Early digital TV

[MatijaTelevizija]

I was inspired to make this thread , since there is almost 20 years of when OnDigital disastrously rebranded to ITV Digital , and a failed thread that could have been interesting , and more-so just for fun. This is the thread of early digital TV ?

I remember when I first got digital , it was October 1998 with Sky Digital: It was not on the launch day , but I know they were airing a lot of Halloween specials around the time , and it was not Halloween either. It was replacing our old analogsat Sky service and I remember the installer was some woman that seemed desparate to be some “ sexy nerd “ type.



This is the VERY old EPG style. At the time we literally found the existence of that exciting. ? I just scrolled on it for hours that day. ( some channels from analog Sky were not launched yet. ITV was also not there yet but it was added later with ‘ press TV then 3 for ITV ‘ and then finally launched on SkyDigital in 2001 )

When interactive services came , or just got discovered by me , I was obsessed by them. You used to be able to order Pizza through interactive , and I found the digital Teletext cool even though it was not that exciting , on the same kinda thing , in the very very old boxes the subtitles could only be found on actually going to Teletext and getting up pg888. Then later they could only be activated through actually the services menu , now they can be found on just “ Help “.

In August 2001 , Sky+ launched and I believe my family got it in November 2001. 14-year-old me found this absolutely revolutionary and recorded as much as I could ( but was a good boy and copied them to VHS after watching a few times ) Another memory is that sometime around 2002 I spent way too much money on Sky Box-office. My parents were not happy about that. I even remember the PIN-code disaster in late 2005 , who else does ? ?

Call me old , but all this still feels very new and fresh. ? My teen son and even some people on this forum is literally younger than freeview ?

What do you have to weigh in on the topic of early digital TV ? I focus more on the pre-freeview days but anything up to 2006 counts as early , I guess. ?

[samfox]

In August 2001 , Sky+ launched and I believe my family got it in November 2001. 14-year-old me found this absolutely revolutionary and recorded as much as I could ( but was a good boy and copied them to VHS after watching a few times ) Another memory is that sometime around 2002 I spent way too much money on Sky Box-office. My parents were not happy about that. I even remember the PIN-code disaster in late 2005 , who else does ? ?

I remember this time well, and having arguments with my friends that Telewest Digital was better than Sky Digital at that time. In fairness the very basic VOD that Telewest offered later on in its life was arguable a pro over Sky at the time. But thats an argument for another time ha ha.

What was the 2005 Pin-code disaster? I haven't heard of that!

[MatijaTelevizija]

In August 2001 , Sky+ launched and I believe my family got it in November 2001. 14-year-old me found this absolutely revolutionary and recorded as much as I could ( but was a good boy and copied them to VHS after watching a few times ) Another memory is that sometime around 2002 I spent way too much money on Sky Box-office. My parents were not happy about that. I even remember the PIN-code disaster in late 2005 , who else does ? ?

I remember this time well, and having arguments with my friends that Telewest Digital was better than Sky Digital at that time. In fairness the very basic VOD that Telewest offered later on in its life was arguable a pro over Sky at the time. But thats an argument for another time ha ha.

What was the 2005 Pin-code disaster? I haven't heard of that!

Sky was excessively requesting the PIN-code on things that should not be PIN-protected which led to some outrage

[RegularCapital]

Sky's 1996 Then and Now promo, in the promo you can see early designs of the Sky Digital EPG and BIB (British Interactive Broadcasting branded as "Open..." and later known as Sky Active): Original Video Source: https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=121226

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj6m7F1kvTg

Promo for British Interactive Broadcasting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ1JtNFe2qI

[James Martin]

In August 2001 , Sky+ launched and I believe my family got it in November 2001. 14-year-old me found this absolutely revolutionary and recorded as much as I could ( but was a good boy and copied them to VHS after watching a few times ) Another memory is that sometime around 2002 I spent way too much money on Sky Box-office. My parents were not happy about that. I even remember the PIN-code disaster in late 2005 , who else does ? ?

I remember this time well, and having arguments with my friends that Telewest Digital was better than Sky Digital at that time. In fairness the very basic VOD that Telewest offered later on in its life was arguable a pro over Sky at the time. But thats an argument for another time ha ha.

What was the 2005 Pin-code disaster? I haven't heard of that!

