Microsoft have confirmed the date that Sky Player will arrive on Xbox Live. The service will officially begin on the 27th October and provide Live and On Demand content to Xbox 360 users.

Content will be available on various subscriber packages and on a pay per view basis too. Xbox Live Gold will probably be required too to access the extra content, theres got to be a reason to pay £40 a year right?

I’m sure more information about the service will be released closer to the official launch.

At midday today (or there about) the update of Freeview took place, shifting a few of the channels between multiplexes and also to add a new channel from Discovery, Quest started broadcasting at midday today. To continue to receive the channels, everyone with a Freeview receiver needed to retune their box / tv / capture device.

If channels appear to be missing, try a full channel rescan to see if they re-appear and / or start working again. However, for some, this upgrade may cause the lose of ITV3/4 for some users and certain models by Daewoo, Labgear, Triax and Bush could possibly stop working entirely. A full list of problematic hardware can be found at the BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/29_09_09_freeview.pdf

This upgrade is to pave the way for trails of Freeview HD later in the year.

Did you have any problems with the retune? Anything exciting to report?

Intel have unveiled how it sees TV sets changing in the future. It sees a more connected device, that is hooked up to the internet to receive extra content and communicate back to various social networking systems.

With more and more of us getting hard disk recorders (be it Sky+, a Freeview HD recorder or a Media PC) there are more options with how to connect these devices, and thus the TV to the internet. I personally like my MythTV driven media PC (www.mythtv.org), there are alternatives in the form of Windows Media Centre PCs, Apple TV boxes, and more recently other software solutions including Boxee.

Once connected, the options are limitless on what can be provided to your TV, from the plain old internet, to extra features overlayed over your current TV program, to catch up TV over IPTV.

Intel wants to be in on the action, developing and delivering System-on-Chip (SoC) style solutions to set top box manufacturers.

The TV as we know it is changing already, no longer do we have to be at the TV when we want to watch our favourite programmes, what the future brings for it is yet to be known but there are various new ideas under development.

The next Xbox 360 dash update, due out later in October is set to include the Sky Player. The October issue of Sky Magazine has stated the download will be available to download onto the console.

Currently the service will be accessible to all Xbox Live Gold Subscription members, with extra premium content (films and sports) accessible by Sky Subscribers. My guess is you will have to login to your Sky website account to link your Gamertag to your Sky account.

The Xbox update will also bring the talked about Facebook and Twitter upgrades to the dash.If you don’t have Xbox Live Gold, is it maybe time to get one now ready for when this update goes live?

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At the end of the month, a nation wide upgrade of the Freeview digital TV platform will take place to make the signal of Five stronger and to pave the way for Freeview HD later in the year.

On 30th September, every freeview box and television will need to be re-scanned to enable it to continue watching Five correctly.

After retuning, homes will also be able to recieve Quest, a new channel from Discovery Networks International. The upgrade is also in preparation for the start of Freeview HD which will start broadcasting from Winterhill later this year.

In an effort to unify the mix of cable networks that Virgin Media took on as part of the merger between NTL, Telewest and Virgin Mobile, it has announced a plan to roll out a new IP based TV content delivery platform.

Based on Cisco Digital Video Headend technology it will enable the provider to speed up the content distribution from head office to the localised head ends around the country, it will also enable the easier introduction of new SD and HD content channels as well as saving the operator money in the operation costs of the network.

Upon completetion, the system should allow Virgin Media to provide more advanced services to the customers.

Moving to an IPTV based solution could also mean in the future that off net subscribers (those on Virgin.net ADSL) could potentially get ‘cable’ via their internet connection. Currently Virgin Media has 2 types of network, on net, those connected directly to cable. And Off net, those who aren’t. Being able to unify services between the 2 would allow more customers to be able to receive cable tv.

Sony have confirmed that they will be making the BBC iPlayer available to Playstation Network users in the UK. This comes along with new movie streaming service.

An easy to access link will be added to the menu to access the iPlayer directly, rather than having to go via the browser. I would expect this will be added along with the new Firmware 3.0 which is due out September 1st.

The new movie streaming service, will allow users to buy or rent movies to watch on their PS3 or PSP. Under deals agreed with major movie studios, including 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment this should give users access to a good collection of films to start with.

This move confirms that Sony see the PS3 than more than just a games platform, they see it as a full multimedia platform at the centre of every house.

In a move that mirrors that the government made to help the ailing car industry, today Sony have announced a scrappage scheme of their own.

If you return an old television when you purchase a brand new Sony one, they will give you up to £150 off the price. Sony has said that customers who take advantage of its scheme will get £50 off small Bravia screens, £100 off a 40+ inch screens and £150 off any of its larger screens.

Not only are they doing this to try and reduce the carbon footprint generated by older, more power hungry sets, they are also targeting people who haven’t yet upgraded to a digital ready television.

With the digital switchover for most areas looming, if you haven’t upgraded now could be a good time to do so. With this scheme, it also answers the question of ‘What to do with your old television?’, will more manufacturers follow suit?

While it doesn’t sound very exciting, Freeview are to launch a ‘Retuning Campaign’ to try and get users into the habit of retuning or rescanning their set top boxes or TV’s regularly.

On Freeview, users need to request their TV does a rescan to pic up new channels that are added, or when channels move about. Unlike Sky or Cable, where these changes are sent to the boxes automatically, with the larger range of set top boxes or Freeview receiving equipment this cannot be done so they user needs to do it themselves.

While the retune doesn’t need to happen right away, there will be changes made during September to improve the performance and signal quality of the various Freeview channels, also users will need to be aware that they will have to retune during the digital switchover which is now underway. The next area later this year is that using Winterhill, this will be changed over during October.

It is a simple procedure to complete, but anyone needing any help retuning their box can get support on the Freeview website at http://www.freeview.co.uk/

With more and more content going on various on demand online services and the higher bandwidth requirements for these, ISPs are being forced to take actions to try and control their costs.

It is known that BT controls traffic for the BBC’s iPlayer on certain of their internet packages. Net Neutrality is the principle that the ISPs and network managers should not effect how certain providers or system should run. However, with the high bandwidth requirements for streaming media, some ISPs have gone against this and are controlling traffic to reduce the effect it has on their network. For the end user, this may appear as a lot of buffering during the streaming of video content, or slower than normal downloads from certain content providers.

With the recent announcement by Channel 4 to start offering more HD content via their on demand system, 4oD, there is a worry the problem with only get worse.

How would you feel if you knew your provider was trying to control how you use the internet to releave load across their network even though its harming what you are trying to do. Should they be forced to upgrade their networks to cope with the needed demand?

Personally, I believe they should invest in the networks so that the UK is leading the way, not playing constant catch up.