[TelstraClear] A service message from the TV Guy

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TelstraClear

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#28020 14-Nov-2008 15:58

Hi

Our guys in Broadcast Operations have continued to work on the fine tuning of our "next gen" platform and they have asked me to inform you of some work to be done over the next 2-3 weeks to improve quaity and ensure redundancy of service. The analogue changes below are an inevitable effect of the deminishing support for older delivery technologies. Some of the text below was designed for a less technical audience, so I apologise for the information which seems obvious to you.

Sky Services Housekeeping on Digital TV

Over the next week or two TelstraClear will be doing some work to improve the robustness of your TV service. To ensure this work has minimum impact on you, please read on:

As a first phase of 'housekeeping' on TelstraClear's Digital TV platform, there will be some re-shuffling of Sky channels. The work will occur on the below dates and the channels affected are listed below. TelstraClear will be remotely resetting
your digital set top box after each mornings work (occurring between 2am and 4am).

Should you be missing channels after any of the dates below, please power-reset your set top box by turning off it's power and waiting for approx 10 seconds then turn it's power back on. This will cause the set top box to rescan and pick up the changes.

Channel affected and dates:

Monday 24th November 2008

•    Sports 2
•    Rugby Channel
•    JTV
•    Vibe
•    UKTV
•    CCTV9
•    Nat Geo
•    CTV5
•    BBC World
•    NZ Chart
•    Pop
•    Smooth
•    Kiwi FM

Wednesday 26th November 2008

•    The Box
•    Sport 3
•    Juice TV
•    Discovery
•    Shine TV
•    E!
•    Sky Movies Greats
•    KTV
•    Jazz
•    House
•    50s & 60s
•    Party
•    Rock
•    Country

Monday 1st December 2008

•    Sky Movies 2
•    Cartoon Network
•    Sky News
•    CTV1
•    63
•    Sneak Peek
•    RNZ National
•    RNZ Concert
•    Classical
•    Kids
•    Themes

Wednesday 3rd December 2008

•    Sky Sport 1
•    Living Channel
•    History Channel
•    CTV2
•    CTV3
•    CTV4
•    Sky Sport Highlights
•    Food TV
•    Playhouse Disney
•    Blues

We apologise for any inconvenience whilst this work is undertaken. This work is to further improve quality of Sky Channels on TelstraClear's networ

Analogue TV --- Changes to TVOne and TV2 aspect ratio management.

From 27th November changes to delivery of TV1 and TV2 will mean your TV picture may look different. Pictures which once filled the screen may only partially fill the screen and you may have black borders around the outside of the picture.

Depending on the age of your TV this is likely to be an unavoidable consequence of the transition to widescreen transmission by all major broadcasters and the mix of older 4 by 3 aspect ratio content and newer 16 by 9 aspect ratio call widescreen.

Occasionally when TVNZ show old programming (4:3 format)
it will show with black bars top/bottom and either side
(otherwise known as the ‘postage stamp’ effect)

These presentations on your TV are unavoidable as the older STBs and some TV do not have the flexible settings to cope with variable aspect ratios.

What to do :

Call us and request an upgrade to Digital TV for a nominal fee of $99 inc GST and an extra $2 per month. We can arrange the install within days. Phone 0508 537 837

We have 49 more channels (including radio channels) to offer you on digital TV, than you current enjoy on your ananlogue Set top box.

You can find further information on Digital TV on our website www.telstraclear.co.nz/residential/inhome/digital-tv/.

Regards

Jeff Doyle
The TV Guy

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TelstraClear

#179106 20-Nov-2008 16:15

Hi

Please note below some changes to the channel shuffling dates listed above.

These change of dates have been required to ensure all customers are properly advised.

After the changes your Digital set top boxes should automatically reset at approx 4am to re-tune and re-scan to pick up channel changes. If it doesn't, please turn the power off, wait 10 seconds and turn it back on. The set top box will then re-scan for the changes.

