Free-to-air digital TV from next year

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#43013 1-Aug-2006 09:53

sbiddle:
Nety:
I had Telstra up about their digital STB last week and got a reply to say that they are looking at other STB's that have better outputs but would not commit on when we might see them.
I will not be switching to Digital until they replace their STB with something reasonable.

While it's obvious there are issues with composite outputs on large screen displays and many of us on here could see such flaws the simple fact is that 99% of customers wouldn't be able to spot this.

When I get home I will post the reply I got but the message it gave was that they have had a LOT of negative feed back about the connection options given or more to the point not given.

As for the quality of the digital signal I would expect that to improve a lot when they switch to the new dish in September. Also regardless of the signal quality having a component connection rather then composite will still improve things no end.

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ropatah

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#43868 13-Aug-2006 23:54

I've just bought a DVB-T tuner card for my laptop and tried it out hoping to pick up the channels that previous postings mentioned were already broadcasting. But no luck. Do I need anything else?STB?? The unit has an internal aerial and an external jack which I also tried with my (inactive) SKY cable but still nothing. Any ideas before I take it back?

Robert

cyril7

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#43873 14-Aug-2006 07:41

Are you in Auckland, if you have clear UHF reception from Waitaura then you should find it. Your external Sky aerial was it a UHF antenna or a dish.

Cyril

pcockle

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#44010 15-Aug-2006 16:09

Hi, we are installing Mythtv on a linux box but want to buy a PC TV tuner card that will hopefuuly work with Freeview TV next year and whatever is available now. Can some-one suggest what is best/will work? we want both satellite and terrestrial reception.

sbiddle

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#44020 15-Aug-2006 17:14

pcockle: Hi, we are installing Mythtv on a linux box but want to buy a PC TV tuner card that will hopefuuly work with Freeview TV next year and whatever is available now. Can some-one suggest what is best/will work? we want both satellite and terrestrial reception.

Your best bet for advice is to join the nz mythtv mailing list http://lists.ourshack.com/mailman/listinfo/mythtvnz

There are plenty of experts on there who will be able to help you with both analogue, DVB-T and DVB-S cards and solutions.

ropatah

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#44036 15-Aug-2006 19:30

Hi Cyril,
Yes, I'm in Auckland and have a dish for Sky.

Robert

cyril7

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#44045 15-Aug-2006 20:45

A connection to a Sky LNB/Dish will not help, you will need a UHF antenna aimed at Waitarua and you should get some response from your DVB-T card.

Cyril

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#44049 15-Aug-2006 20:54

Nety: ..

As for the quality of the digital signal I would expect that to improve a lot when they switch to the new dish in September. Also regardless of the signal quality having a component connection rather then composite will still improve things no end.

I hope so! I often watch the analogue channel instead for the FTA channels since I find the digital to be quite blocky and not sharp. TV1 used to be quite good but lately it's gone downhill again

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#44263 18-Aug-2006 00:45

I am interested in hearing from people who have some knowledge of STB for free to air Digital.

I have been looking at the Topfield series of Receivers and would like to get an opinion on recording
tv programs WITH subtitles.

This is of high interest to me and people in the Deaf community as current situation of technology
in NZ does not permit this to be done easily.

many thanks
Stephen

cyril7

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#44269 18-Aug-2006 08:45

Hi Stephen, teletext and thus CC & subtitling, is transmitted on DVB systems as an independant stream in the DVB transport mechanisim. In the STB this data stream is extracted and converted and inserted into a teletext line above the picture frame for your TV's teletext system to decode in the usual manner. I should point out that some STB's have a built in teletext decoder that allows displaying of teletext in the STB rather than needing a decoder in your TV.

PVR devices such as the MySky and other FTA PVR's do not have their own mpeg video encoders, they infact just spool to disc the incoming video and audio mpeg streams that are stripped from the DVB transport stream as requested. On replay the audio and video mpeg streams are redirected to the mpeg decoders as if coming from the original DVB stream. It would seem that most of these PVR's do not also spool the teletext stream to disc as well, I would not expect it to be a major drama to have the firmware adjusted to perform this, however, I have noted that this seems a common problem around the world, this question has come up on other forums in Europe, so I guess you are not alone in your request.

Cyril

Wing

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#44273 18-Aug-2006 10:18

Got this response from TCL:

Currently TelstaClear does not have a plan to release the new Freeview TV on our cable network, when it becomes avaliable. With that been said we are looking into our options with our current partners.

sbbaxter

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#44477 22-Aug-2006 12:05

I used the UK DVB-T system with my standard (pretty rubbish) UHF aerial in Ascot, about 45 miles from Crystal Palace transmission. I used a 15-20db gain booster (cheapo from Curry's) and the signal was excellent.

Only quality problems I had was when the Ascot racecourse was being upgraded and there were 6 or so cranes there. These huge waving metallic structures broke up the signal, and like GSM phones, there was no fading in and out, rather complete signal distruption and associated audio breakup. Even caused the occasional STB reset.

DVB-T - great as long as you're in a good area. Over the hill in Island Bay (if it ever gets to Wellington), maybe not!

cyril7

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#44479 22-Aug-2006 12:38

I am glad the FreeView group have chosen both to use a DVB-S and T platform. DVB-T is prone to man made noise, where as satellite is pretty well is immune. Add in the fact that you can get the sat service just about anywhere, ie down gullies, in the far flung outback. Only slight negative is rain fade, but with the expected increase in power on D1 (a good couple of dB) then we can expect a 65cm (standard current sky dish) to perform as well as a 90-100cm one, which based on my 90cm dish never seems to get rain fade compared to the couple of drop outs on our 65cm one.

On terrestial a slighly annoying bit of interference on analog TV can turn into continual complete dropouts of DVB-T.

Cyril

sbbaxter

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#44676 25-Aug-2006 10:30

Is there any word or thought on what HDTV standard we will use in NZ, if/when eventually rolled out?

I'm looking at buying a Technotrend S2300 (Rev 2.3) FF DVB-S card, which only supports QPSK modulation (it does NOT
support 8PSK) on the tuner. From what I can see, it doesn't support and HDTV MPEG decoding anyway so might not be the bext choice - but WILL do QPSK and allow a software-based MPEG decode.

cyril7

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#44677 25-Aug-2006 12:44

Sbbaxter, sorry to see your parkinsons is not improving, need to keep the repetative mouse clicking under control.

As for HD in NZ, I would be pretty certain that it will be DVB-S2 and mpeg4. Sky for sure will do that as they will lean on sibbling bSkyb (who use DVB-S2 and mpeg4) for support, as for TVNZ/Canwest, I would say the same, they wanted to do mpeg4 for SD, but backed down due to the current cost of mpeg4 STB's still being a bit far out.

The BBC is doing its HD as mpeg4, but currently only on DVB-S (QPSK), but that is likely to change and the two box's that you can buy for the service support DVB-S, DVB-S2, mpeg2 and 4, so my guess is that you need to be able to support DVB-S2, and mpeg4 from the start to cover your investment.

Cyril

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