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BBC iPlayer on Freesat

It is easy to set up iPlayer on Freesat. Here is an explanatory video.

It is easy to set up iPlayer on Freesat. Here is an explanator
Published on by on UK Free TV
A beta release of BBC iPlayer on Freesat is available to Humax Freesat boxes in December.

BBC iPlayer will roll out across all existing Freesat HD TVs and boxes in the next few months including those bought since Freesat's launch in May 2008.







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B
Bill
Tuesday 9 February 2010 9:51AM Newhaven
iPlayer on Humax! Has anyone posted about this as all I can see is loads of people banging on about these b?%*!y plugs? I use an ethernet cable to box that is downstairs. Bit of a pain to wire, but gives best signal.

I have found iPlayer often doesn't give Higher quality or it won't work despite my connection being at least 6MB. I want to use Higher quality as that is very low res as it is, but we won't ever get HD until we get speeds of 20, 30 40Mb downloads.
Trying to watch Click!, BBC News channel, when choosing programme, it showed something else instead. Still it is only in Beta, so hope for improvements. Also good when we have iTVplayer 4OD etc as well.
Briantist
Tuesday 9 February 2010 10:03AM
Bill: I have 10Mb/s from Virgin and I can watch HD from the BBC iPlayer no problem - on a PC.

If you have Virgin, this might be your problem - allyours.virginmedia.com link icon Virgin Media Broadband:Traffic management - & Traffic management rather than the speed you think you are paying for.
B
Bill Kocher
Tuesday 16 March 2010 9:41AM
Well a month later, now iplayer shows up in red button menu, higher quality runs fine and appears to be better quality than earlier. Maybe that's just my old eyes seeing things!
Briantist
Tuesday 16 March 2010 1:26PM
Bill Kocher: I think the point of running Beta tests is to get the system running as well as possible. I must admit I thought the picture quality was good last time I watched.
J
John
Tuesday 16 March 2010 7:51PM
Glad to hear that you all have the iplayer working now.. When will mine be, I have bush HD freesat, but still have not had the update to enable the lan port. Do you think we will ever get it

Briantist
Tuesday 16 March 2010 8:07PM
John: What have you done to download the update?
J
John
Thursday 18 March 2010 7:18PM
Lol I have not done anything, didn't know I had too, the unit is set on autoupdate so i asummed it would do it for me, Last time it updated i had to leave it on stand by.. so I do this everynight.. but still no update :-(
J
Jeff
Tuesday 23 March 2010 6:10PM
Update for the BushHD is 30/3/10 www.dtg.org.uk link icon DTG :: DTT Receiver Downloads Don't forget that you have to leave it on a BBC channel to pick up the update
LutonFan
Tuesday 23 March 2010 9:31PM
Jeff- As far as I am aware, as long as the unit is able to receive the channel the download is sent, you do not need to leave the set on a BBC channel.

If this is incorrect, please advise.
Briantist
Wednesday 24 March 2010 9:22AM
LutonFan: Most boxes have a "manual update" that you can run at anytime yourself...
LutonFan
Wednesday 24 March 2010 10:09PM
Briantist- Yes, you are correct. My point is, Jeff stated you needed to leave the appliance on a BBC channel. As we know, the updates are primarily sent on MUX1 at the manufacturers expense, but as far as I am aware, you do not need to leave the product on a BBC channel, i order to receive the new firmware update.

If this is wrong, please advise.

In addition, I am a bit of a snob in regards to buying electrical products. I have a saying, "nobody likes a Bush!!!!"
Briantist
Wednesday 24 March 2010 10:53PM
LutonFan: I think that Freeview boxes, even if they are not tuned will do a multiplex frequency search to find one that contains the Engineering Channel.

I think Engineering Channel is actually part of the original Broadcasting Act 1996 provisions. It's on Mux 1 as it has, by definition, the greatest coverage.
J
John
Thursday 25 March 2010 8:36AM
thanks for the info, I shall leave it on in that case. And by the way. My little bush HD box does everything it says on the box. Its a great little box. Cheers

