麻豆约拍

Wimbledon may be over, but the time for strawberries and cream in the 麻豆约拍 Distribution office is short. I wrote in May about how we were working on delivering to you the and I wanted to let you know how our final preparations are going.

I think there are a few areas where you may find an update useful:

• Details of the new services we are launching for the London 2012 Olympic Games and how to access them
• How to make sure you watch in HD if you have it
• 3D broadcasts and HD resolution changes this summer

I've also written a separate blog on how to make sure that you are through any regular recordings you've set up, because some of the 麻豆约拍's most popular programmes on 麻豆约拍 One move to a new temporary home on 麻豆约拍 Two to make space for Olympics coverage.

New Services

We are making great progress with getting 24 high definition (HD) and 24 standard definition (SD) streams onto satellite and cable platforms in time for the first Olympic event on 25 July. I know that some of you will be interested in how we are achieving this. Just for the two weeks of the Games there will be nine additional satellite transponders in use to ensure you can watch as much sport as you can handle. Three of these will carry eight SD channels each and the remaining six will carry four HD services each.

The details of these transponders can be found on the . All the channels are up and working now and should be appearing in your EPG.

However, to make it as easy as possible for you to find the events you want to watch amid this vast array of choice, the 麻豆约拍's teams in Salford have been working with our platform partners (Sky, Freesat and Virgin Media) to create a slick interactive application on each platform. The application will allow you to see what is coming up and help you to navigate to the right channel. The application will look something like this (depending on which platform you use).

To access it, just press the red button on a 麻豆约拍 channel.

I mentioned last time that it will be possible to access the 24 streams on certain Freeview HD and Freesat HD TVs connected to the internet. This is through the 麻豆约拍 Sport App which enables viewers to watch Olympic sport live from every venue in the same way as you can on satellite and cable. It will be available on the following models of Freeview HD TVs:

• Panasonic connected TVs (2011 and 2012 models)
• Samsung connected TVs (2011 and 2012 models)
• Sony connected TVs (2012 models)

You'll need to make sure your TV is connected to your broadband connection.

You'll need to use your TV's menu or app store to add the 麻豆约拍 Sport App to your TV. If you have trouble with this, the best source of advice should be your manufacturer. The 麻豆约拍 Sport App is also available on the Sony PlayStation 3 and on Virgin Media Tivo, and .

People with Freeview HD will be able to watch HD Olympic coverage on three TV channels across the day: 麻豆约拍 One HD, 麻豆约拍 HD and a special HD stream through the 麻豆约拍 Red Button.

Because of the different way that Freeview (digital terrestrial television) works, compared with digital satellite or digital cable television, there isn't enough space to broadcast the 24 streams on Freeview. However, within these capacity constraints, we've sought to do our best to give as much coverage of the Olympic Games to Freeview viewers, and in HD where possible.

Freeview HD launched in 2010 and since then 5.6 million Freeview HD TVs or digiboxes have been sold. The Freeview HD signal coverage of the UK has been rolling out with digital switchover and now covers c. 95% of UK homes.

On 19 June we turned on this new HD 麻豆约拍 Red Button channel which is available to anyone who can currently receive the 麻豆约拍's other HD channels using a Freeview HD compatible TV or digibox. During the Olympics you will be able to access this service through the 麻豆约拍 Red Button when you are watching either 麻豆约拍 HD or 麻豆约拍 One HD. You will also be able to set up recordings for Olympic events through your EPG by selecting channel 304.

We expect Freeview HD receivers to have automatically discovered the new channel and added it to the EPG. If you can't find channel 304 then please try retuning your Freeview HD TV or box.

If you can't find channel 304 then please try retuning your Freeview HD TV or box.

All Freeview viewers, whether Freeview HD or original Freeview, will have a choice of up to four Olympic feeds in standard definition, depending on the time of day. This is thanks to the temporary return of 麻豆约拍 Red Button channel 302 in the evenings, alongside coverage across the day on 麻豆约拍 One, 麻豆约拍 Three and 麻豆约拍 Red Button channel 301.

Bringing back our 麻豆约拍 Red Button channel 302 on Freeview from 7pm each night is a side benefit of the work we have done to bring you 麻豆约拍 Three all day during the Olympics (see below). If you tune to Freeview channel 302 and can see our holding message on the screen then you are ready for a great summer of 麻豆约拍 Red Button sport. Otherwise please retune your digital TV or box. If you need help with re-tuning, an excellent place to go for advice is www.tvretune.co.uk which provides detailed instructions for many different makes and models of Freeview receiver. We've also made advice available via 麻豆约拍 Red Button page 9991. Plus we've been broadcasting some messages that "pop-up" on screen to let Freeview viewers know that they will get the additional service if they retune, and to press the blue button to get retuning advice.

