Skippa and Catchup services

[Crawfo]

Just a couple of questions regarding Skippa and watching Catchup TV.

1. I can only access ABC and SBS catchup services on my Skippa.  I assume this is because the Catchup services of the commercial tv stations are simply not yet available in my area (regional NSW), and not anything to do with Skippa. Can anyone confirm this?

2. Is there a web browser available to Skippa so that we can browse to the channel 7/9/10 catchup tv web sites using Skippa, and watch catchup tv that way?

Thanks.

[gas667]

So far i'm disappointed in the Catchup side of the Skippa. I'm fine with only ABC and SBS as that's all i really use but the quality is poor and it keeps going to ads and back to the film at weird places.

I watched a movie on SBS catchup last night and half way through with already about 5 disruptions i switched to the SBS app on my Xbox One. Watched the rest without disruption and in better quality.

Also the controls on the Skippa Catchup are appalling. You can't seem to fast forward through a show. Only jump 30 seconds. When the show keep throwing you out it is very annoying.

it's a pity that ABC is dragging behind with no Iview app for the Xbox One.

Now I feel that the issue here is not with Skippa but Freeview Plus. I may be wrong but Freeview have a habit of messing things up.

It's unfortunate as it was one of the main reasons i went with the Skippa but if it is a Freeview issue no other box would have been any better.

[prl]

My limited experience of ABC iView on the Beyonwiz T series is that it's been excellent on the few times I've used it since they got it fully operational (the Beyonwiz HbbTV implementation may also have improved since the ABC first started using HbbTV).

I haven't used SBS on the T series to watch anything because, at least on the Beyonwiz Ts, the SBS HbbTV/FreeviewPlus OnDemand offering is a tiny fraction of what's available through their Web-based OnDemand. I'm not sure whether that's a limitation of the Beyonwiz or of the SBS HbbTV app/app data.

SBS OnDemand has ads, whether you view it via their Web pages or via HbbTV. You can't skip them (even, I imagine, on SKIPPA). I don't think ABC iView has ads, via the web or via HbbTV.

In Canberra, there doesn't seem to be HbbTV/FreeviewPlus available at all on Prime or WIN. It is flagged as available on SC Ten, but it doesn't work on the Beyonwiz. I suspect that's due to the lack of the appropriate DRM keys on the (open source) Beyonwiz.

I don't know whether IceTV is on board with Freeview Plus. If they are, that would give them a better chance of proper access to the Freeview Plus services. The SKIPPA is not listed as being FreeviewPlus certified on Freeview's Web pages.

[gas667]

Skippa is not Freeview approved but the HbbTv system is open source so any box can use it. They just can't use the Freeview logo. I haven't used it before so I don't know if the experience is any different with an approved box.

If they are approved they have to disable all skipping as well as keeping fast forward speeds to 3x i think.

The movie i watched last night had the same ad 4 times in the first 40 minutes as well as at the beginning and the experience was a long way from seamless.
The Xbox one app had the same ad at the beginning but no where else in the last hour.

I'm not sure but I think this is because the SBS app on Freeview goes through Freeview while the SBS app on the Xbox doesn't. This may also explain the issues with fast forwarding through a Freeview program compared to the standalone app outside of Freeview.

At this point the standalone app is vastly superior to the Freeview app. Pity still have to swap boxes. I was hopefully that wouldn't be the case.

[prl]

... the HbbTv system is open source so any box can use it. ...

That's true as far as it goes. The HbbTV protocol allows streams to have DRM (Digital Rights Management). Even if the HbbTV implementation covers the DRM part of the protocol, that doesn't help if the box doesn't have the DRM keys.