China Central TV comes to Freeview

China Central Television is coming to Freeview HD, but not as a broadcast television channel. It will have its own channel number, but it won't be broadcast in the UK or subject to UK broadcast rules. CCTV is taking advantage of the Vision IPTV platform, which started supplying internet video streams to UK Freeview HD boxes in …

[ChrisDaniels]

Ropey release

Not currently working for many according to DigitalSpy forums.

Tested on my Humax HD & HDR T2 and they dont work so far either.

I realise it might be difficult for them to get this working on so many boxes as they are the first, but surely they will have built a concept portal first? It seems like they are building as they go on this one. (I can tell by pressing green then blue and viewing the debug messages they have built in).

Launch was meant to be in late September.. Its November next week! lol

How long does it take to code a streamer?!?

[pctechxp]

Not just Freeview

One stream has appeared on Freesat and on its EPG (my box isn't connected to the net at the min)

[Ebeneser]

CCTV

"Not that CCTV is all propaganda, but it does have a tendency to toe the government line ..."

Just like the BBC then. At least there's a chance they'll tell us stuff the UK media views as off limits, I'm sure the opposite already happens in China ...

[Shakje]

I think you're lost

Daily Mail is that way -------------->

Yup, see the pit? Just keep walking, there's a magical hot air bridge sponsored by Jan Moir and Richard Littlejohn.

[AdamWill]

yup

The thing that keeps my confidence in the BBC up is that both my nuttier lefty friends and my nuttier righty friends are absolutely convinced it's biased the other way.

[Pen-y-gors]

Freesat

It suddenly appeared yesterday on my Freesat HD Humax box (along with Argos TV) and promptly got deleted from my channel list! Does this mean that it WILL be subject to UK broadcast rules?

[Thomas Gray]

China Central TV?

So, can we look forward to Chinese Crossroads, Chinese Bullseye and Chinese TISWAS?

[John Sager]

Sorta works for me

I've got a 1 year old Panasonic (TX-L37D25BA) and it eventually starts the Sports Tonight replay on 112 but I get picture jumps & freezes. From what I've heard about Panasonic's update policy for older sets, that's probably as good as it'll get, though that might also be server/network issues. But since I won't be watching CCTV that's really no problem. If it ever had any free, hot, must-watch programming I might be less disinterested, but what is the probability of that?

[Annihilator]

Orwell

Presumably you need a compatible "telescreen" to receive the feed that you can't switch off and is 2-way?

[Ken Hagan]

Since you ask...

I'm not finding the transition to IPTV at all.

Life's too short. I have several dozen channels already and the idea of hooking myself up to another few hundred in a desparate attempt to find something worth watching is a non-starter, so I'll move to IPTV when they switch the normal transmitters off.

Advertisers *might* take note, except that they almost certainly aren't reaching me even on normal telly either because I just fast-forward or doze through them.

Remind me again? Who's financing all this? Is anyone in the TV industry making any money? Surely they are all just haemorrhaging cash with absolutely no prospect of ever getting it back?

[AdamWill]

sure

"Is anyone in the TV industry making any money?"

Simon Cowell?

[Annihilator]

Who's financing this?

The licence fee, Sky subscriptions, DVD sales and although less effective, advertising still makes an impact.

[Mage]

Expense?

Actually if you have a significant market share, say more than 1%, then Broadcast is FAR cheaper than Internet for Broadcast quality.

if you only have 0.05% viewing time, but it's everyone at once (e.g. news at 9) then Internet is horribly expensive.

The Internet is only viable for low quality or low numbers of people at once when you consider video.

[Anonymous Coward]

Freesat

Works OK on Freesat ch 211, not something I'll be watching too much of, but useful to have available for a bit of balance (like Al Jazeera).

[Anonymous Coward]

I for one welcome our new slitty eyed masters......

Actually, I DO welcome this development, I recently married a Chinese girl, so this will help her get over any homesickness when we finally get UK visa clearance to move back to the UK.

CCTV offers a range of Chinese, Korean and Taiwanese soaps and historical dramas; all acted so badly you will wish for the return of Darleen and Scot to neighbours,just to get some class acting.

Mines the one with the "Ken Brockman" name badge.

[tw@tpanda]

It'll never work for me...

I can't even stream a simple youtube vid set at 240p without it stuttering to a halt every 5 seconds. No chance of me getting IPTV to work. I suppose it'll be a nice addition if you're chinese and live somewhere that has a decent internet service.

[Nigel R]

try...

@tw@tpanda

"....live somewhere that has a decent internet service."

Try China. Where even their 3g service is vastly denser and faster than UK's!