麻豆约拍 Three usually comes on air at 7 o'clock in the evening. However, during the Olympics, it will become a 24-hour channel. You shouldn't have to do anything to receive the extended 麻豆约拍 Three once we get to 27 July; your TV should automatically allow you to watch. To make space for 麻豆约拍 Three all day long on Freeview, 麻豆约拍 Parliament will be off-air during the Olympics, but it remains available on satellite and cable.

The 麻豆约拍 has also launched on DAB. The service went live this week, most DAB receivers should have picked it up already but if yours hasn't, .

Watch in HD

The best way to enjoy the 麻豆约拍's coverage of the London 2012 Olympics is to watch in high definition. But because our standard definition channels sit at the top of the channel list on each platform, it's often the case that people watch in SD even though they have HD available. You may be able to watch in HD through Sky, Freesat, Virgin Media or Freeview so long as you have an HD capable digital TV and HD box if necessary. Indeed, if you have bought a large screen (32" or more) TV in the last couple of years, there's a very good chance it has Freeview HD built in, even if you don't usually use it.

All 麻豆约拍 channels, including the HD ones, are available subscription-free (or in the case of cable, in the basic package). To make it easier for you to find your 麻豆约拍 channels in HD, I've included a table below with channel numbers by platform:

• 麻豆约拍 One HD (Sky 143, Freesat 108, Virgin Media 108, Freeview 50)
• 麻豆约拍 HD (Sky 169, Freesat 109, Virgin Media 187, Freeview 54)
• 24 streams in HD (Sky 450-473*, Freesat 150-174, Virgin Media 550-573, Freeview n/a)
• 麻豆约拍 Red Button 301 HD (Sky n/a, Freesat n/a, Virgin Media n/a, Freeview 304)

NB: as well as an HD signal from one of these platforms, you will also need an HD ready TV.

* If you have a Sky HD subscription then you will receive the 麻豆约拍's Olympics HD channels at positions 450-473. If you have HD equipment but have never subscribed to Sky HD you can still see our HD Olympics channels but these will appear from 474-497. The channels are all labelled HD or SD so you will know which version you are watching.

3D Broadcasts and HD Resolution Changes

Earlier this year, we will be showing during the Olympics on 麻豆约拍 HD. We will offer the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, the Men's 100m final and a daily evening highlights programme. You may also have seen that we broadcast live 3D coverage of the Wimbledon Ladies' and Men's finals, and that later this summer we will broadcast Planet Dinosaur and the Last Night of the Proms in 3D.

For 3D to work on 麻豆约拍 HD, we have to broadcast it at "1920 horizontal resolution", ie, with 1920 pixels across the width of the screen. Usually we broadcast conventional HD at 1440 resolution on digital terrestrial and digital satellite television, so we make a special change to our settings to broadcast 麻豆约拍 HD at 1920 when we need to do 3D broadcasts.

Making this change involves a fair amount of effort, plus there's always the risk that something goes awry. To minimise the effort and risk, I decided that we should broadcast 麻豆约拍 HD at 1920 for an extended period - from May to September. Then, to be fair to the other HD channels we broadcast in 麻豆约拍 controlled capacity on Freeview HD (麻豆约拍 One HD, ITV1HD, Channel 4 HD*) we investigated whether we could broadcast all of them at 1920 resolution. I'm delighted to say that thanks to a huge amount of work from some very clever people in 麻豆约拍 Research & Development and our suppliers we can do that this summer. We implemented the changes in May to allow us to offer 3D coverage across the great summer of programming and we have moved 麻豆约拍 One HD on Sky and Freesat to 1920 too.

As regular readers of the 麻豆约拍's blogs will know, 1920 resolution is something we've been aspiring to for some time so I thought I'd explain a bit about the considerations involved. We have to consider the trade-off between the benefits to our audiences of our being able to fit a whole extra channel into the multiplex (whether on digital terrestrial or digital satellite) versus any perceived picture quality benefits of increasing to 1920 resolution. At present the benefits are most apparent on 3D programming. Thanks to some upgrades of our coder systems along with many other tweaks to the way we multiplex services together, this summer we've been able to achieve 1920 on all the channels, whilst the gains would not have been sufficient to broadcast an additional channel. At the moment there is still a question about whether we'll be able to sustain 1920 resolution for the long term; I'll let you know more news on this when we have it.

*Clirlun for viewers in Wales

I'm really proud of what we've been able to achieve in the area of distribution for the Olympics and I hope you enjoy what we deliver. It really is going to be a fantastic summer of sport!

Alix Pryde is the director of 麻豆约拍 Distribution