Petition to save Freeview HDTV

[autopilot]

Not sure if this is a repost, but... http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/openhdtv/

In 2012, analogue television services will be switched off. It is likely that Ofcom (the regulator) will sell the radio frequencies (parts of the radio spectrum) that the analogue channels used to mobile phone companies. We believe that Britain still needs to be the world leader in broadcasting. As a result of allocating these frequencies to HDTV (High-definition television) broadcasts we think that Britain can continue to lead the world in television in the same way that John Logie Baird did in the 1930s. Countries such as America and Australia are already rolling out this technology but Britain has been left behind because of the lack of spectrum space.

[XA04]

I heard by the BBC that it was going over to HDTV anyway.. but I'll sign up anyway.

[kalniel]

They're reusing the analogue channels for digital in some cases - many places still can't get digital and they won't now until 2012 when they turn off the analogue signal and use those channels instead.

[Clunk]

Is this to save analog tv or freeview HD? Sorry if it's obvious, but I dont understand

[Whiternoise]

freeview HD i believe, trying to save analogue is a waste of time.

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to force Ofcom to allocate the unused radio spectrum after the analogue switchover to HDTV services."

I guess they want the old analogue frequencies to be used for HD.. this also does assume that we'll all be using HD televisions by the switch-off.

[MadduckUK]

to be honest whiternoise, by 2012 enough of us will be to justify it.

[chicken]

If the BBC are already going HD and they don't make Freeview HD because they sell all the frequencies then what's the point? People will end up getting Sky/Cable for the better quality and more and more will ask the question "well if I only have to pay for MTV if I want it, why should I be forced to pay for the BBC...".

Many people may know by now that I'm not a big fan of the licence fee and the way it's enforced, but losing the chance to have Terrestrial HD will surely be them shooting themselves in the foot?

[MadduckUK]

absolutely, they will need to keep up with the times, not for any competitive reason but because people will start to notice flaws in the licence fee if they don't. and to be honest, everything should be HD by 2012, and there should be "resolution lowering boxes (its LATE!!!)" for those that use SDTV.

[menthel]

OFCOM actually have allocated some bandwidth after the switch to HD broadcasting. The problem is that the broadcasters reckon that it is not enough for all 5 channels to be HD. Lets hope they get better compression by 2012. I want to watch the olympics in HD! Then again, by then I may have moved by then and be able to get Sky. Mmm, Murdoch products...

[Funkstar]

there is always Freesat. That should at least have the BBC channels in HD, if not the other FTA broadcasters too.

I personally believe all the frequencies released from the analogue switch off should be turned over to TV broadcasting. Whether that is just HD or a combination of HD and SD doesn't matter to me.

[Steve]

I personally believe all the frequencies released from the analogue switch off should be turned over to TV broadcasting. Whether that is just HD or a combination of HD and SD doesn't matter to me.

Except Channel 5 with its weak arse transmission power... mobile operators are welcome to that one.

Trouble with HD over the airwaves is even if compression does get better, the modulation still needs a pretty high symbol rate, so you need a good signal. Still, I'm keen!

[Funkstar]

but with regular analogue signals switched off, they can squeeze the DTV muxes closer together and boost their power withough interfering with each other. That was Five's problem, they had to fit into a complicated, crowded spectrum without interfering with the other four channels.

With the increased power comes the opertunity to use different analogue encoding. At the moment the BBC muxes use QAM8, the ITV muxes use QAM16. I've read that QAM32 or even 64 could be used, giving more usable bandwidth over the the actual TV channels.

Also if a house can get signals from two or more transmitters, digiboxes are more than capable of selecting the strongest and ignoring duplicates.

[Steve]

Funkstar, there are no 8QAM signals in my area, only 16QAM and 64QAM http://www.ukfree.tv/txdetail.php?a=ST564488

But you are right about the spread across the spectrum. Here in the Mendip region, the spread will go from C37-C67 to ~C48-C61

[Slick]

I'd like to see free to air HD channels. I don't mind paying my license fee and I wouldn't mind paying for a package of channels, except I love my windows media center. Unfortunately, as I understand it, you can only set your media center up with freeview channels, and not with sky+ type ones if you paid the fee to sky.

[Funkstar]

Funkstar, there are no 8QAM signals in my area, only 16QAM and 64QAM http://www.ukfree.tv/txdetail.php?a=ST564488

I stand corrected, i was going by memory. I used to have around the digitalspy forums a lot, but haven't been there in months (the same thread topics came up every week or so, nothing new either).

Unfortunately, as I understand it, you can only set your media center up with freeview channels, and not with sky+ type ones if you paid the fee to sky.

The problem with MCE is that is has no way to handle encripted channels. In fact i don't think it supports DVB-S or DVB-C at all. Only basic DVB-T. Is there any red-button support in MCE? this is being worked on in MediaPortal. Worth checking out. It might not be completely stable for everyone, but they are doing some good things for the future.

[javalord]

I stand corrected, i was going by memory. I used to have around the digitalspy forums a lot, but haven't been there in months (the same thread topics came up every week or so, nothing new either).


The problem with MCE is that is has no way to handle encripted channels. In fact i don't think it supports DVB-S or DVB-C at all. Only basic DVB-T. Is there any red-button support in MCE? this is being worked on in MediaPortal. Worth checking out. It might not be completely stable for everyone, but they are doing some good things for the future.

MCE can show encrypted DVB channels, just its not handled by MCE. On AVForums there is a CAM/CAM software that will decode allowing MCE to play it as normal MPEG2.

As for Media Portal, nice but so bloaty and I ran a profiler against the dam thing and found a whole list of issues.