

cyril7: I think its been well noted on other threads that Skys HD expansion will most likely happen on Optus D3 once its in service early next year.

That said I dont think there is an immediate capacity issue on D1 the current HD channels are on two muxs in TP10 which based on 8PSK 22500 FEC2/3 gives a usable payload of around 45Mb/s, and from all accounts the HD channels are running around 8-12Mb/s so thats 4HD channels per mux so one mux is only partially used at this time, and then there is another two muxs at TP9 to go, so thats potentially another 9-10HD channels before D1 is full (assuming no more SD expansion is needed).

So, my guess is it all comes down to money and the business case needed to put up more channels, not currently a technical limitation.

Cyril

They are currently splitting the load at 3 HD channels per half transponder. I haven't been able to check the bitrates as I don't currently have a DVB-S2 card.

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