What will become of Freeview Satellite after Sky upgrades?

Forums › Freeview (DVB-T/DVB-S) › What will become of Freeview Satellite after Sky upgrades?

tangerz

605 posts

Ultimate Geek

#152249 21-Sep-2014 19:34

With Sky now looking to upgrade it's legacy decoders to new H.264 capable units and a shift to DVB-S2 transmission on it's transponders, I wonder does Freeview have any intention of doing the same? (I know it's unlikely!)

I had always thought it a mistake when Freeview only went with DVB-S MPEG2 capable units, leaving no room for future upgrades.

So is Freeview satellite doomed to be a DVB-S orphan? Just wondered if there was anyone here who might have inside knowledge.

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#1133223 21-Sep-2014 20:01

Freeview had no choice when they launched but do go with MPEG2. There was limited transponder options and a lack of H.264 hardware on the market. You would have realistically looking at a 2+ year delay in the launch of the DVB-S service and slow uptake if they'd simply had to sit around waiting for hardware to hit the market.

Lenovo

Lenovo computer and accessories deals (affiliate link).

Apsattv

2139 posts

Uber Geek

#1133351 22-Sep-2014 06:53

And there were an estimated 10000 existing satellite receivers in use on the TVNZ channels before the Freeview platform launched. Sky will have tons of capacity. this is how I think it will playout

Toward's the end of next year Freeview will end up sub leasing one of Sky's newly freed up transponders. Then duplicate their existing Freeview services using DVB S2 and H264. With Tv1,2,3 in HD plus the rest as SD. Can you imagine the fuss if people were told the mpeg2 SD existing satellite service was being turned off and that users must upgrade receivers..

tangerz

605 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1134550 23-Sep-2014 13:29

Certainly if that's what happens then that would be great. And I agree there's no chance DVB-S will disappear given the number of decoders now out there. I just hope that Freeview do keep moving forward, (hopefully to HD) and don't just remain stuck with the current (old) technology.

In regards to HD, wouldn't it be easier to simply work out a deal with Sky to unencrypt the HD versions of 1, 2 and 3 already being broadcast, instead of another round of duplication.