"BBC WORLD"

It looks like your provider will have BBC World on Digital cable, so that's good news for you.

Digital doesn't always mean clearer - over-compression can make the picture worse (especially if it is run at the lower digital TV resolutions of 352x576 or 544x576)

Also - in many cases (though not all) - the digital TV broadcast is not source from an analogue picture - instead it is the other way round, with the analogue picture being sourced from the digital source.

Take, for example, BBC One.

The BBC One transmission areas are digital. They output an uncompressed digital signal (though the programmes may themselves have been compressed for VTR or Server storage, and the OB links for live inserts may also have been compressed).

The BBC One digital signal is then compressed for BBC One DTT/DSat and DCab transmissions (sometimes more than once)

The BBC One digital signal is then also aspect ratio converted and coded to PAL analogue for terrestrial analogue transmission.

In the Channel Islands it is even more complex, because the analogue BBC One transmitters are fed from a DSat receiver fed with digital BBC One compressed.

To say the digital version is a compressed version of the analogue one is slightly misleading, they may both be sourced from a digital feed (with less or no compression) these days.

Thanks for the technical information noggin, it's always great to learn from you.

BTW, on Hotbird there is another BBC World on 11345H 27500 2/3 provided by Mediaset, however my receiver cannot decode the picture, and there is no soundtrack, so presumably for now that is just a test as I suspect it will be encrypted for DTT in Italy.

In my expectation, they are mainly using PAS2/PAS8/PAS10 for Asian and Oceanian broadcasters as their figure shows, and each broadcasters are retransmitting by other satellite feeds or cable for viewers.
http://www.bbcworld.com/insite/content/template_distribution.asp?pageid=40

I've ever received PAS8. It's digital, 7.2Mbps 544x480 NTSC/256kbps audio, including Asian advertising so maybe transmitted from Sigapore or around there. I wasn't satisfied with that quality. I don't understand why they broadcast in low resolution though they have enough bit rate. Is there anyone knows about the detail of PAS2 or PAS10?

The transponder is a standard SES Astra one and is not belonging to anyone.

I still don't understand why we don't have a widescreen BBC World or BBC Prime - I'd prefer the world news to be put in widescreen 16:9 or fullscreen 4:3.



I've seen BBC World in the Astro satellite service in malaysia. Quality was poor, but that could be those dodgy asian makes...

That is correct, it is rented by the providers which is what I should have said.

Yep I absolutely agree, but it's a policy which has been adopted on every channel that BBC Worldwide own.

Then that should be what Singapore is getting too? Or maybe its due to its distribution methods in Malaysia? BBC World is available right from the start, with or without digital...

Several channels carried under the digital platform have crystal clear picture quality, maybe its due to the location of the channel is from, they are either from Hong Kong or Taiwan.

We are having problems in the Middle East for the last few days actually. BBC World continues to fade and crystalise on screen. I have spoken to Orbit (who provide us with BBC W on a Free to View basis) and they say that it's purely climatic conditions!!!!!!!!!! Sound slike a load of old tosh to me, but what do I know.

Have noticed a lot of Zeinab, Nisha and Brian on The World. Has Kirsty Lang stopped doing it for good, or are they just experimenting.

Also, who is the new permanent presenter of HardTalk? I find Zeinab Badawi to be excellent.

I was watching WBR earlier and Tanya read an email from a viewer about the length of Middle East Business Report and Tanya said that from the 2nd of April I think... it's gonna run for half and hour.

I was also on the hardtalk websitea and have seen a pic of Zeinab, so maybe she is the permanent presenter.

I presume you get a lot of US based channels over there, is this right BBC WORLD?

Another copy of BBC World has appeared on the Hotbird satellite this time provided by Mediaset, the quality of the signal is equal to the signal of the stand alone channel, but no teletext or EPG, here it is.

BBC World on 11345H clear SYM:27500 FEC 2/3

I think this will be encrypted and used as a feed for DTT tranmissions in Italy.