BBC Red Button now available via BBC HD
If you've got a Sky, Virgin Media or freesat HD set top box, you will probably know about BBC HD, the TV channel that offers best quality HD programming. However, you couldn't press red to access the BBC's interactive services from this channel.
Until now that is!
We've launched it in time for Wimbledon so BBC HD viewers can now benefit from the full Wimbledon 2009 service, including live scores, news and a choice of live action from the All England Club. But of course it's not just Wimbledon - under the red button you'll find our text service including news, sport, weather, children's and more, as well.
All the additional video inside the BBC Red Button service will continue to be in standard definition. Our code too is built in standard definition as the majority of set top boxes don't allow us to write HD versions of our software. Most set top boxes automatically scale the red button service up to HD, which after much consideration, we believe is of good enough quality, although your comments are welcomed in this regard.
On Sky, we have decided not to display a call to action "Press Red" button as some boxes cannot time these out and we know that this can spoil your viewing. On freesat and Virgin, the call to actions will time out after a short while so they will appear each time you tune to the channel.
BBC HD is available on channel 143 on Sky and channel 108 on both Virgin and freesat.
Until now that is!
We've launched it in time for Wimbledon so BBC HD viewers can now benefit from the full Wimbledon 2009 service, including live scores, news and a choice of live action from the All England Club. But of course it's not just Wimbledon - under the red button you'll find our text service including news, sport, weather, children's and more, as well.
All the additional video inside the BBC Red Button service will continue to be in standard definition. Our code too is built in standard definition as the majority of set top boxes don't allow us to write HD versions of our software. Most set top boxes automatically scale the red button service up to HD, which after much consideration, we believe is of good enough quality, although your comments are welcomed in this regard.
On Sky, we have decided not to display a call to action "Press Red" button as some boxes cannot time these out and we know that this can spoil your viewing. On freesat and Virgin, the call to actions will time out after a short while so they will appear each time you tune to the channel.
BBC HD is available on channel 143 on Sky and channel 108 on both Virgin and freesat.
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Comments
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Can you make all these press red prompts time out on Freeview too - I know you can remove them by pressing green, but we shouldn't have too really, and it was much better when they just faded out after 30 seconds or so.
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Am I missing something here? I've been able to "press red" on BBC HD with Freesat for months now.
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But no Wimbledon multiscreen :(
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Thank you so much for this! I kept finding myself flicking back from the olympics in HD to BBC1/2 last year so I could check other sports out on the red button for scores. Thank you again!
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Great - but when will it do what it is supposed to do and deliver the same content as via Freeview. This was promised in the tech forums over a year ago - still no red button content choice for Wimbledon, Chelsea, Springwatch etc. Very disappointing.
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All the matches should be in HD
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Sport has been fully available on Freesat since Olympics - press 3001 or select Sport Multiscreen to see the same sport video as you would on Sky or Virgin, and much more than Freeview viewers get.
This weekend you will have seen we showed Glastonbury to Freesat viewers for first time - its a test service for now but will continue this week with all of the Glastonbury highlights. You need to press red on BBC 2,3 or 4 channels to see it.
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MartinLeng - you're not missing anything. We did indeed activate this on Freesat some months ago. February I think it was. However we held off mentioning it here until we had it working on Sky and Virgin Media as well.
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I am a fan of the red button. However I am wondering would it not be worth investigating looking at having an additional channel dedicated for this. I am not saying remove the red button as an option as it is great to listen to alternative commentary etc.
What I am saying is for the things like pressing the red button to watch another match at Wimbledon that could be on another channel. Reason being is that when on the red button you can not pause the live action or rewind if you missed something.
Is it something that is being looked at for the future. Most digi boxes eg Virgin Media and Sky do a service that enables the pausing of live tv but using the red button - renders these useless. If it is going to be possible in the future great, if not why not have another channel?
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You can pause on some Freeview PVRs - but not on Freesat, Sky or Virgin Media ones.
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