One of the main things that switched us over from Sky to Virgin in 2007 was video on demand. I can't express to you what a leap forward that felt like at the time - streaming was in its infancy at this point. The idea I could go into the EPG and have a programme fed to me in broadcast quality was just revolutionary.

Sky were quite late to the game with VOD. I remember they had a pseudo VOD system for a time where content was physically recorded onto a chunk of the Sky+ hard drive - limiting what you could use for your own recordings - but it wasn't until broadband speeds on the Openreach network got up to scratch that it really took off.

[MatijaTelevizija]

In August 2001 , Sky+ launched and I believe my family got it in November 2001. 14-year-old me found this absolutely revolutionary and recorded as much as I could ( but was a good boy and copied them to VHS after watching a few times ) Another memory is that sometime around 2002 I spent way too much money on Sky Box-office. My parents were not happy about that. I even remember the PIN-code disaster in late 2005 , who else does ? ?

I remember this time well, and having arguments with my friends that Telewest Digital was better than Sky Digital at that time. In fairness the very basic VOD that Telewest offered later on in its life was arguable a pro over Sky at the time. But thats an argument for another time ha ha.

What was the 2005 Pin-code disaster? I haven't heard of that!

One of the main things that switched us over from Sky to Virgin in 2007 was video on demand. I can't express to you what a leap forward that felt like at the time - streaming was in its infancy at this point. The idea I could go into the EPG and have a programme fed to me in broadcast quality was just revolutionary.

Sky were quite late to the game with VOD. I remember they had a pseudo VOD system for a time where content was physically recorded onto a chunk of the Sky+ hard drive - limiting what you could use for your own recordings - but it wasn't until broadband speeds on the Openreach network got up to scratch that it really took off.

I only even noticed Anytime existed when I first got Sky+HD and later when my son used it to watch iCarly in HD before Nickelodeon HD was launched ?

[samfox]

I remember this time well, and having arguments with my friends that Telewest Digital was better than Sky Digital at that time. In fairness the very basic VOD that Telewest offered later on in its life was arguable a pro over Sky at the time. But thats an argument for another time ha ha.

What was the 2005 Pin-code disaster? I haven't heard of that!

One of the main things that switched us over from Sky to Virgin in 2007 was video on demand. I can't express to you what a leap forward that felt like at the time - streaming was in its infancy at this point. The idea I could go into the EPG and have a programme fed to me in broadcast quality was just revolutionary.

Sky were quite late to the game with VOD. I remember they had a pseudo VOD system for a time where content was physically recorded onto a chunk of the Sky+ hard drive - limiting what you could use for your own recordings - but it wasn't until broadband speeds on the Openreach network got up to scratch that it really took off.

I only even noticed Anytime existed when I first got Sky+HD and later when my son used it to watch iCarly in HD before Nickelodeon HD was launched ?

Same here, I remember moving in to a flat share in late 2006/7, and one of the girls had Virgin tv. I remember with amazement when I discovered I could binge watch the first series of “Life on Mars” and catch up on the previous episode that I had missed. Then following week visiting my parents and trying to find a similar catch-up function on their Sky+ box to and being sorely disappointed. I still haven’t gotten around to introducing my dad to that series :?

I think that might have even been before iPlayer rolled out publicly? (Was it called BBC player back then?) I had a friend who was a beta tester on the original iPlayer software which he had to download, and remember it used p2p type connection to download the drm BBC shows. From memory I also think he had to have an “always on” active internet connection in order to watch content too.

[i.h]

One of the main things that switched us over from Sky to Virgin in 2007 was video on demand. I can't express to you what a leap forward that felt like at the time - streaming was in its infancy at this point. The idea I could go into the EPG and have a programme fed to me in broadcast quality was just revolutionary.

Sky were quite late to the game with VOD. I remember they had a pseudo VOD system for a time where content was physically recorded onto a chunk of the Sky+ hard drive - limiting what you could use for your own recordings - but it wasn't until broadband speeds on the Openreach network got up to scratch that it really took off.

I only even noticed Anytime existed when I first got Sky+HD and later when my son used it to watch iCarly in HD before Nickelodeon HD was launched ?

