Now that the BBC has gone 'official' (see news story) with its beta trial of iPlayer on Freesat, I thought it would be useful for WHF users to post their views/thoughts/experiences (good and bad) of the new set-up.
Personally, the 'standard' view (on my 40" Sony LCD) looks appalling, but the "watch in higher quality" option give me a PQ that is rather good.
While it's not up to the standard of good SD (which is, these days, on a par with BBC's HD!), it matches quite a few of the 'lesser' channels, and is far superior to the rubbish end of the Freesat spectrum - basically anything above Film4.
The interface is well thought out, and relatively quick (there's a lag of 20-30 seconds in jumping to the next selection). It's also quite easy to get to grips with.
On the negative side - the search function needs a bit more detail. If, for example, searching for "Gavin & Stacy" (not my choice) - it will give you several episodes to chose from - but it doesn't say what they are - you need to select an episode at random (20-30 second lag) before you find out which particular episode it is. On the other search options - searching by "most popular" it gives this info as a 'drop-down' as you scroll through the hits, without having to select the programme.
I've noticed also (these may be teething problems), some programmes aren't there in full - (good old Gavin & Stacy's final episode was missing the last 10 minutes - her indoors wasn't happy!). Also, when I tried to watch "Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe", (when it was listed as 'available for 5 more days') nothing happened (both high quality and standard) - I got a holding screen for 2 seconds, then a black screen which didn't go away. I tried a few times - on one occasion it actually re-booted my Humax.
Anyway - those are my initial thoughts. A good service, and can't wait until it's properly up and running. We may not have the "new and exciting HD channels" that Freesat's initial fanfare implied, but this is a welcome new feature.
EDIT: Also - I've yet to fully play with this feature but, while 'pausing' works fine, the FF/RW functions seemed a bit cloddish.
Personally, the 'standard' view (on my 40" Sony LCD) looks appalling, but the "watch in higher quality" option give me a PQ that is rather good.
While it's not up to the standard of good SD (which is, these days, on a par with BBC's HD!), it matches quite a few of the 'lesser' channels, and is far superior to the rubbish end of the Freesat spectrum - basically anything above Film4.
The interface is well thought out, and relatively quick (there's a lag of 20-30 seconds in jumping to the next selection). It's also quite easy to get to grips with.
On the negative side - the search function needs a bit more detail. If, for example, searching for "Gavin & Stacy" (not my choice) - it will give you several episodes to chose from - but it doesn't say what they are - you need to select an episode at random (20-30 second lag) before you find out which particular episode it is. On the other search options - searching by "most popular" it gives this info as a 'drop-down' as you scroll through the hits, without having to select the programme.
I've noticed also (these may be teething problems), some programmes aren't there in full - (good old Gavin & Stacy's final episode was missing the last 10 minutes - her indoors wasn't happy!). Also, when I tried to watch "Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe", (when it was listed as 'available for 5 more days') nothing happened (both high quality and standard) - I got a holding screen for 2 seconds, then a black screen which didn't go away. I tried a few times - on one occasion it actually re-booted my Humax.
Anyway - those are my initial thoughts. A good service, and can't wait until it's properly up and running. We may not have the "new and exciting HD channels" that Freesat's initial fanfare implied, but this is a welcome new feature.
EDIT: Also - I've yet to fully play with this feature but, while 'pausing' works fine, the FF/RW functions seemed a bit cloddish.