Revised List of channels and dates affected:

Monday 1st December 2008

Sky Movies 2
Cartoon Network
Sky News
CTV1
63
Sneak Peek
RNZ National
RNZ Concert
Classical
Kids
Themes

Wednesday 3rd December 2008

Sky Sport 1
Living Channel
History Channel
CTV2
CTV3
CTV4
Sky Sport Highlights
Food TV
Playhouse Disney
Blues

Monday 8th December

The Box
Sport 3
Juice TV
Discovery
Shine TV
E!
Sky Movies Greats
KTV
Jazz
House
50s & 60s
Party
Rock
Country

Wednesday 10th December 2008

Sports 2
Rugby Channel
JTV
Vibe
UKTV
CCTV9
Nat Geo
CTV5
BBC World
NZ Chart
Pop
Smooth
Kiwi FM

Regards

Jeff Doyle - Market Manager InHome Services

i4n

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#180792 27-Nov-2008 22:21

And why??? would I want to pay $99 to change something that you as the provider just broke??

Regs

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#180813 27-Nov-2008 23:20

i4n:
And why??? would I want to pay $99 to change something that you as the provider just broke??

i'm not sure if thats quite correct:

From 27th November changes to delivery of TV1 and TV2 will mean your TV picture may look different

this could mean that the signal they *receive* from TVNZ is changing on that date which might mean they have no control over it... also, from what I read it might not be a problem on all tv sets - just older ones

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#180830 28-Nov-2008 06:50

All that's happening with TV1 and TV2 is that they are moving from a 4:3 centre cut feed of TV1 and TV2 to a 4:3 letterboxed feed of TV1 and TV2.

This means if you have a 4:3 TV and analogue cable you now get bars at the top and bottom. You do however see the entire picture for 16:9 content unlike previously when it was centrecut and you lost both the left and right handside of all 16:9 content.

Letterboxing 16:9 content is the best option since it doesn't result in loss of picture and people complaining about things such as sports scores that are not broadcast in 4:3 safe areas on the screen and as a result are lost if the 16:9 feed is centre cut.

imd6662

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#180869 28-Nov-2008 11:29

Well I guess I must be non-technical because I'm getting a headache trying to figure out what this means really.

Doesn't this mean that TV1 and TV2 should now display 'natively' as full screen on a 16:9 TV? If not, why not.

Upgrading to digital may be all very well if it's possible. When we looked at this (admittedly two years ago) we were told that our cable run was too long for digital. Actually this wans;t too disappointing because of the other drabacks of the digital offering being the requirement for another modem and the composite-only output on the STB.

Right now of course, the tantalus of the HD/PVR offering could be a real killer in getting people to make changes!!

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#180875 28-Nov-2008 11:59

imd6662: Well I guess I must be non-technical because I'm getting a headache trying to figure out what this means really.

Doesn't this mean that TV1 and TV2 should now display 'natively' as full screen on a 16:9 TV? If not, why not.

Upgrading to digital may be all very well if it's possible. When we looked at this (admittedly two years ago) we were told that our cable run was too long for digital. Actually this wans;t too disappointing because of the other drabacks of the digital offering being the requirement for another modem and the composite-only output on the STB.

Right now of course, the tantalus of the HD/PVR offering could be a real killer in getting people to make changes!!

TV1 and TV2 will not display correctly in WS on a 16:9 TV on TCL analogue. The only way to get this is by upgrading to digital.

WS programming can be broadcast over analogue but TCL won't do this because 4:3 TV's are the lowest common denominator and if programming was braodcast in anamorphic 16:9 nobody with a 4:3 TV would be able to watch TV as it would be anamorphic (ie people are all tall and skinny). All analogue broadcasts will always be 4:3 so it's either a matter of transmitting shows either 4:3 centre cut or 4:3 letterbox. 4:3 letterbox is the preferred option since it doesn't result in any picture loss.

