DStv's Explora and HD PVR subscribers required to reset 4 things for 4 TV channels from after 29 January following a PVR decoder reboot.

Similar to On Digital Media's (ODM) StartSat subscribers who had to do - and are still doing some - resetting on their decoders since the end of the year, MultiChoice's DStv Premium subscribers with HD PVR's will be required to reset some things on their decoders at the end of this month.

Since Discovery HD Showcase is soon disappearing on DStv with Discovery Channel getting upgraded to an HD channel as well as other technical transponder changes at MultiChoice, DStv premium subscribers will have to reset a few things on their decoders from after 29 January.

This include their favourite channels list, scheduled recordings, channel blocking and reminders where any these four things involve any of these 4 TV channels which are all broadcast in HD: Studio Universal (DStv 112), Universal Channel (DStv 117), FOX (DStv 125) and Discovery HD Showcase (DStv 180).

The resetting is necessary since MultiChoice is migrating the four HD channels on 29 January at 00:01. The channel numbers are not changing, although the technical changes will create a reboot for DStv's HD PVR's and the DStv Explora early in the morning of Wednesday, 29 January.

It will result in DStv subscribers who will have to delete and reset their favourite channels list, reminders, channel blocking and scheduled recordings as it involves these channels after this date.

If DStv subscribers are recording something on any of these channels, DStv subscribers will have to manually reboot their DStv decoder - so best to rather keep these channels clean of recording and not to record or set any planned recording for these 4 channels on 28 and 29 January.

Also best to keep your DStv HD PVR or DStv Explora on. If it is off or in standby during this period, the decoder will rescan when you take it out of standby or switch it on again, and will  then automatically update the channels.

New HD PVR from Altech UEC for MultiChoice's DStv subscribers comes with the same functionality as the existing HD PVR 2P.

A new HD PVR is coming to the market from MultiChoice for DStv subscribers, a 2-tuner personal video recorder from Altech UEC.

The Altech UEC HD PVR 2U encapsulates all the normal HD PVR functionalities - subscribers can fast forward, pause, rewind and use slow motion with recordings, as well as use rewind, pause and slow motion with live television already in the two hour buffer.

The Altech UED HD PVR 2U can record 150 hours of standard definition (SD) television or 50 hours of high definition (HD) and has the usual set of capabilities regarding parental control, sound options and aspect ratio settings. The recommended retail price of R1 499 will be the same as the HD PVR 2P and is available from May.

"This model provides the same sought-after features our PVR-enabled subscribers have come to love," says Collins Khumalo MultiChoice SA CEO in a press statement.

BREAKING. VOSDAL is finally coming to the South African television industry. What you say? Get ready for Viewing-on-same-day-as-live ratings.

You're reading it here first.

I can reveal that VOSDAL is coming soon to the South African television industry for the very first time. No. Not a third type of alien in the new drama series Falling Skies, or the annual spring day The Wombles decide to peek out their burrow. Say hello to Viewing-on-same-day-as-live (VOSDAL) television ratings for South Africa.

The South African Advertising Research Foundation (Saarf), custodian of the TAMS system that measures television viewing and audience ratings in South Africa, says that it's planning to introduce VOSDAL as well as a detailed, individual, live+7 day viewership rating measurement system for PVRs when it introduces its time-shifted viewership measurement with the next TV universe update, probably sometime in early 2012.

Saarf has decided to remove PVR households for now, temporarily, from the new TV universe for South African television viewership that will come into effect on 1 August. That decision will lead to a sudden, unexpected decrease in the perceived viewership of some TV channels (because the PVR households are no longer considered towards the viewing total). Saarf promises that this ''missing'' or invisible viewership will however be added back in later with more robust, separate viewership information.

With this new set of PVR household viewership information, ad buyers, media planners, marketing strategists and TV executives will be able to get a detailed and very clear breakdown - for the first time ever - of what specific TV watching of what specific shows happens delayed but still on the same day as broadcast, as well as for each of the 7 consecutive days after a broadcast day.

Saarf plans to make a consolidated file available that will contain ''live+7 day'' PVR information. It will be similar to the live+7 DVR rating the American TV industry has been using for the past few years to get a clearer picture of how many additional viewers really watched a specific show or channel.

The industry will be able to ''customize'' and select what PVR viewership they deem of importance. Ad buyers or media agencies might want to focus on only ''live+VODAL'' - how many viewers saw a show live, plus recorded it but still watched it on that same day. Or you might decide ''live+2'' - viewers who watched a show live as well as those who recorded it and watched it within two days - are still significant enough to count towards your viewership total.

