Early digital TV

[Markymark]

I remember getting Sky digital in 1998 I think. It came with the Sky guide magazine, I remember being so annoyed when they stopped producing it. Although I guess that was the whole point of the EPG.

They, and OnDigital's equivalent magazine became collectors items. I had a clear out a few years after their demise, found some, and flogged them on ebay !

[i.h]

I remember getting Sky digital in 1998 I think. It came with the Sky guide magazine, I remember being so annoyed when they stopped producing it. Although I guess that was the whole point of the EPG.

They, and OnDigital's equivalent magazine became collectors items. I had a clear out a few years after their demise, found some, and flogged them on ebay !

seem to remember getting the Sky Guide well into the 2000s, though I never saw a copy of the on digital equivalent. I did at least get my free onmail remote!

ISTR the Sky Guide was some sort of tax wheeze, this was why they continued to produce it even though the EPG and commercial listings magazines made it a bit pointless

As for test transmissions, can't forget the classic BBC version. It appeared in that gap between ITV digital going bust and Freeview launching, though I'd assume they used it in the late 90s as well?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok06G7E07Ik

[Markymark]

Yes, that video was shown on the SDN mux initially to pad out the unused slots.

I think the Sky magazine ceased mid 00s, I can't seem to scroll back in ebay to see any past sales, but I didn't join ebay until 2003, so I must flogged them after that date. Although I stopped being a Sky subscriber in 2005

[RegularCapital]

At least with the Sky Magazine they highlighted and featured upcoming programming and what's new to Sky, something you can't really show on an EPG grid of channels, there was the Sky Customer Channel/Interactive Service at least.

[Kunst]

Yeah, magazines (from platforms, but also elsewhere) were relatively frequent back then, and it was a quite different to an EPG.
Sky Magazine was a thing also here in Italy

It had major highlights and so on, but I guess they quickly realized it wasn't worth it.

Sky italia (but also similar stuff on Tele+ Digitale and Stream TV; the services whose merged created Sky Italia), also had a highlights channel called "Sky On Air" at launch, showing promos for the main channels (not just Sky ones) which closed around the 2010s, including a Sky Assist channel (which was a bit more useful than the Sky Info channel, but nevertheless similar)

CanalSat in France had (has?) a similar preview channel.

[Kunst]

Here's something curious from Italy.

The Sky Assist channel from 2003, at launch (which merged Tele+ and Stream services, so there was a double version of this channel, since the Stream/Tele+ were "abandoned" later):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_6Amevc2LA

They kept the "woman explaining the stuff" thing for some time, but later, it was simplified, and then completely dropped, like the Sky Customer service channel in the UK, including, as far as I know, the Channel Guide audio channel

This is what was on back then (at launch) on the Sky On Air channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i7T0B_FSh4

[MatijaTelevizija]

Yeah, magazines (from platforms, but also elsewhere) were relatively frequent back then, and it was a quite different to an EPG.
Sky Magazine was a thing also here in Italy

It had major highlights and so on, but I guess they quickly realized it wasn't worth it.

Sky italia (but also similar stuff on Tele+ Digitale and Stream TV; the services whose merged created Sky Italia), also had a highlights channel called "Sky On Air" at launch, showing promos for the main channels (not just Sky ones) which closed around the 2010s, including a Sky Assist channel (which was a bit more useful than the Sky Info channel, but nevertheless similar)

CanalSat in France had (has?) a similar preview channel.

Ah , I remember that as I used to have a second home in Italy. ( I’m Italian ) I think I may still have the magazines of both Sky Italy and Sky UK as I’m a hoarder

[AllWillBeWell]

I remember getting Sky digital in 1998 I think. It came with the Sky guide magazine, I remember being so annoyed when they stopped producing it. Although I guess that was the whole point of the EPG.

They, and OnDigital's equivalent magazine became collectors items. I had a clear out a few years after their demise, found some, and flogged them on ebay !

I don't recall that one, although I think it was ITV digital by the time I had the service. I still owe them for a movie!

[Robert Williams]

I remember getting Sky digital in 1998 I think. It came with the Sky guide magazine, I remember being so annoyed when they stopped producing it. Although I guess that was the whole point of the EPG.

They, and OnDigital's equivalent magazine became collectors items. I had a clear out a few years after their demise, found some, and flogged them on ebay !

I don't recall that one, although I think it was ITV digital by the time I had the service. I still owe them for a movie!

I've kept a couple of editions of the OnDigital magazine, from when it was a 170-page monthly magazine with full programme listings. Unfortunately it didn't last that long and was replaced by a much thinner 16-page magazine of monthly highlights called ON7. I have the July 2001 issue which must have been the last before the rebrand to ITV Digital - I can't remember what they called it after that.

[buster]

They, and OnDigital's equivalent magazine became collectors items. I had a clear out a few years after their demise, found some, and flogged them on ebay !

I don't recall that one, although I think it was ITV digital by the time I had the service. I still owe them for a movie!

I've kept a couple of editions of the OnDigital magazine, from when it was a 170-page monthly magazine with full programme listings. Unfortunately it didn't last that long and was replaced by a much thinner 16-page magazine of monthly highlights called ON7. I have the July 2001 issue which must have been the last before the rebrand to ITV Digital - I can't remember what they called it after that.

I think it was called "TV7". From what I recall, the monthly mag was free but didn't include the main 5 channels, and much of the listing for the rest were a bit patchy because they wouldn't all be confirmed when it was printed.
When it became a weekly mag there was a charge introduced for receiving it (which you could opt out if you wished), but the selling point was it being more accurate and now including BBC1, ITV etc. I suspect there must be loads of them somewhere at my parents!

Of course at this point (and until about 2005) DTT only had now and next, so the magazine was a lot more essential than Sky/Cable.

[commseng]

I think it’s gone too far, bbc hd channels in the uk looks soft. When did bbc launch their hd services, Apparahtly everyone loved it at the time, but won’t it have been 1440x1080 MPEG-2 hd at a higher bitrate?

Just checking back through old planning sheets I had on this laptop, I was heavily involved with the 6 Nations rugby back around that time.
In 2006 it was all SD, but in 2007 we had HD coverage from Twickenham, Cardiff and Murrayfield.
To check what other HD OBs we did before then (I remember some from the Royal Albert Hall and Wimbledon, but cannot remember the dates), I would have to head up to the loft.
As for the encoding, I really cannot remember, the radio cameras only had MPEG 2 available, but what was used on DTT didn't require ones that were small, lightweight, not power hungry and were waterproof the same way that we did!
I thought that HD to home had been H264 from the start, but the mists of time set in.....

I've just found an old email that says we were doing the Proms in HD back in the summer of 2006, and there had been a few issues (mainly sound related) with the new equipment. Chances are that was one of the first live OBs that went out on the BBC HD channel?