topic Re: Removal of BBC recording feature in TV

Removal of BBC recording feature

MoorCowbell — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 13:16:22 GMT

As reported on the Cordbusters website, pro boxes will soon no longer record BBC channels, instead redirecting customers to the appropriate iPlayer instance - subject to it still being within the iPlayer retention period and it being available. This means a sizeable chunk of HD channels will no longer be recordable and, imho, devalues the EETV proposition considerably and creates further disparity between customers accessing TV via Freeview and customers using EE's IPTV solution.

The article above reports that advisory letters have started going out to IPTV customers; has anyone received a letter, and does it offer a charge reduction or the opportunity to exit the contract with EE?

Re: Removal of BBC recording feature

Chris_B — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 14:05:31 GMT

@MoorCowbell I can not see how this would get you a reduction in price and I very much doubt you’ll get of the contract because of it. It’s also only applicable to internet mode not aerial mode.

“As you’re watching EE TV in Internet Mode (without an aerial), the way you watch your BBC recordings will change.

From August 21, your BBC recordings will launch through the BBC iPlayer app. There’s no change to how you’ll record a programme, or where it will be stored.”

This will be a BBC decision not an EE decision. The BBC can impose what ever rules they want with their service and EE have to stick to those rules.

Re: Removal of BBC recording feature

Lee14801 — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 16:15:10 GMT

Also

A Puzzling Implementation

Here’s where things get a bit strange. BBC programmes will still be “recorded” to the box’s hard drive and take up storage space.

However, users won’t be able to watch these recordings directly from the hard drive. Instead, when you try to play a recording, it’ll stream from iPlayer.

Re: Removal of BBC recording feature

Midnight_Voice — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 16:54:03 GMT

@Lee14801

My theory, mine…..

https://community.bt.com/t5/EE-TV-YouView/Changes-to-BBC-Recordings/m-p/2401136#M80628

Though I don’t think the suggestion of ‘technical debt’ the next poster has added quite applies.

Re: Removal of BBC recording feature

SwannyD2 — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 18:58:24 GMT

Bless EE for trying to put a positive spin on this one. There really isn’t one - especially if you’re still going to be using space for ‘recordings’ you’re actually watching from iPlayer. Who thought of that one? Not particularly eloquent.

I’d be interested to hear more from the BBC in why they’re implementing this change now. ITV at least have a commercial reason.

There was a time when the BBC was platform agnostic - offering the same services and functionality whatever the platform. I wonder how they’d justify allowing the broadcast version to record, but not the IP version… on the same device.

Does IP recording create more risk of piracy than broadcast? Does the way EE has implemented multicast create problems with content providers?

There’s no reason why expiration makers couldn’t be added to broadcast content - Sky have done this for years. Why are they penalising viewers who use IP now?

Maybe a FOI request would shed some light.

Re: Removal of BBC recording feature

Midnight_Voice — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 21:05:13 GMT

@SwannyD2

But IP users are allowed to record BBC programmes - they are just not allowed to watch those recordings 😛

Re: Removal of BBC recording feature

Weerab2024 — Sun, 18 Aug 2024 09:44:16 GMT

The recordings are going to be more of a watch list I am guessing, similar to the playlist function on Sky Stream, especially if other channels begin to do the same.

This will probably reduce the difference between the pro box and the Apple TV box.

Re: Removal of BBC recording feature

gryffe1888 — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 07:37:14 GMT

Find this change quite annoying. When recording BBC programmes before you could fast forward through programmes and still see what was on screen which made it easier to know where to stop fast forwarding, with iPlayer you cannot. eg I sometimes record BBC breakfast and the old method of recording was great for fast forwarding but now it suffers from what I described above. Also the pause function doesnt seem to work. The other issue is the 'recording" of BBC Breakfast does not start at 6am, usually it's about 25 mins later. Even if you go straight to iPlayer itself the programme start is missed.

Hope this doesn't mean other channels do the same and we end up with similar to Sky Stream where "recordings" just direct you to the app, eg ITVX, All4 etc. I had Sky Stream and hated it for this reason, and moved to EE TV.

Re: Removal of BBC recording feature

Midnight_Voice — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 08:41:41 GMT

@gryffe1888

I’m guessing you are watching the recording while the programme is still ongoing?

I’ve not seen this while ‘recording’, as IP Mode wouldn’t ever be my thing, but I do know that if we watch Homes Under the Hammer, on iPlayer, from the start, while it’s still running, you don’t get the thumbnails at the bottom of the screen that show you where you are, whereas if we watch it on iPlayer after the live broadcast is finished, we do get the thumbnails. Which, as you say, makes it much easier to skip the bits you don’t want to watch.

But we don’t have a problem with pause when doing the above - it works fine - so that looks like a difference when watching a ‘recording’. What time are you usually watching? I’d guess about 8:25, so you have encountered some two hour max buffer thing?

It looks like the BBC have some work to do, if they hope to emulate the true recording experience 😢

Oh, and what happens if you go back to the ‘recording’ later in the day, say in the afternoon or evening?

And could you go back to Aerial Mode, where this nonsense doesn’t happen?

Re: Removal of BBC recording feature

gryffe1888 — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 08:55:05 GMT

Aah, well spotted, thanks. Yes I usually start watching between 8 and 8.30 so it's still recording.. I'll check it later when programme has finished, will also see if it can pause and begins at 6am. Even if watching when programme finishes irons out these issues it's still not ideal, because I quite often watch programmes that haven't finished broadcasting yet - eg MOTD, Breakfast.

