BBC Multicast Trial

If anybody's been watching or listening to the BBC's and ITV's multicast
streams:

http://support.bbc.co.uk/multicast/streams.html

could they comment on what the picture quality and audio quality of the
TV channels and radio stations is like please?

If possible, could you say which audio or video format you're referring
to.

Thanks.


--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

Find the cheapest Freeview & DAB prices:
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DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
> If anybody's been watching or listening to the BBC's and ITV's
> multicast streams:
>
> http://support.bbc.co.uk/multicast/streams.html
>
> could they comment on what the picture quality and audio quality of
> the TV channels and radio stations is like please?
>
> If possible, could you say which audio or video format you're
> referring to.
>
> Thanks.

I cannot get it. I am on the trial, have enabled multicasting on my router
but get a permanent error. Using Plusnet, I checked the forum and it
appears the service has been broken for Plusnet users for some time.

Beck wrote:
> DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
>> If anybody's been watching or listening to the BBC's and ITV's
>> multicast streams:
>>
>> http://support.bbc.co.uk/multicast/streams.html
>>
>> could they comment on what the picture quality and audio quality of
>> the TV channels and radio stations is like please?
>>
>> If possible, could you say which audio or video format you're
>> referring to.
>>
>> Thanks.
>
> I cannot get it. I am on the trial, have enabled multicasting on my
> router but get a permanent error.


That aint good.


> Using Plusnet, I checked the forum
> and it appears the service has been broken for Plusnet users for some
> time.


Okay, thanks for the info.


--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

Find the cheapest Freeview & DAB prices:
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/fr..._receivers.php
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/dab/dab_radios.php

On Sun, 9 Apr 2006, DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:

> If anybody's been watching or listening to the BBC's and ITV's
> multicast streams:
>
> http://support.bbc.co.uk/multicast/streams.html

It says "This page is for BBC engineering use only, the public should
use http://www.bbc.co.uk/multicast "

> could they comment on what the picture quality and audio quality of
> the TV channels and radio stations is like please?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/multicast/channels.shtml seems to be the
menu intended for "the public", and was what I was using.

I've tried it now and again in the office (connected to the JANET
network) on a desktop computer, and it worked fine, within the
limitations of the kit I was using. (I've been somewhat involved in
IP multicasting tests for over 10 years, FWIW.) I was using the links
in the right-hand column (to open Realplayer or Windows Media Player
in a separate window). The links in the left hand column (to open
them within a browser window) seem pointless to me, to be honest.

At home I'm on plusnet, and see no signs of multicast traffic there,
even with IGMP turned on in the router. No surprises there, when one
has read http://usergroup.plus.net/bbcigmp.php - I would need to
sign-up to get it enabled; it's currently status="Down" anyway.

But I didn't take it any further, I'm afraid.

Hope this is vaguely useful, despite that.

Alan J. Flavell wrote:
> On Sun, 9 Apr 2006, DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
>
>> If anybody's been watching or listening to the BBC's and ITV's
>> multicast streams:
>>
>> http://support.bbc.co.uk/multicast/streams.html
>
> It says "This page is for BBC engineering use only, the public should
> use http://www.bbc.co.uk/multicast "
>
>> could they comment on what the picture quality and audio quality of
>> the TV channels and radio stations is like please?
>
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/multicast/channels.shtml seems to be the
> menu intended for "the public", and was what I was using.
>
> I've tried it now and again in the office (connected to the JANET
> network) on a desktop computer, and it worked fine, within the
> limitations of the kit I was using.

I've been watching BBC News 24 in the office (via JANET) for a few weeks
now using the wmv stream. At first the scrolling text at the bottom
would break up and become unreadable quite a bit, but they seem to have
sorted that now. The picture looks badly overcompressed and the
resolution iirc is only 200 lines, which sometimes makes text
unreadable. The bitrate is about 350 kbps, which is probably a fair
compromise. Packet loss is good, the worst I've had was 15 out of
30,000. It would be nice if they offered a higher resolution, less
compressed version for people who have the bandwidth.

> At home I'm on plusnet, and see no signs of multicast traffic there,
> even with IGMP turned on in the router. No surprises there, when one
> has read http://usergroup.plus.net/bbcigmp.php - I would need to
> sign-up to get it enabled; it's currently status="Down" anyway.
>
> But I didn't take it any further, I'm afraid.

Same here with plusnet. I signed up and they set up my account for
multicast, and I set up my router for IGMP, but plusnet reckon the trial
is still 'down'. Bit pointless at home as I have a freeview card in the
PC anyway, but its nice having telly in the office.