Analogue terrestrial TV via VHA/UHF aerial is transmitted in 4:3 centre cut which means you lose the left and right of the picture. This can easily be an issue as I explained if OSD graphics such as sports scores etc are displayed outside the 4:3 safe broadcast area when the picture is centre cut.

imd6662

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Master Geek

#180876 28-Nov-2008 12:02

Thanks, that actually makes it clearer.

It still gives me a headache but perhaps just one box of Panadol will do!

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#180877 28-Nov-2008 12:03

imd6662: Doesn't this mean that TV1 and TV2 should now display 'natively' as full screen on a 16:9 TV? If not, why not.

No it does not. Reason is because this is refering to analogue transmision which does not support 16:9. All that is being done is they are changing the way 19:9 video displays in the 4:3 window. If you want 16:9 you must go digital.

imd6662:Upgrading to digital may be all very well if it's possible. When we looked at this (admittedly two years ago) we were told that our cable run was too long for digital. Actually this wans;t too disappointing because of the other drabacks of the digital offering being the requirement for another modem and the composite-only output on the STB.

As long as you specify that you need s-video or better when you ask for the upgrade then you will be supplied with a STB that has both s-video and composite outputs. Also as Telstra want to get everyone off Analouge so they can shut it down they will likely be open to doing a free install.
The long run excuse seems very odd.. my understanding is that digital has less of an overhead then analogue.

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imd6662

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#182998 9-Dec-2008 14:46

Well, ever the empiricist, I tried the digital upgrade.

The tech winced when I told him it had been tried before and was unsuccessful due to signal strength problems (attributed to long cable run).

He laughed - not unkindly, but less than politiely - when I told him that when I asked Telstra's customer service about this, they had been confident that the technology had improved over the last four year. Apparently in this respect at least, it hasn't.

However, it works! Signal strength is apparently not great but I guess for digital enough is enough.

Resolves the irksome letterboxing of TV1/TV2/TV3 and the picutre 'looks' better -- evne using the composite. (Again the tech's experience was that there is not much to see different between compositve and s-video).

Oh, and Telstra did waive the upgrade fee. Nice of them.

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#183037 9-Dec-2008 15:54

imd6662: ....(Again the tech's experience was that there is not much to see different between compositve and s-video).

Oh, and Telstra did waive the upgrade fee. Nice of them.

Hmm find that interesting.. personaly I can very clearly see the difference between composite and s-video... and then again between s-video and component not that it matters with no component option.So did you get a STB with s-video or did the tech by chance not have one... which would explain why he convinced you that there is little difference.

Good to hear you got the upgrade for free

imd6662

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#183042 9-Dec-2008 15:58

Nope. it's definitely got the S-Vidoe output. So I'll guess I'll try it msyelf and compare.

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#183391 10-Dec-2008 21:23

Just noticed TCL finished their upgrade today, seems like they have finished gliggling their channels between transponders, I suspect it's all about freeing up space on one of their transponders before they start adding in the high def channels. All seems to start from 570Mhz these days instead of 586Mhz and have a nice blank area around 578 and 618. Still have 137 services load so no extra new channels. And its not the Test_One, Two or Three as they only have a 4.5Mb/s bitrate which would be far too low for High def. Plus they still have all the "Spare" channels on 610Mhz and a few others.

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#184210 15-Dec-2008 11:25

I've also noticed I get the rugby channel now, yet friends with Sky don't.

I wonder if we could draw comment from TCL (though they seem very quiet these days and seem relucatant to comment on anything) as to whether this is an intentional freebie to whet the appetite or is it simply a cock up?

Davos

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#184382 15-Dec-2008 19:38

Knew it wouldn't last - so a cock up it was

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#184529 16-Dec-2008 14:19

I disagree that a 16:9 letterbox is the correct choice for analog, the correct is to give the 4:3 center cut and anything that is not 4:3 safe, well tough, people can upgrade to digital to get ratio selection if they have an older television. Without obvious problems like that then there is little incentive for people to upgrade.

Richard rich.ms

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