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Cyfra+ is a Polish digital satellite platform, owned and operated by French media company Canal+ ("Cyfra" is Polish for "Digit"). It offers 600 radio and TV channels. 65 of these are dedicated for Polish audience. The remaining ones are free-to-air from Hot Bird and Astra satellites, viewable on Cyfra+ equipment.
English language offerings include:
- 7 major news channels: BBC World, CNN International, EuroNews, CNBC, France 24, Al Jazeera, and Russia Today (also: Sky News for those who receive Astra satellite signal)
- 10 movie channels: two HBO channels (plus HD and VOD options), three Canal+ channels (also HD versions), Hallmark, TCM, Disney Channel, and Movies24)
- 8 educational channels (4 Discovery channels, National Geographic (HD version has no English soundtrack), Animal Planet and Zone Reality)
- 3 sport channels (Eurosport, ESPN, Extreme Sports)
- 2 children channels (Cartoon Network, Disney Channel)
- Bloomberg and CNBC
- multiple religious channels
The offer includes multiple radio channels, original Polish TV channels, TV channels from throughout Europe, Asia and Middle East, and more. By 2007, Cyfra+ had 1 million subscribers.
During the second Persian Gulf War, coverage was available from Al Jazeera, Fox News, multiple Arabic channels as well as the original Iraqi TV that went off the air during one of the bombing raids.
[edit] Setbacks
- Some channels disrespect the English soundtrack default setting and start with a Polish soundtrack when first turned on. In the past it affected HBO channels (resolved in April 2008)
- As of May 26, 2008, Discovery channels Adventure, World and Science do not provide English soundtracks as specified in the product offer
- As of June 2, 20078, Zone Reality does not provide an English soundtrack
- Some Discovery Channel documentaries provide no English translations of non-English dialogs with English soundtrack
- Some movie channels spontaneously switch to Polish sound track in the midst of a recording
- Fox News is no longer available (as of August 2003).
- English-language Al Jazeera was promised in April 2006, and was made available only in Nov 2006 (on the day the English version of the channel launched)
- BBC Learning is no longer available (as of August 2006)
- BBC Prime was phased out by the end of 2007
- As of Sep 1, 2006, for two continuous months, Hallmark Channel did not provide English sound track (only Polish dialogs). The service in English is now resumed
- Occasionally, various channels do not provide advertised soundtracks (either English, Polish, original or other). This happened among others to Hallmark, Zone Reality, Discovery channels, C+, and others
- In the period Dec 1, 2005 - Mar 31, 2007, all four Discovery channels included a digital protection signal that resulted in interrupted recordings (with 2-15% of the programmed recording missing). Recordings made with the record button (as opposed to the Timer) would simply stop in 3-15 minutes
- National Geographic HD channel does not provide an English soundtrack
[edit] Philips PVR
As of Nov 30, 2007, users of Cyfra+ can choose an option of Cyfra PVR decoder.
[edit] Advantages
- easy recording of programs from the program schedule
- recording one program while watching others (twin converter needed to watch all channels while recording, some channels are also available on with a single converter)
- HD quality on HD channels
- recording all soundtracks along with the video solves the problem of language switching listed in setbacks
- software updates via satellite often solve problems that plagued early users
[edit] Disadvantages
- PLN 20 rental fee per month for the use of the PVR (PLN 10 extra as compared with cheaper decoders)
- PVR often hangs up during the library preview while recording at the same time
- menu system shows only in Polish (even though it is quite easy to master for speakers of other languages)
- numerous bugs in software (those are gradually removed with monthly software updates)
- very slow EPG that covers only a small subset of channels (around 8% of roughly 900 channels)
[edit] Limitations
- not all channels and programs are available in the programming schedule (those need to be programmed manually, which is an arduous process)
- library preview shows recordings in the default language, which is not English if the sountrack name differs from "English" (e.g. "Original" or "Language 2", etc.)
- limited set of options for managing the library of recordings
- poor navigation in the library of recordings (lack of equivalents of PgDn, Home, End requires moving through dozens of recordings one by one)
- lack of options for setting chapters in recordings stored on the hard disk
- no options for editing the recordings such as deleting advertising, trimming, splitting, etc.
