Nearly 15 months after ASTRA
first promised to bring HD to Spain, the nation's first high-definition channel has gone live. Canal+ HD -- which is part of Sogecable's digital pay-TV package Digital+ -- has launched on ASTRA and promises to deliver "premium movies, series and sports events such as the 2008 European Soccer Championship whose 31 matches will be broadcast all in HD." To promote (and likely celebrate) the occasion, SES ASTRA and Sogecable have entered into a partnership to trumpet its new offer, which will include "joint commercial and marketing activities for retailers, customers and the TV viewers." Counting the addition of Canal+ HD, ASTRA now broadcasts some 29 HD channels across Europe, and of course, it couldn't close out a press release without boldly proclaiming that it "expects to transmit 100 HD channels" by the end of 2010. Trying to
keep up with the
Joneses, we presume?
posted Feb 10th 2008 6:19AM
Digital+ simulcats its offer over two Satellites, Astra (19.2ºE) and Hispasat(30.0ºW).
Canal+ HD is broadcasted over both satellites (in fact, it started first in Hispasat... a few minutes before).
Canal+HD is 1920x1080 AVC @ 15MBps, and offers two AC3 5.1 audios (usually spanish language and original language/enviroment sound on sports).
It's expected it to move to DVB-S2, and then, gather on that transponder up to 3 more services by the momment.
The ONLY way to access to HD offer is to buy (not rental available) their HD DVR w/ DTT "iPlus". Double SAT tuner , Double DTT (DVB-T) Tuner, 160GB HDD, HDMI outputs. It's 400€.
iPlus DTT tuner works flawlessly with HD over DVB-T channels, so it plays TV3 HD, broadcasted in the region of Barcelona (1440x1080@10Mbps, AC3 2.0), but the iPlus does not support DTT interactivity (MHP system).
It uses "Nagravision 3", so every decoder is match with its suscriber card, and viceversa.
Canal+ HD is not using HDCP yet, but it will do soon.