Digital TV In Australia

Jan 11, 2006 78 Replies

Supposedly in 2008 we will lose the normal analogue 'free to air' TV channels. They are then going to leave us with full digital TV and that's about it.



One thought does arise from this and this may sound, and probably even IS far fetched but could the use of Digital signals lead to direct manipulation of content?



ie: editing of news items on the fly if they are of a sensitive nature....


Digital broadcast .. nothing else .. you do realise that for the large part the signal you recieve by analogue TV is mostly delivered digitally anyway ..

If that means we have to pay I won't care what's on. It'l be just like the

50's sitting round the radio and maybe we will be paying a lot less for the advertising component of things we buy.

Digital TV is still "Free-to-Air" Doesn't cost a cent apart from the initial set-top box which can be had for well under $100. Digital has lots of advantages over analog, and it is available now. Yes, there are some shortcomings too, but they are relatively minor.

Dave :)

"David L. Jones"

** I still cannot find any true "digital antennas" on sale in Sydney.

That is, one that covers channels 6 - 12 VHF and 28 - 69 UHF - eg Hills have them in their trade only catalogue.

All the shops and antenna installers want to sell you a full VHF/UHF job.

Big and UGLY !

........ Phil

What do you mean "that's about it"? Digital TV:

1) is still free-to-air 2) still has the same channels and content 3) has better picture and sound quality 4) supports wide-screen and multi-channels

They can already do that with "analog" TV. Most content these days would already be digitally edited before it's sent.

Dave :)

You want aus.rough.trade ---------------------->

May not be better when there is the slightest thunderstorm in the area.

Andy Wood snipped-for-privacy@trap.ozemail.com.au

the

the

Ah, OK. Geez I'm losing track, but you get so sick of ra ra advertising for broadband etc & none of it goes into much detail.

"Andy Wood"

.
** No effect on my pic here in Sydney duign recent lightning.

In any case -the worst that happens is a brief freeze motion.

.......... Phil

That usually indicates a weak signal, or a crappy (or faulty) STB.

rgds, Pete ----- http://pedro.spyw.com The time here is- http://tinyurl.com/6sfgd 'Atheist: Someone with no invisible means of support'

That is one of the (potential) minor problems I noted in another post. Depends on the STB, signal strength and the installation though. Worse case, as Phil said is you get a momentrary freeze frame and sometimes an audio "pop" with it, not a big deal really for those it happens too. The benefits of digital far outweight the minor problems IMHO.

Dave :)

Are you trying to cause trouble?

"pedro"

** WRONG.

Lightning is a very powerful source of interference.

** Wrong again.

Freeze framing is JUST what STBs are designed to do if the signal is corrupted.

........ Phil

Actually, 'weak signal', or more accurately, low signal-to-noise, results in a bit stream which has errors. This can be dealt with in a number of ways by the STB, and the most customer-friendly is just to freeze the output until the errors go away (or at least return to a level that can be dealt with by the ECC).

Ken

Arr. f*ck off. I said usually numb nuts. It's usually the case when there's a freeze frame that the signal is weak.

And so the digital signal is weak or corrupted, hence the freeze frame.

No.

Right. When there's a weak signal as I said (or an interrupted signal) or if the box is crappy and gets it's knickers in a knot, or is faulty- like I said.

That's right. And sometimes the STB will do it even with a good signal, as Panasonic is noted for.

rgds, Pete ----- http://pedro.spyw.com The time here is- http://tinyurl.com/6sfgd 'A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good'

Pliz not to endink ov tha sentanse wid an PREPOSITION.

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