Are we ever going to get 4K/UHD?

[156sprinter]

It's mid 2023 and NOW still don't have the Sky Sports UHD Channel... You would expect paying for a sports membership then paying for boost on top of it to at least get 4k at the absolute minimum so why haven't we got it?

[starman73]

@156sprinter Unlikely Now will get 4K, but if you want it now (excuse the pun) try Sky Stream.  I got it on a trial and it is very good.  Doubtless it would cost more than Now Sports + boost, but the overall experience is far better than my fire stick.  If I wasn’t getting an offer I couldn’t refuse from virgin, I would switch.  

[RoyB]

@commanda6 

I might be misunderstanding a lot 😢

Maybe Freely won’t knit IP, Freeview, and Freesat into a seamless whole.

Maybe it will start off as IP plus Freeview, morph only later to handle IP plus Freesat as an alternative, and never handle all three together.

And a key question will be what does a device have to do to be marketable as a Freely device? Handle IP obviously. But will it qualify if it just does IP plus Freeview OR Freesat, but not both?

Or to be a Freely device, must it have IP, terrestrial and satellite capability, even if the latter has to await a software update? Or will ‘half-Freely’ devices be permitted?

The name, and the delivery mechanism, though, irresistibly remind me of that book - ‘My Weak Bladder’ by IP Freely 😛  

[commanda6]

@RoyB 

@RoyB I'm going to sound a lot like Mr Spock here, but I would suggest that what you refer to is half-Freely devices will be allowed, as this is only logical. Otherwise, the cost of said devices would be too high. , so only one form of legacy transmission will need to be supported, but again, this is only logical speculation. I suppose it comes down to do the U.K.'s main broadcasters want Freely to be successful or not. If they do then they need to agree on a specification that doesn't make things overly expensive. I would also suggest that devices that are released in 2024 or later, but don't initially support freely should be able to get certification and have their software updated in order to support it. Hope springs eternal.

The only thing we know for sure at the moment is that the initial spec for TVs is pretty much nailed down as the first TVs should be available within a few months as freely itself launches at some point in Q2 2024

[RoyB]

@commanda6 

Yes the main broadcasters want it to be successful they are the driving force behind Everyone TV. And it’s a small step for a maker of Smart TVs with DVB-T, DVB-T2 and DVB-S to add the software to support Freely, with the presentation layer likely coming from Freely, and only some middleware to write.

A set-top box will likely cost more than any Stick out there at the moment; but if Freely permit IP-only instantiations, then Freely on a Stick will be eminently doable.

[commanda6]

@RoyB I do wonder whether their insistence on freely only being supported on 2024 TVs and above might have something to do with the video codec they're using to deliver the IP channels because if you're going to deliver channels via IP you'd want to ensure the best bandwidth efficiency you could possibly get.

I remember reading four or five years ago about the European broadcasting consortium (, which also includes most of the U.K.'s big broadcasters) looking into the use of AV1 for delivery of channels.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AV1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6WZbZrlhK0

would certainly be logical, wouldn't it again, this is logical speculation.