Why is Freeview Satellite still not in HD?

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tdgeek

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#1936266 11-Jan-2018 14:42

mattwnz:

Jase2985:

given the costs involved in building the new infrastructure, and that its a LOS service, and that its a free service, whos paying for it?

Nothings free. It will be getting paid for by the taxpayer. When it was introduced, very few TVs were HD, and not much content was either, so at the time it was introduced, it was fit for purpose. But technology has advanced a lot and things have moved on, and IMO that is no longer the case. WHen I used the satellite service, the picture was so pixilated on fast moving pictures, it was almost unwatchable. We are now demanding 4k + content, and I can't even see terrestrial freeview getting that for some time, if ever, as I suspect we are moving to online streaming. We do now have a reasonable fibre infrastructure in much of the country, so IMO it makes a lot of sense to use that for broadcasting.

When its easy for the masses, and not messing around with multiple devices, casting. I don't consider myself in the masses re SVOD, but Im not messing around to get something on the screen. My ATV4 does that admirably, and I'm sure other devices do as well if you can sit down grab a remote and watch. Until ALL available services are on ALL STB with remote devices, its a way off. WAF will rule this

mattwnz

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#1936273 11-Jan-2018 15:03

tdgeek:

mattwnz:

Jase2985:

given the costs involved in building the new infrastructure, and that its a LOS service, and that its a free service, whos paying for it?

Nothings free. It will be getting paid for by the taxpayer. When it was introduced, very few TVs were HD, and not much content was either, so at the time it was introduced, it was fit for purpose. But technology has advanced a lot and things have moved on, and IMO that is no longer the case. WHen I used the satellite service, the picture was so pixilated on fast moving pictures, it was almost unwatchable. We are now demanding 4k + content, and I can't even see terrestrial freeview getting that for some time, if ever, as I suspect we are moving to online streaming. We do now have a reasonable fibre infrastructure in much of the country, so IMO it makes a lot of sense to use that for broadcasting.

When its easy for the masses, and not messing around with multiple devices, casting. I don't consider myself in the masses re SVOD, but Im not messing around to get something on the screen. My ATV4 does that admirably, and I'm sure other devices do as well if you can sit down grab a remote and watch. Until ALL available services are on ALL STB with remote devices, its a way off. WAF will rule this

I am guessing it will get to that point eventually with linear broadcasting. It has already come a long way with ondemand. Some smart TVs are already capable of it with apps, but get outdated quickly and stop working after a number of years. And it is still very disjointed, with each broadcaster having their own app. The freeview version which trys to combine them, is clunky and laggy with ondemand, and don't think it works yet with linear TV.

joshhill96

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#1937281 11-Jan-2018 15:57

cyril7:

Hi, I think there was a mandate from FV a couple of years back that from a certain date all STB's supported DVB-S2 and HD, same goes for TV's with builtin tuners, all the ones I have seen support it, so yes it will affect older STB's.

Cyril

Correct, This was in effect for a few years now as you can see, the 2016+ approved devices now support DVBS2 and dual tuner TV's are default S2.
Broadcasters could make a deal to unencrypt HD services on the SKY TP, but you need to remember those HD FTA channels were on there to allow Prime to join Freeview back in 2009. so a sticky deal. and if that was to happen it will cause a few issues with recordings.

Formerly worked at iStore NZ (Rest in Peace), Sky Network Television, Freeview, Apple, Spark New Zealand Trading Limited, DISH TV Technologies.

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stinger

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#1937285 11-Jan-2018 16:08

tchart:

We are paying for it (taxes etc) and its subsidised through advertising...

RE taxes etc, we could always opt for a "TV license" like the UK but then there would be an expectation of quality and advert free programming (like the BBC)

Taxes pay for specific tv content that is funded through NZ on Air and Te Māngai Pāho. The cost of transmission is up to the broadcaster (TMP also fund broadcasting of radio stations, but this is about tv). In the good ol' days (read: last century) broadcast fees were collected on a per household basis, but this was ineffective (cost of collection for the revenue raised) compared to collecting to from general taxation.

The new government have announced funding of $30 million for a ad-free RNZ+ channel, but there is no word yet on when that will be launched. Although with such a small budget, I'm not expecting it to be the same quality as ABC TV or BBC.

peterds

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#1937727 12-Jan-2018 15:26

In 2016 Freeview stated that they hoped to introduce HD satellite services in two years time i.e.2018.

SATTV

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#1937738 12-Jan-2018 16:07

B1GGLZ:

Well once they start streaming everything online in HD there won't be much need for Satellite or UHF delivery. I believe Freeview is already available via an Add-on for Kodi.

While this is true for those of you that are lucky enough to have UFB or VDSL, some of us are stuck on ADSL for another few years ( I am now getting 4.5M down woohoo ) there is a large chunk on NZ that will never get decent broadband, the RBI initiative while good will not be able to cope with 50 - 150 HD streams over one tower also the data cap would have to be rasied from 100GB to say 500GB and that is not sustainable.

While satellite does have it's drawbacks at least 99.99% of NZ can get it.

Freeview could easily move to another satellite but that is not practical for a couple of reasons, the main one is people can just grab a Freeview receiver and plug it in to the sky dish and your up and running.

You really dont want people who dont know what they are doing up ladders trying to change the dish angles and LNB skew.

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Apsattv

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#1937752 12-Jan-2018 17:03

Any shift to Freeview in HD is going to need to be co-ordinated with SKY

all these channels via the Sky Tp on 12519 H

Prime
Prime Plus 1
Bravo New Zealand
The Edge TV

Would need to remain in a DVB-S t.p or be duplicated elesewhere during any change over process,

As for Freeview changing satellites, thats not really an option. There is the new Eutelsat @172E but the beam include Australia so its out of the question on regards to fta channels and copyright issues

http://www.eutelsat.com/files/contributed/satellites/coverage/downlink/E172B_Ku-band_SP_downlink.jpg

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