John
J
Jeff
Thursday 25 March 2010 6:24PM
Sorry. might be wrong about leaving it on the beeb (was convinced that I read it somewhere but typically can't find it now!). I blame old age.
J
Jeff
Wednesday 31 March 2010 7:30PM
Hi, my BushHD box has now updated and works a treat on iplayer. Updated to 1.9.1 (I think) and then it ran a further update to 2.0.1
Briantist
Wednesday 31 March 2010 10:40PM
Jeff: Excellent, enjoy your "catching up".
J
John
Thursday 1 April 2010 5:07PM
My Bash HD box, Has not updated as yet, It did a update last night, but stopped. So had to reboot. but still no iplayer on the list.. How do i get it to update again or do they only send the signal once.. thanks for your help. john
J
John
Thursday 1 April 2010 5:11PM
sorry that should be Bush HD box .lol
Briantist
Thursday 1 April 2010 7:50PM
John: The updates are on a continuous loop on Freesat - see www.dtg.org.uk link icon DTG :: DTT Receiver Downloads - you should be able to run an update at any time.
J
John
Thursday 1 April 2010 8:17PM
Hi Brian, thanks for the info, any ideas on how to make this Bush HD box do an update manually, I have set it to manual update, but thats all it does. when on auto update it does not do anything either.. All i want is iplayer need to use some of my broadband up
Briantist
Thursday 1 April 2010 9:39PM
John: I'm not sure, I havn't got one to hand, usually there's somewhere that says "do update now..."
J
John
Friday 2 April 2010 3:42PM
Thanks Brian, Well Ive lft it on for days now on bbc 1 london hoping but still nowt. I just been to the bush website and after typing my mac address in it came up with this "To access BBC iPlayer, your freesat HD Digital Box will first need an upgrade. To arrange this call 0871 230 4695, select Option 1, and speak with one of our team. Lines are open Monday to Friday 8.30am - 5pm, (excl. Bank Holidays). But not today cos it bank Holiday Grrrrrrrrrrrr
John
Briantist
Friday 2 April 2010 6:04PM
John: Yes, and I think that's going to cost you £15 too.
J
john
Tuesday 6 April 2010 9:53PM
Well Brian, You where right, I called Bush today and guess what they said that my HD box was one of the first out and would not be able to get iplayer as it will not update. But they would replace the box for me for about 15pounds. this was to cover admin costs.. only problem is that they have none instock and do not see them coming in for a least 6 to 8wks.. So Not very impressed at all. Oh on another point I thought ITVhd was Not going to be on sky... Guess what it is. You never know who to believe these days. john
Briantist
Tuesday 6 April 2010 10:17PM
john: Can they not just email you when they have some in so they can then replace it "by return"?

Yes, ITV1 HD was not going to be on Sky and Channel 4 HD was going to be on Freeview. Yeah.
K
Ken Underwood G3SDW
Saturday 24 April 2010 7:00PM
Yes it`s me again on about Powerline Adapters.
Last time many guys made some sarcastic remarks but now there is a new one on the market made by Belkin and here is a video of what you can all expect when you or your next door neighbour starts to use them. www.youtube.com link icon 
YouTube
- Belkin Gigabit Powerline HD Starter Kit - Radio Interference
Briantist
Tuesday 27 April 2010 8:08AM
Ken Underwood: Thanks for that.
A
Alistair Gutcher
Tuesday 27 April 2010 4:12PM
@Bill, BBC Iplayer SD HQ is 2Mbit/sec, BBC Iplayer HD is 3.2Mbit/sec, all are MPEG-4 for 2x the compression of MPEG-2 but same quality.
So you only need e.g. Virgin's lowest package to get the sustained 10Mbit and with that you could have 3 HD streams!
Briantist
Tuesday 27 April 2010 8:21PM
Alistair Gutcher: Not forgetting - Virgin Media: Acceptable Use Policy
A
Alistair Gutcher
Tuesday 27 April 2010 10:44PM
Good point, Emule and uTorrent are detected by Virgin's servers automatically (even if you use protocal obfuscation and a random TCP and UDP port!) and you are throttled horrifically as a result. Trust me, I have experienced lots of this. It happens starting from 6pm or 8:20pm approx until midnight, and all of Saturday. Use speedtest.net to check your latency and upload rate, if you have about 22ms latency and 0.49Mbits/sec UPload then all is well (remember that your UL will be a lower number in speedtest if you are currently uploading at x Bytes/sec in e.g. emule!), this being for Virgin's 10Mbit package that I am on. If you have 320 or more ms latency and 0.09 Mbit/sec then you are being throttled either because you have Up OR downloaded more than in the traffic management quota (limit) or because you are currently running emule or uTorrent. At least in my experience! At least Virgin delivers 9.75 Mbit/sec sustained most of the day and night long...Ho hum.

The thing that annoys me is on my PS3 Iplayer, the video is heavily prefiltered and soft and not like the SD HQ version on my PC or Virgin. No higher quality picture option that I saw. Still at least there are virtually no picture artefacts! I wonder why there is no HD version of Iplayer for PS3? Time to go do some research methinks...
Briantist
Wednesday 28 April 2010 8:50AM

Alistair Gutcher: If you read the policy link above, you will find how the restrictions work, note in particular the uploads, as they are VERY low indeed.

If you do this in the "scheduler" settings in uTorrent:



You will ensure you don't jam your connection up at 10Mb/s.


S
Suze
Sunday 9 May 2010 9:16PM
Hi all,
I have a Grundig HD Freesat box, i have installed iplayer and have been watching shows etc on it for 2months now and now in the last week i cannot connect to anything. I press the red button and the connecting sign comes up in the corner but nothing happens :( anyone know what is going wrong and how i can solve this??

Many Thanks
Briantist
Monday 10 May 2010 8:01AM
Suze: If NOTHING at all happens (rather than an error message), you probably have to just power down the box, wait for about 30 seconds, and then start again.