- playback resume takes 4-7 seconds to play sound resulting in incomplete viewing (unless a rewind button is pressed). Rewind also results in 4-7 sec. break in sound
- Polish subtitles on some movie channels cannot be turned off (subtitles in other languages are not available)
- subtitles can be thrown out of synch with the sound (so that silent portions of a movie are subtitled with texts from dialogs occuring earlier or later)
[edit] List of channels on Cyfra+
[edit] Premium and Movie Channels
| EPG Ch. |
Channel name |
Broadcasting country |
Spoken language |
Subtitles language |
Free-to-air (FTA) |
Type |
HD |
Pay-per-view |
| 20 |
Canal+ |
Poland |
Polish, English |
Polish |
No |
Movies & Sport |
No |
Yes |
| 21 |
Canal+ Film |
Poland |
Polish, English |
Polish |
No |
Movies |
No |
Yes |
| 22 |
Canal+ Film HD |
Poland |
Polish, English |
Polish |
No |
Movies |
Yes |
Yes |
| 23 |
Canal+ Sport |
Poland |
Polish, English |
Polish |
No |
Sport |
No |
Yes |
| 24 |
Canal+ Sport HD |
Poland |
Polish, English |
Polish |
No |
Sport |
Yes |
Yes |
| 25 |
Canal+ Sport 2/INFO+ |
Poland |
Polish |
none |
No |
Sport |
No |
No |
| 30 |
HBO |
Poland |
Polish, English |
Polish |
No |
Movies |
No |
Yes |
| 31 |
HBO HD |
Poland |
Polish |
Polish |
No |
Movies |
Yes |
Yes |
| 32 |
HBO 2 |
Poland |
Polish, English |
Polish |
No |
Movies |
No |
Yes |
| 33 |
HBO Comedy |
Poland |
Polish, English |
Polish |
No |
Movies |
No |
Yes |
| 40 |
Ale kino! |
Poland |
Polish |
none |
No |
Movies |
No |
No |
| 41 |
Cinemax |
Hungary |
Polish |
none |
No |
Movies |
No |
Yes |
| 42 |
Cinemax 2 |
Hungary |
Polish |
none |
No |
Movies |
No |
Yes |
| 43 |
Kino Polska |
Poland |
Polish |
none |
No |
Movies |
No |
No |
| 44 |
Hallmark |
United Kingdom |
Polish, English |
none |
No |
Movies |
No |
No |
| 45 |
Movies 24 |
United Kingdom |
Polish, English |
none |
No |
Movies |
No |
No |
| 46 |
TCM |
United Kingdom |
Polish, English |
none |
No |
Movies |
No |
No |
| 47 |
FOX Life |
Poland |
Polish, English |
none |
No |
Movies |
No |
No |
| 48 |
Comedy Central |
Poland |
Polish |
none |
No |
Movies |
No |
No |
| 49 |
AXN |
United Kingdom |
Polish |
none |
No |
Movies |
No |
No |
| 50 |
AXN Sci-Fi |
United Kingdom |
Polish |
none |
No |
Movies |
No |
No |
| 51 |
AXN Crime |
United Kingdom |
Polish |
none |
No |
Movies |
No |
No |
| 52 |
Filmbox |
Poland |
Polish |
none |
No |
Movies |
No |
No |
| 53 |
Filmbox Extra |
Poland |
Polish |
none |
No |
Movies |
No |
No |
| 54 |
Filmbox HD |
Poland |
Polish |
none |
No |
Movies |
Yes |
No |
[edit] Sports
[edit] Children
[edit] Lifestyle
[edit] Documentary / Reality
[edit] Lifestyle / Educational
[edit] News and Information
[edit] French
[edit] Audio/Interactive
- Info+ Extra
- Cyfra+ Gry
- Cyfra+ Polskie Radio
- Cyfra+ RMF
- Cyfra+ Radio
- Music Choice Klasyka
- Music Choice Pop
- Music Choice Dance
- Music Choice Urban
- Music Choice Świat
- Music Choice Rock
- Music Choice Oldies
[edit] German FTA
[edit] External links
