DIGITAL TV SWITCHOVER

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andrewcnz

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Topic # 65894 8-Aug-2010 20:15

DIGITAL TV SWITCHOVER

The Government has decided that all analogue-modulated TV transmissions in the VHF and UHF broadcast bands, which include Channel 39, will close down in March 2015, or at some earlier date, and that the upper end of the UHF television band will be cleared of television, so that the vacated spectrum can be used for next-generation mobile communications.

One consequence of these decisions is that the existing television transmissions will need to convert to digital and be fitted into about half of the present spectrum, requiring that their transmission parameters need to be more closely defined than at present.

For the Amateur Television service this means that each Radio Licence for analogue-modulated TV, engineered to the standards specified in MED Public Information Brochure Number 38 (also known as PIB38 on the MED web site) needs to be replaced by a Spectrum Licence for analogue-modulated TV, expiring in March 2015, engineered to the much higher standards specified in MED Public Information Brochure Number 39 (also known as PIB39 on the MED web site).

As part of the process, the MED has cancelled all of the existing Radio Licences for Channel 39 TV Repeaters. Operators of Channel 39 TV Repeaters need to close them down to avoid receiving an Infringement Notice from the MED.

Operators wishing to operate their analogue-modulated Channel 39 TV repeaters, between now and the 2015 Digital TV Switch-Over, need to apply for a Spectrum Licence.

http://www.nzart.org.nz/infoline/2010/infoline-212.html

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Reply # 365307 9-Aug-2010 11:52

2015.. Bet it will be closer to 2020 because some one will moan about Mr Jenkins of Tawa who can't afford a digital TV as her Philips K9 is still going and all the other Mr Jenkins around the country. Should be 2012 but in NZ we piss around and nothing happens..

Regards,

Old3eyes

Jaxson

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Reply # 365312 9-Aug-2010 12:02

That's politics though. With political parties only being in government 3 years (or is it a 4 year term?) no ones going to do anything significant and unpopular. Even if they do the next government will be formed by parties campaigning to reverse the policy. End result is we have no future direction policies in place, and yeah a digital changeover for TV will not happen any time soon.

sbiddle

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Reply # 365316 9-Aug-2010 12:07

A concrete date isn't going to be set until 2012 but word at the present is that this will be mid 2014.

cyril7

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Reply # 365466 9-Aug-2010 16:11

A concrete date isn't going to be set until 2012 but word at the present is that this will be mid 2014.

And not a day too soon.

Cyril

Kyanar

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Reply # 365532 9-Aug-2010 18:12

old3eyes: 2015.. Bet it will be closer to 2020 because some one will moan about Mr Jenkins of Tawa who can't afford a digital TV as her Philips K9 is still going and all the other Mr Jenkins around the country. Should be 2012 but in NZ we piss around and nothing happens..

Can't they pull something like the US FCC did and just subsidize DTV convertor boxes for the six people in the country who don't have a digital-friendly TV yet?

I finally have fibre! Had to leave the country to get it though.

Behodar

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Reply # 365671 9-Aug-2010 22:17

I think getting Freeview HD in more places is important too. My parents have a 42" TV and excellent analogue coverage. Freeview satellite, on the other hand, looks overcompressed and significantly worse than VHF!

andrewcnz

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Reply # 365733 10-Aug-2010 06:59

Behodar: My parents have a 42" TV and excellent analogue coverage. Freeview satellite, on the other hand, looks overcompressed and significantly worse than VHF!

Depends if you like your analogue picture stretched across the 42" wide-screen TV. Or always centred in the middle of the screen for that matter.

Jaxson

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Reply # 365761 10-Aug-2010 08:45

andrewcnz:
Behodar: My parents have a 42" TV and excellent analogue coverage. Freeview satellite, on the other hand, looks overcompressed and significantly worse than VHF!

Depends if you like your analogue picture stretched across the 42" wide-screen TV. Or always centred in the middle of the screen for that matter.

Ha this reminds me. A lot of people have got used to seeing 4:3 material stretched out to fill 16:9 TV's. Widescreen TV's started selling here in NZ quite a while before people started using freeview and have now adjusted to thinking short/stumpy people is the norm. They are actually disappointed when they see a full widescreen freeview broadcast as suddently now everyone is taller and skinnier, ie how it should be, but they don't know that.

It's a good point on the freeview HD coverage though, in that the picture quality does actually suffer coming from a good analogue source, even though granted there are more channels and it is proper widescreen. It comes with a lot of digital bitrate problems that just didn't exist on analogue TV, so now at times it's like watching TV via You Tube.

Delorean

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Reply # 365771 10-Aug-2010 09:25

I thought the digital spectrum had greater capacity than analogue?. so how much room does this leave for Freeview HD - i.e. can they put much more on? If so, how many more channels?

sbiddle

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Reply # 365783 10-Aug-2010 10:08

Jaxson:
It's a good point on the freeview HD coverage though, in that the picture quality does actually suffer coming from a good analogue source, even though granted there are more channels and it is proper widescreen. It comes with a lot of digital bitrate problems that just didn't exist on analogue TV, so now at times it's like watching TV via You Tube.

If you are getting issues such as that you obviously need your aerial looked at.

The reality is for the vast majority of people digital TV delivers them a far superior TV experience than they got before. Ignoring the wisescreen issue people can now get a TV signal that's free of ghosting and interference, something that many people were unable to get before unless they lived in direct LOS of a transmitter or translator. They can now also get every FTA channel, something that many people were unable to get on analogue due to issues with frequency reuse. In Wellington for example there were a significant number of people who were unable to get every FTA channel in the old analogue days because not all translators carried them.

Jaxson

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Reply # 365787 10-Aug-2010 10:28

Sorry was referring to the sometimes heavy compression on the freeview sat service that Behodar referred to above.

For those in freeview satellite only areas, who got good reception of the main channels, there are new picture distortion factors associated specifically with digital TV. Where it was ghosting or snow before, now it's compression blocks etc. The pros's obviously outweigh these I think, like proper 16:9 aspect ratio and access to all the available channels.

Don't get me wrong, I love freeview HD and have no issues with it as I'm in a great reception area for it.

bfginger

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Reply # 365893 10-Aug-2010 16:02

Freeview satellite, on the other hand, looks overcompressed and significantly worse than VHF!

It will only deteriorate further as more channels are added. If only it was in MPEG-4.

kiwitrc

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Reply # 365897 10-Aug-2010 16:13

old3eyes: in NZ we piss around and nothing happens..

richms

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Reply # 366290 11-Aug-2010 15:49

Kyanar:
old3eyes: 2015.. Bet it will be closer to 2020 because some one will moan about Mr Jenkins of Tawa who can't afford a digital TV as her Philips K9 is still going and all the other Mr Jenkins around the country. Should be 2012 but in NZ we piss around and nothing happens..

Can't they pull something like the US FCC did and just subsidize DTV convertor boxes for the six people in the country who don't have a digital-friendly TV yet?

Thats a job for WINZ as apparantly a TV is essential, and you can already get a grant for one.

Go figure, TV essential, PC and internet isnt. Farkin backwards priorities there.

Richard rich.ms

bfginger

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Reply # 366361 11-Aug-2010 17:58

Thats a job for WINZ as apparantly a TV is essential, and you can already get a grant for one.

I really hope those WINZ grants are restricted to buying one of the vast numbers of CRT televisions that are selling second hand for peanuts ;)

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