You should, whilst waiting, ensure that the network cable is connected correctly at both the box end, and the router end.
A
Amanda, Brighton
Friday 14 May 2010 10:08AM
I lifted this info from Joinfreesat.co.uk, for those who are still wondering when Panasonic are scheduling iPlayer updates:

2010 manufactured Viera televisions: Available already
2009 manufactured Viera televisions: End of July 2010
2008 manufactured Viera televisions: End of September 2010
2010 manufactured Blu-ray/DVD [...]
J
john
Friday 14 May 2010 3:37PM
Well Brian, Bush are rubbish. Just called them re: my upgrade as its been a good few weeks since I spoke to them. and guess what, thay have never heard of me. Im not on the upgrade list.... How surprising.. and not only that they had them instock, but no longer....gurrrrrrrrrrrr. So now im back on the list for another god knows how long, ill have to call them in a few days to check they have not lost me,. just thought i'd let you know about the great data system bush have. John
Briantist
Friday 14 May 2010 7:59PM
john: That is appalling. I am very disappointing to here that you are no closer to having a fix.
M
Mike Dimmick
Saturday 15 May 2010 10:26AM Reading
john: Bush and Alba are now trade names owned and operated by Argos. They're only interested in flogging it to you, not in post-delivery support. There are no support resources for any of their Freeview boxes, for example.

It appeared, when I looked into it, that Bush may be a rebadging operation and that one Bush box may come from a totally different design and manufacturing operation from another one.
P
pedro dehoton
Sunday 30 May 2010 7:33PM
No mention anywhere of what type of ethernet cable, pinouts would have been useful.
Briantist
Sunday 30 May 2010 10:29PM
pedro dehoton: Ethernet in this case is the standard twisted pair, which uses normal standard RJ45 terminated cat5 patch cables. Why would you need "pinouts"?

Even if you did, you can get 52,300 results from Google, or 10,800 pictures.
J
john
Friday 4 June 2010 5:11PM
Well thats another few weeks passed, and guess what Not a call from Bush re: these freesat HD boxes we have that cannot get Iplayer.. Anyone know where I would go to complian. As the service from bush is far far from what it should be.. John
Briantist
Saturday 5 June 2010 9:50AM
john: You would complain to Bush I would have thought. http://www.bushdigital.co.uk/ProductSupport.htm.
D
Dave
Sunday 29 August 2010 9:13PM
Well my Bush box WAS working ok with Iplayer but seems to have stopped now. I dont know if they have sent out ANOTHER update that has now stopped mine from working.>!! Im not gonna throw good money after bad to ring BUSH for advice. I JUST WONT BUY ANOTHER BUSH PRODUCT in the hope that no one else will and they go bust..!!
R
R Kelly
Monday 30 August 2010 12:06PM Redditch
My Bush box was working fine until about a week ago now when I press the red button on screen it briefly shows 'connecting' but does nothing. I've switched everything off but still no iplayer. Can anyone advise me what I should do?
D
Dave
Monday 30 August 2010 1:16PM
Yeah..Mine is the same R Kelly and so is one of my friend's who brought his after mine. Both ours worked ok until Saturday 28th Aug 10. Ive looked at what my router is doing via my PC and it says the Sat box is active etc. Red button works as normal if u unplug the cable from the router. Im sick of this stuff. Freeview was a load of rubbish - and the first boxes are now useless too..!!
G
Greg
Monday 30 August 2010 7:45PM
Seems like a common problem. Thought it was just me. Bought the Bush box to watch iplayer,which worked until late last week then nothing. Tried unplugging the network cable and got the red button back. Stuck the cable back in and nothing... Mind you not the first time I've stuck something in a bush and got no response...
R
R Kelly
Thursday 2 September 2010 11:36AM
Yippee - don't know whether unplugging everything from the router and router connection to pc had anything to do with it but mine is working again now.
A
Amanda, Brighton
Friday 3 September 2010 8:45AM
iPlayer is now available for Panasonic 2009 TV models with Vieracast. The update comes via a connected router & Vieracast button.
Briantist
Monday 6 September 2010 6:01PM
Amanda, Brighton: Yes, I understand you just press the "Vieracast button on the remote control" to install the software, which comes via the internet (rather than a broadcast).
Briantist
Monday 6 September 2010 6:03PM
R Kelly: It is often best to turn off the router (and cable/ASDL box) for 30 seconds and then wait for about a minute.
S
sdavie
Friday 3 December 2010 2:20PM
I have feesat built into my TV...whats the best way to get bbc i player onto this?
Im in scotkand so therefore dont get itv HD or indeed HD on the champions league footy...any ideas?
Briantist
Friday 3 December 2010 4:33PM
sdavie: Which TV do you have. You can get ITV1 HD by selecting an English postcode when you set up Freesat (such as W1A 1AA).
N
Neil Bell
Friday 3 December 2010 5:06PM
S Davie
There is also an HD version of STV West listed on Lyngsat see www.lyngsat.com link icon http://www.lyngsat.com/hd/astra2d.html
if you prefer Scottish programmes



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