rugrat: When Maori TV went HD had to rescan. With Duke was HD as soon as turned TV on.

As I use Sky decoder for recordings, might have to experiment with plugging USB disk into TV to see how that goes, as would be nice to get recordings in HD.

Maori TV moved to a completely new frequency.  The upgrade to HD on Duke did not involve changing anything that affects tuning - the frequency of the multiplex and the service ID and the stream IDs all remained the same - only what is actually in the streams has changed.

DjShadow:

 

I thought Duke was already HD if you watched it via TVNZ on-demand...

 

yes but 720p

old3eyes:

 

A lot of Rural can't get Freeview Over the air and need satellite  which is in SD.  If they want HD then Sky is their only option  or are you an urban dweller who couldn't give a toss about rural??

 

Whether he cares about rural dwellers is irrelevant. Sky is an (increasingly struggling) business, and satellite is large component of its costs. Doubtless it will make a business decision, and will have to decide whether the overall cost savings from moving from satellite to streaming compelling, even if that means that they lose all of their rural subscribers and their monthly subs as part of the switch.

It won't be decide by whether GZ subscribers, or anyone else "gives a toss" about rural users. It will be decided by a management accountant in a three-piece suit running the dollars on a spreadsheet and deciding which is the best business case. Sentiment won't/shouldn't come into it.

I like the 1080i upgrade but we really are behind the times without 1080p especially for a channel that broadcasts alot sport content. Won't be seeing 4K freeview in another 50 years at this rate even then it might only be 4Ki

Well thats the problem with locking in a spec. We have h264 and 1080i, when h265 and better res is possible now. Remember all the whines when analog went away from luddites? If they upgraded current old spec freeview and made newer better ones, they would either have to dual stream it to keep old gear running, or else have all those angry people again who think they are owed free entertainment.

At least there isnt still mpeg 2 streams wasting space like AU has.