Example: Let's say Idols on M-Net at 17:30 on Sunday attracts a viewership of 950 000 people.
PVR viewership is going to give you a VOSDAL rating of 20 000, meaning that a further 20 000 people watched Idols not at 17:30 but still on the Sunday, bringing the total Idols viewership to actually 970 000.
Then you can add Idols live+1 that might now give you an additional 14 000 viewers who watched the show they've recorded on their PVR on Monday, bringing the total to 984 000.
As you add live+2, live+3, live+4 and so on, the number of viewers on these later days go down as less and less people actually watch what they've PVRed. But it does still make a difference to the overall total number of people who've watched.

ALSO READ: DStv viewership to go down 9% on average from August as PVR viewership, that has become ''significant'', gets temporarily removed.
ALSO READ: TopTV viewership numbers for the pay TV service is coming, but audience ratings won't be available for individual channels.
ALSO READ: PVR viewership removed from TAMS from August; viewership of M-Net, kykNET, SuperSport will decline.

Look at this slim, sexy fox! Did you know that MultiChoice also has a sleek and slim silver HD PVR decoder?

Sometimes you watch television, and sometimes you watch and just stare and lovingly dust off that with which you watch television - like this beautiful DStv HD PVR.

You might be aware of it, but I only discovered it on Friday. I was completely unaware that MultiChoice also have this HD PVR model and that the pay TV platform is selling this silver HD PVR made by UEC.

''It's not new,'' MultiChoice tells me about this spiffy model that goes from zero to over 80 channels in a second with the touch of a button. ''It's the UEC model of our 4 tuner HD PVR in silver. [It's] not a new decoder - it has the same features and functionality as the black Pace 4 tuner HD PVR,'' says MultiChoice.

BREAKING. Impact of the personal video recorder (PVR) and Time Shifted Viewing on South African television still seen as ''minimal''.

You're reading it here first.

The first tentative market research and empirical data on South African TV viewers and how they use personal video recorders (PVR's) are trickling out for this new TV technology - and I've got it.

With MultiChoice's PVR technology (its PVR and HD PVR decoders), as well as On Digital Media's (ODM) TopTV set to debut a PVR functionality in 2011, marketers, advertisers and TV channel execs are all wondering: How - and to what extent - will this new technology impact on South Africa's television industry? What impact will the PVR make on Time Shifted Viewing that allows viewers to watch live television ''delayed'', record and watch shows later, and enable viewers to fast forward over content?

I can tell you that currently the PVR's impact in terms of Time Shifted Viewing is still seen as ''minimal'' by TV channels, platform providers and TV ad buyers according to the latest research. South Africa's TV viewership universe currently works on a number of 305 000 TV households with access to a PVR. That represents 14% of the total satellite pay TV audience in South Africa, and just 3% of the overall TV audience in the country.

The interesting table graph above spans the length of the recent 2010 FIFA World Cup from mid June to mid July (click on it and it will open bigger). It indicates the recorded viewership of the various World Cup matches on the various days on SuperSport 3 over the course of a 30 day period in 100 000's. The blue parts indicate what audience was added to the overall viewership total on SuperSport 3 because of PVR use and Time Shifted Viewing. According to AGN Nielsen Media Research, viewers used their PVR towards the beginning, not really in the middle, and then again towards the end - and in minimal fashion. What is shows is that South African TV viewers (still) prefer to watch sport events (like soccer) live. In PVR homes in South Africa, only 2,2% of all viewing time related to the World Cup soccer matches on SuperSport 3 included Time Shifted Viewing.

Other interesting new PVR information is that PVR use climb steadily between 16:00 to just after 20:00 daily when it starts to drop off sharply again. PVR use and Time Shifted Viewing can add up to 12% more viewers to sitcoms (meaning sitcoms are the TV genre in South Africa that viewers feel most comfortable with to record to watch later). That's followed by 9% added viewers for variety programming and 6% for dramas. Interestingly enough PVR use only adds a measly 2% to TV soaps. That's probably because viewers realize they have to watch it immediately or they'll fall behind (since there's a new episode the next day), or simply opt to miss a particular soap episode entirely and to catch up with the highly repetitive storyline the next day.

FIRST LOOK! MultiChoice lanches a new and cheaper HD PVR 2P DStv decoder in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

This is how MultiChoice's new and cheaper high definition personal video recorder (HD PVR) DStv decoder looks. Its called the HD PVR 2P and MultiChoice is bringing out the HD PVR 2P (cost: R1999,00) to make high definition and the digital recording function available to more subscribers just before the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The more affordable HD PVR 2P can be used with a normal standard definition (SD) TV set (still giving subscribers access to the digital recording function. DStv subscribers of the DStv Premium bouquet will also be able to use the HD PVR 2P to watch the two SuperSport HD channels as well as Discovery HD Showcase and M-Net HD which are all broadcast in high definition.