We use IPmode as we no longer have an aerial cable going into living room as for reasons I cannot remember (lol)it now goes into the TV in our bedroom. Ideally I'll need to address this and try to come up with a plan to get a cable into the living room. I'm not really up on these things, will that involve soome guy having to go onto roof and run another cable? Or perhaps there is a box that can be used that allows more than one cable connection?

Re: Removal of BBC recording feature

Midnight_Voice — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 09:19:13 GMT

@gryffe1888

It depends on what you have already. We had a loft aerial (could have been a roof aerial for this purpose, same difference) that went to a masthead amplifier and 4-way distribution box, also in the loft, from where cables, put there by the builder, ran to various aerial points in the house. When we wanted a TV in the kitchen, opposite wall to where the point was, our installer swapped in an 8-way distro for the 4-way, and ran an aerial cable down from the eaves, outside, and in through the kitchen wall. Quite straightforward and not expensive.

Only thing I would say, when finding an aerial contractor, make sure they are really local, as lots of internet listings are some UK-wide company, or aggregator, who put out a single listing and swap your location in dynamically. Checkatrade is good, though.

Be interested to hear what you find out when you look at that ‘recording’ later on, by the way, and if the experience differs from going on the iPlayer directly to watch it.

Re: Removal of BBC recording feature

gryffe1888 — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 09:31:41 GMT

Cheers for reply @Midnight_Voice .

Mixed results when watching "recording" after programme finished. It started from beginning and can now be paused so that's a result. However fast forwarding still gives same results and there were no thumbnails at bottom of screen like you mentioned in your example. I wonder if this is because BBC Breakfast is a live broadcast, perhaps not? I'll try recording a BBC progamme that isn't a live broadcast later and see what happens.

I'll look into a distribution box. Do you find that having more than one aerial cable affects picture quality? I have a vague recollection of reading that "splitting" cable via a box could cause picture degredation.

Re: Removal of BBC recording feature

Midnight_Voice — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 09:49:57 GMT

@gryffe1888

You may be right about the thumbnails. Did you try also watching direct on the iPlayer, to see if that had the thumbnails or not?

Splitting a cable via a passive box can cause degradation, certainly. But not via active boxes, which actively

amplify the signal to avoid this.

Re: Removal of BBC recording feature

gryffe1888 — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 10:28:47 GMT

@Midnight_Voice

Watching straight from iPlayer didn't make any difference to fast forward for BBC Breakfast. I suspect this is just hit or a miss with fast forward function because I watched two "recordings" of BBC programmes from my planner that weren't live and they had the thumbnails, but the "recording" of the live broadcast of Prime Ministers Questions from yesterday did have thumbnails. Oh well, lol. More pluses than minuses I guess, but still not as good as it was pre August 27th.

Thanks for info on active boxes, will check out.

Re: Removal of BBC recording feature

Midnight_Voice — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 15:11:43 GMT

@gryffe1888

Was there a ‘not’ missing from one of those options above?

But I’ve just tried today’s 6am Breakfast, and both on my TV and on my T4000 YouView box it starts at 6am, and fast forwarding it, either with the centre right button or with the >> control, shows the thumbnails.

Likewise, so does yesterday’s Parliament channel, 07:15.

So it works just as you describe above with no ‘not’, but the way you have written it makes me think you intended to put a ‘not’ in.

if so, I don’t know why we are apparently seeing different; I can’t think this could be to do with a different version of the iPlayer on the Pro box?

Re: Removal of BBC recording feature

gryffe1888 — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 16:39:31 GMT

@Midnight_Voice

It's my clumsy use of English that is throwing you, sorry about that.

I typed "but the "recording" of the live broadcast of Prime Ministers Questions from yesterday did have thumbnails" whereas if I'd typed "and the "recording" of the live broadcast of Prime Ministers Questions from yesterday also had thumbnails" it would have made more sense. I was pointing out my theory that live broadcasts might not have thumbnails on iPlayer wasn't holding up because Breakfast didn't have them (for me anyway) but PMQ'S did.

I'll see what happens with Breakfast tomorrow and whether I get thumbnails.

Edit, in an unrelated issue I had to reset my router so also took the opportunity to reboot the EE box. This mornings BBC Breakfast now has thumbnails when fast forwarding, so the only issue outstanding is having to wait till programmes are completed to get all functions to work on the "recording" via iPlayer, or if watching direct via iPlayer itself.

Re: Removal of BBC recording feature

Midnight_Voice — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 16:49:22 GMT

@gryffe1888

Cheers for that. But as above, my theory that thumbnails come on iPlayer after (and only after) the live programme has finished, is still holding up, even with BBC Breakfast, when looked at at teatime 😛

I think your experiences with the restriction on how far back you can go when watching your ‘recording’ of BBC Breakfast while the programme is still live have made it onto the BT Community as well; without an attribution, but I don’t think anyone has reported this yet.

Unsurprisingly, this decision by the BBC has generated a certain amount of pushback, so the flaws in the arrangement are being picked over with interest.

Re: Removal of BBC recording feature

gryffe1888 — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 16:53:53 GMT

@Midnight_Voice

Fame at last lol