Ben wrote:
> Alan J. Flavell wrote:
>> On Sun, 9 Apr 2006, DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
>>
>>> If anybody's been watching or listening to the BBC's and ITV's
>>> multicast streams:
>>>
>>> http://support.bbc.co.uk/multicast/streams.html
>>
>> It says "This page is for BBC engineering use only, the public should
>> use http://www.bbc.co.uk/multicast "
>>
>>> could they comment on what the picture quality and audio quality of
>>> the TV channels and radio stations is like please?
>>
>> http://www.bbc.co.uk/multicast/channels.shtml seems to be the
>> menu intended for "the public", and was what I was using.
>>
>> I've tried it now and again in the office (connected to the JANET
>> network) on a desktop computer, and it worked fine, within the
>> limitations of the kit I was using.
>
> I've been watching BBC News 24 in the office (via JANET) for a few
> weeks now using the wmv stream. At first the scrolling text at the
> bottom would break up and become unreadable quite a bit, but they
> seem to have sorted that now. The picture looks badly overcompressed
> and the resolution iirc is only 200 lines, which sometimes makes text
> unreadable. The bitrate is about 350 kbps, which is probably a fair
> compromise.


It's pretty much to be expected at such a low bit rate though.


> Packet loss is good, the worst I've had was 15 out of
> 30,000. It would be nice if they offered a higher resolution, less
> compressed version for people who have the bandwidth.


There's 1 Mbps H.264 streams of BBC1-4 + BBC News 24 now.


>> At home I'm on plusnet, and see no signs of multicast traffic there,
>> even with IGMP turned on in the router. No surprises there, when one
>> has read http://usergroup.plus.net/bbcigmp.php - I would need to
>> sign-up to get it enabled; it's currently status="Down" anyway.
>>
>> But I didn't take it any further, I'm afraid.
>
> Same here with plusnet.


Could be better then, basically.


--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

Find the cheapest Freeview & DAB prices:
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/fr..._receivers.php
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/dab/dab_radios.php

Alan J. Flavell wrote:
> On Sun, 9 Apr 2006, DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
>
>> If anybody's been watching or listening to the BBC's and ITV's
>> multicast streams:
>>
>> http://support.bbc.co.uk/multicast/streams.html
>
> It says "This page is for BBC engineering use only, the public should
> use http://www.bbc.co.uk/multicast "


The links seem to be pointing to the same URLs anyway.


>> could they comment on what the picture quality and audio quality of
>> the TV channels and radio stations is like please?
>
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/multicast/channels.shtml seems to be the
> menu intended for "the public", and was what I was using.
>
> I've tried it now and again in the office (connected to the JANET
> network) on a desktop computer, and it worked fine, within the
> limitations of the kit I was using.


Okay, thanks.


> (I've been somewhat involved in
> IP multicasting tests for over 10 years, FWIW.) I was using the links
> in the right-hand column (to open Realplayer or Windows Media Player
> in a separate window).


Did you try the 1 Mbps H.264 BBC TV channel streams or the 128 kbps AAC
radio station streams? If so, what did you think of the picture and
audio quality?


> The links in the left hand column (to open
> them within a browser window) seem pointless to me, to be honest.
>
> At home I'm on plusnet, and see no signs of multicast traffic there,
> even with IGMP turned on in the router.


Okay.


> No surprises there, when one
> has read http://usergroup.plus.net/bbcigmp.php - I would need to
> sign-up to get it enabled; it's currently status="Down" anyway.


Thanks for the link.


> But I didn't take it any further, I'm afraid.
>
> Hope this is vaguely useful, despite that.


Yes, thanks.


--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

Find the cheapest Freeview & DAB prices:
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/fr..._receivers.php
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/dab/dab_radios.php

On Mon, 10 Apr 2006, DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:

> Did you try the 1 Mbps H.264 BBC TV channel streams or the 128 kbps
> AAC radio station streams?

No, I hadn't (if I had done, I would have said so ;-)

But, seeing as it's lunch time, I just played around a bit, and found
that by associating application/sdp in my browser with the VLC player,
I could play them OK.

> If so, what did you think of the picture and audio quality?

Seems OK by me. Seemed to need to set the picture aspect ratio to
16:9 manually, otherwise it looks squashed (is this expected?)

It's rather fuzzy for fullscreen display, but OK at modest window
sizes.

Stereo sound on radio (but my PC speakers are antique crap, so nothing
very exciting expected).

Anyway, I noticed none of the glitches that I get with a digital
freeview box...

There don't seem to be any networking diagnostics with VLC, so I can't
easily report bandwidth, packet loss etc. Is there some hidden option
for that? Any other application I should be offering this to instead?
I'm out of date on such details, I'm afraid.

DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
> There's 1 Mbps H.264 streams of BBC1-4 + BBC News 24 now.

Ah, yes, I was meaning to ask about that. Quicktime says it needs to
download something (presumably a new codec) then says it can't find it
on the apple website. What are people using to view the H.264 stream?

On Mon, 10 Apr 2006, Ben wrote:

> What are people using to view the H.264 stream?

As noted in my earlier posting, "VLC media player" seems to like
the H.264 and AAC formats, starting them via the provided .sdp
descriptions.