In the end for the two resist nicks, I said I would install temporary FTA satellite STBs on freeview on loan till I could sort out a VHF solution. After a couple of days both rang back and asked how much for the FreeView sat boxs.
Shheeessshhhh
Cyril
"Irrational resistance to change due to cheapskate-ness" - defeated, great success.
mm1352000: I have never watched Freeview Satellite so I can't speak for the picture quality but surely the majority of people on analog weren't getting that good of a picture - I know we sure weren't! Personally I'd much rather have a clear and crisp low res picture than a ghosting or "noisy" analog picture. Having said that, I do agree that HD is much more preferrable. Why they marketed Freeview Satellite first when more people had UHF aerials than dishes is still a mystery to me. Maybe something to do with STB cost?
Why the assumption that analog was noisy and ghosty. Some people do have exterior antennas and good reception.
What I get off analog VHF is about as good as it gets other than the stupid 14:9 crap that they pull. (well tv1 could be better) but the minor ghosting is nothing compated to the mosaic that you get off tv1 on freeview everytime something pans.
The issue isnt the resolution of freeview sat - thats fine at what it is, its the bitrate where anything moving turns to crap, and because of keyframes a complex scene will have a visible refresh every couple of seconds where you can see the detail go away and come back over a few frames.
Mind you, get that on freeview HD as well - look at the closing credits where tvnz do a promo at the top and text on red at the bottom - loads of artifacts on that text come and go.
@cyril7: That's a real facepalm moment - well done!
@richms: I don't think we disagree. I'm sure there are *some* people that have excellent analog reception. I don't disagree that the picture quality of Freeview satellite might only be equivalent or even slightly worse for them. However I would suggest that the *majority* of people moving to Freeview would see a significant improvement in picture quality. Our reception and setup is probably relatively typical. We have a cheap Gizmo VHF/UHF combo outdoor antenna that provides adequate analog reception - halos on all channels and a little grainy on TV One and Prime but otherwise definitely acceptable. Of course Freeview HD reception from the same antenna is perfect in rain, hail or shine. I agree that the digital artifacts seen in horizontal pan shots and with ticker or scrolling text isn't ideal (higher bitrate would be very nice), however I'll still take that over analog any day!
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