When are ITV Player and 4OD coming to BRAVIA?

[ISMADDER]

Any Date yet For ITV PLAYER and CHANNEL 4 ON DEMAND ?

Message was edited by: Catmambo

Message was edited by: Thalamus.

made thread a sticky

[Shoreman]

Hi Catmambo, can you help a new kid on the block with a 37EX503?

Like most people on this list, the missing itv Player and 4oD is tragic. Perhaps it is not just Sony, as other manufacturers seem to be in the same position.

But now there is something Sony might be able to help me with. The Picassa icon is right up there but the BBC News icon is missing - is this another victim of slightly older technology? It is listed as a new service, so is it my equipment, Sony or the ISP that is at fault?

In the same way iPlayer lists all channels except BBC HD (listed on the BBC iPlayer web site) and BBC1HD - again what is the problem?

Shoreman

[Catmambo]

Hi shoreman, yes I'm frustrated as much as you that they aren't there yet. We are in continual discussions but very slow progress on their side I'm afraid.

BBC news is only on 2011 model TV's as BBC declined to backport it to earlier devices due to resource limitations.They don't have bbc1 hd as a iptv channel, but similarly they have chosen not to make available the same hd bitrate for iplayer on 2010 devices and Freesat, which is essentially the same platform.

Hope this helps, albeit I appreciate it's not the answer you might have been looking for.

Thanks

[dgs2001]

Any more news on the possibility of ITV Player coming to more sony stuff?

I have a BDPS570 and really thought as a new 3d enabled player that as and when the ITV player became available sony would add it to their equipment ?

Dgs2001

[Shoreman]

Thanks, Catmambo

Your reference to bitrate encouraged me to connect the rarely used  S370 Blue-ray player to the internet. Set up was nothing other than simplicity itself, now I am more accustomed to the Sony interface.

There was quite a surprise when BBC iPlayer provided access to BBC HD - but no BBC News! Surprising because I would have expected the 37EX503 to have the greater processing power.

One route to keep up with developments is to renew the disc player rather than the television, after checking any new gear does what you want.

From your postings you know quite a bit about how the data stream is broadcast and what happens inside the box. There is another thread "BBC HD Audio Drop-out when switching from 1080p to 1080i", but it seems to be hibernating at the moment. This might be a description of what I have experienced for some time.

Taking as examples the recent transmissions of Wonders of the Universe (Brian Cox) and Frozen Planet (David Attenborough) the visual reception was great, the background soundtrack was as expected but the commentary layer in both cases was severely subdued compared the SD transmission. All the BBC Help Line could offer was that 'they have received no similar complaints'. In the other thread the EX503 series was frequently mentioned connected with audio drop out.

If it is not the transmission itself, is the causeof the problem the EX503 or the way I have the sound reproduction set up? Can you give me any clues where to start looking for the problem?

Shoreman

[mikey_boy_uk]

Now that Sky has announced they're going to provide both BBC iPlayer and ITV Player through their Sky Anytime+ platform, I'm disappointed Sony has not been able to secure the ITV Player also.

I'm even more disappointed at the lack of any formal announcement from Sony on whether they are in fact pursuing the ITV Player and 4OD on their Bravia platform or not.

As the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are all partners with YouView, all 3 catch-up services will also be available via this platform this year.

Can Sony really make any advancement on this in 2012?

Message was edited by: mikey_boy_uk

Message was edited by: mikey_boy_uk

[mnemonix]

This repeated answer that Sony is in talks with the broadcasters and is under NDA so cannot talk about the issues in public is nonsense.

Sony are (in this respect) a hardware manufacturer and the distinction between tvs, tablets, computers etc is minimal and growing ever smaller yet  I can watch anything I please from the internet on all but the tv.

If Sony wanted their tvs to deliver the same content as other digital media platforms they could, they have the technological ability in hardware and software already, and there are simply no legal restrictions preventing them from doing so either.

The reason they won't however is that as part of the global media industry they are engaged,along with the film,  music & other media corporations in protective practices designed to ensure the maximum profitability from their products in the face of prevailing technology, widespread practice and pressure from the public.

Sony could easily give us what we want and what we can get on other platforms, they simply won't , which is why they won't talk about it either.

Message was edited by: mnemonix

[drhowells]

There are so many holes in every line of what you said, that I was going to write a long dissection of it, but I decided to simply say.....ITV Player and 4OD are not currently on any Smart TV. What does that tell you?

[mnemonix]

Well it doesn't tell me it's not technically or legally possible. It might tell me something about the controlling interests of the consumer electronics and media industry however.

I can watch them on my tablet, pc & games machine - some of them also manufactured by Sony for heavens sake, and my point was that as these days there is little to technically distinguish any of these devices, there is no reason I shouldn't be able to watch them on my tv either - except a manufacturers arbitrary decision that I should not, which they would be understandably reluctant to admit in a public forum.

Message was edited by: mnemonix

[mikey_boy_uk]

Given that my 2011 model, which I've only had for just over a year now (April), can't handle the recent Netflix offering, I wouldn't be surprised, if and when Sony do ever secure ITV Player or 4OD, my model won't support that either.

Having been fortunate enough to gain an impressive insight in to the forthcoming YouView offering, I plan to get my catch-up services through that instead - avoiding all the buffering and streaming problems that I've recently experienced with the Sony Bravia Internet TV service of late.

[Catmambo]

Hi Mnemonix -  thanks for giving me a chuckle! The reasons they are not on there yet are far more mundane as opposed to any conspiracy theory.

Simply Broadcasters want the minimum number of specifications to build for. Smartphones and tablets run basically one of two operating systems to easy to build for and there are two appropriate consoles with huge install bases so broadcaster investment can be justified. There are multiple Tv vendors all with differing platforms and varying install bases, and TV's don't have high powered processors either which make for a better experience. Thus the broadcasters are largely biding their time until standards like HTML 5 better mature meaning they can build once and deploy to all manufacturers. Having learnt from the BBC, they don't have the resouce to create and manage 20+ different platforms.