Same here, I remember moving in to a flat share in late 2006/7, and one of the girls had Virgin tv. I remember with amazement when I discovered I could binge watch the first series of “Life on Mars” and catch up on the previous episode that I had missed. Then following week visiting my parents and trying to find a similar catch-up function on their Sky+ box to and being sorely disappointed. I still haven’t gotten around to introducing my dad to that series :?

I think that might have even been before iPlayer rolled out publicly? (Was it called BBC player back then?) I had a friend who was a beta tester on the original iPlayer software which he had to download, and remember it used p2p type connection to download the drm BBC shows. From memory I also think he had to have an “always on” active internet connection in order to watch content too.

Sky also had an early streaming service that might have used the same P2P stuff as well - "Sky by broadband" or something like that.

I do remember lots of proclamations on other forums at the time that BT and Sky would never catch up with NTL/Telewest/Virgin, that they'd need to dig up the road and install new cables and that would never happen, and the telephone line would never truly be able to do it. Well, never say never...

Other early VOD systems include Homechoice (later absorbed into Tiscali) and of course the service that Kingston Communications had, both were streaming over specially built ADSL networks.

[James Martin]

Yes Sky did have an early P2P VOD system but again you had to watch on your computer. Outside of Virgin and the others mentioned, it took a while for watching VOD actually through the television to take off.

Smart TVs didn't come into the market until the early 2010s I don't think? YouView never really caught on outside BT/TalkTalk etc and Now TV didn't start up until as late as 2013.

[MatijaTelevizija]

Yes Sky did have an early P2P VOD system but again you had to watch on your computer. Outside of Virgin and the others mentioned, it took a while for watching VOD actually through the television to take off.

Smart TVs didn't come into the market until the early 2010s I don't think? YouView never really caught on outside BT/TalkTalk etc and Now TV didn't start up until as late as 2013.

As previously mentioned Sky’s old VOD also served as a way to deliver HD content when there was no HD broadcasts of that content like for example ( first thing that comes to my mind , as my son used to watch it ) Nickelodeon’s iCarly in HD before Nickelodeon HD launched ?

[MatijaTelevizija]

When was multi-room introduced ? We definitely had to take out another subscription to get me a Digibox in my room ‘round Easter 2000

[samfox]

When was multi-room introduced ? We definitely had to take out another subscription to get me a Digibox in my room ‘round Easter 2000

I have a strong feeling it was close to the original Digital launch, but my only reason for that is you sparked a dusty memory that we recieved an ubundance of paper adverts from cable london about buying additional boxes. I think that must have been late 98/99.

[TVenthusiasm]

I grew up watching Sky Analogue and the quality of pictures back then was AWFUL - especially the fuzzyness. Sky Digital, I switched shortly after it launched, and boy was it so much nicer - the EPG, the reminder ability and the extra channels made analogue
look like a back-seat for TV viewing.

Now I have Sky Q and the picture quality has again got better - in 4K! And I love the fact that you can use your fave streaming services directly on the box. So much better than analogue.

[MatijaTelevizija]

I grew up watching Sky Analogue and the quality of pictures back then was AWFUL - especially the fuzzyness. Sky Digital, I switched shortly after it launched, and boy was it so much nicer - the EPG, the reminder ability and the extra channels made analogue look like a back-seat for TV viewing.

Now I have Sky Q and the picture quality has again got better - in 4K! And I love the fact that you can use your fave streaming services directly on the box. So much better than analogue.

Exactly , although I did really like having the non-uk channels on analog as I am of Italian and Austrian descent ( I may be the only person who actually liked it for the foreign content rather than for the adult content ) , and manually tuning them in never worked for me. And I don’t have Sky Q yet ?

[London Lite]

I grew up watching Sky Analogue and the quality of pictures back then was AWFUL - especially the fuzzyness. Sky Digital, I switched shortly after it launched, and boy was it so much nicer - the EPG, the reminder ability and the extra channels made analogue look like a back-seat for TV viewing.

Now I have Sky Q and the picture quality has again got better - in 4K! And I love the fact that you can use your fave streaming services directly on the box. So much better than analogue.

Exactly , although I did really like having the non-uk channels on analog as I am of Italian and Austrian descent ( I may be the only person who actually liked it for the foreign content rather than for the adult content ) , and manually tuning them in never worked for me. And I don’t have Sky Q yet ?

I used to watch Arté on Sky Analogue.