Digital TV: Why do we have to have it?

Yes there's a parliamentary inquiry on at the moment looking into why more people are not purchasing digital set top boxes....

In other words a great piss up for the people involved LOL and nothing constructive will come out of it IMHO......

But the one question I'd like answered is why?

Why do we have to go to full digital TV?

This is a forced death for the existing system which seems to work dam fine in other parts of the world so why change it?

Reply to
Chasing Kate
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"Chasing Kate"

** Analogue TV was invented in the 1930s and colour TV came out in the early 1950s - it was a product of the valve era which has lasted a very long time. Similarly for AM and FM broadcast radio which will go digital too before long.

Digital TV simply offers too many technical benefits to ignore at a cost to the consumer that is tiny.

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............ Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

: This is a forced death for the existing system which seems : to work damn fine in other parts of the world so why change : it?

Absolutely no reason, except arbitrary parliamentary decisions. It was the same with the phase-out of analogue mobile phones, it actually didn't NEED to happen, but the govt. decreed that it would, by a certain date.

Reply to
dude

That's a rather simplistic and misinformed opinion.

Reply to
Who_tat_me

Most countries in the world like the US, UK, Canada, etc are now almost 100% digital.

Reply to
Brissie

Better stop listening to the propaganda and pop down to your local Harvey Norman and check it out yourself.

Digital TV really doesn't look any better then PAL from what I've seen... it does manage to get rid of "ghosting" that you get in standard TV reception, but then you have the downside of having to see shitty pixelization of the image from the digital compression.

-TheMan-

Reply to
TheMan

"KLR"

** It is less - but not dramatically.

Once all planned HD and SD signals are on air * together* there will be almost no benefit - the full power of the original transmitter will still be needed.

** No such benefit exists.

** What drivel - the improvement ( no noise of ghosts) is visible on all sets.
** Some VHF space will be opened up - UHF is going to get real crowded though.
** Dual channel STBs exist.
** To decode two MPEG signals at once almost doubles the amount of circuitry needed.
** Total pipe dream - off with the pixies stuff.
** There will be in a couple of years ;-)

............... Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

One of stuffs the govt was to put the cart before the horse. They blackmailed the TV stations to change to digital or loose your license well before any STB or Digital TVs became available to the general public. Then theres the marketing balls up, retailers of equipment had no idea and no training. Not even the stores had a picture that was even remotely watchable, and always blamed the equipment.

Compared to the Intro of Color TAFEs were training techs on all factors of the new system, years before it was released. The acceptance of color was very quick, even though it was expensive.

And theres the regional areas...... Some can't even get a Phone on, so how are they going to get digital TV.

Reply to
ferret

"ferret" = ferkwit

** Totally false.

** None is needed.

** Blatant lie.

** Asinine drivel - STBs are piss simple to use with any TV and antenna.
** Ever heard of radio waves - ferkwit ??

No wires involved !!

........... Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

If theres crap on TV now with analogue not worth watching, why watch it in digital ?

It certainly hasn't improved the quality of Television Programming.

Reply to
ferret

antenna.

Reply to
valiumboy

That is all rubbish.

The reason colour was sucessful was because adding colour was a significant improvement in the veiwing experience.

The reason digital has been a failure is that it offers only incremental improvement in sound and picture at great expense. Anything that could have appealed to viewers like extra content was banned to please Packer and Ten.

Digital TV has sort of worked where it is suitable: Pay TV. People will pay the extra for digital pay TV, which by the way has picture and sound of far less quality than the FTA HD standard that was manadated.

The idea that people will pay more to watch the same FTA stuff full of ads in digital was the problem.

dewatf.

Reply to
dewatf

"dewatf"

** Crap - good STBs cost around $100.

In 1976, a colour TV cost $700 to $ 800 = about $4000 to $ 5000 today.

............. Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

Hmm, let me guess, 1 tower for analogue and 20 towers for digital.

I would be far better spending the money for watching TV over the web.

Reply to
Terry Collins

You are correct there. By talking about phasing out the analoge phone system, the political parties encouraged a lot of political donations.

Reply to
Terry Collins

The money you would otherwise spend installing 20 towers?

Reply to
Richard Wilkins

As the previous poster said, Digital TV simply offers too many *technical* benefits. How it looks is just one benefit.

Reply to
Who_tat_me

With DTV, you get more efficient use of the existing spectrum - ie. more channels in the same space. This opens the opportunity for more content, but government legislation severly restricts what extra material can be broadcast on free-to-air.

That said, from a consumer point of view, there is little benefit. Analogue TV looks great on a properly-tuned TV, DTV doesn't necessarily look any better, and the artefats that occur due to poor signal or poor encoding are more noticeable

HDTV might be a great idea theoretically, but I'd argue that consumers would have a hard time picking it from standard def pictures.

Reply to
Poxy

Naah, the money I would spend on getting the set top box and new widescreen TV could be invested and interest spent on better adsl service..

Reply to
Terry Collins

I cant see the point of having it yet when all there is to offer is SBS2 and ABC2. Once other channels come online and set top box prices drop, people might consider it. To get the full benefit people would have to buy a new widescreen tv with a digital decoder built in. These are still too expensive for most people. Also its a hit and miss for peole in remote or hilly country.They might have ok analoue reception but might have no digital or it might dissapear when cloudy or raining or depending on atmospheric conditions.

Reply to
valiumboy

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