Now that the technical restrictions on PSB2 have been lifted, there's the possibility of adding more channels through reducing resolution.
Another example of cramming in more channels on a mux was the Local mux recently, where the bitrates of Kix and True Crime were cut to fit True Christmas in.
Now that the technical restrictions on PSB2 have been lifted, there's the possibility of adding more channels through reducing resolution.
Another example of cramming in more channels on a mux was the Local mux recently, where the bitrates of Kix and True Crime were cut to fit True Christmas in.
It's a race to the bottom.........
...to see how much the mux operators can cram as much as possible.
From 1936 until early this century picture quality has improved, now it's being compromised
625 B&W viewers saw a quality drop when colour broadcasts were introduced. B&W IO pictures usually looked a lot sharper on B&W sets than colour pictures...
From 1936 until early this century picture quality has improved, now it's being compromised
625 B&W viewers saw a quality drop when colour broadcasts were introduced. B&W IO pictures usually looked a lot sharper on B&W sets than colour pictures...
SD is the new B&W.
Yes, but no. B/w was slightly impaired to make colour possible, SD is being impaired to make more SD possible
From 1936 until early this century picture quality has improved, now it's being compromised
625 B&W viewers saw a quality drop when colour broadcasts were introduced. B&W IO pictures usually looked a lot sharper on B&W sets than colour pictures...
SD is the new B&W.
Yes, but no. B/w was slightly impaired to make colour possible, SD is being impaired to make more SD possible
To be fair, there wasn't that much B&W origination around quite soon after colour launched (apart from the OU and regional opts) - so that point is moot.
What's the schedule for DVB-T2 migration in the UK I wonder? Once we do that we can cease simulcasting SD MPEG2 DVB-T simulcasts (once reigonal opts on BBC One HD in England, and BBC Two HD Nations happen that sticking point will have gone) and switch all SD-only channels to H264 in T2. We'll have to though, as we're likely to lose COM7 and COM8 aren't we?
We'll have to though, as we're likely to lose COM7 and COM8 aren't we?
We may not, at least not as soon as thought, there's a proposal to move COM 7 and 8 to the so called 'centre gap' in the 700 MHz sell off, but they would be wedged into a sea of 4G etc transmission, so it's unclear how receivers might cope
The imminent death of digital terrestrial TV has been greatly exaggerated. We saw the outrage with Bake Off being dropped three channels down the EPG, so any thoughts of DTT disappearing in the short to mid-term are surely on the backburner and I think, or at least hope, there is a bit of fight within the industry against the continual sell off of the spectrum to mobile companies.
However I do think to protect Freeview a plan to switch to DVB-T2 with a definite switchover needs to happen sooner rather than later - we shouldn't be talking about squeezing more space out of MPEG2 muxes now and instead the industry should be looking to at least a DVB-T2 only platform, if not HD only when it comes to the key PSB channels. The BBC would then be able to reduce to just one Mux, and then COM7 and COM8 could go too, with the current PSB HD mux hopefully used to ensure maximum HD output from the commercial PSB channels.
The imminent death of digital terrestrial TV has been greatly exaggerated. We saw the outrage with Bake Off being dropped three channels down the EPG, so any thoughts of DTT disappearing in the short to mid-term are surely on the backburner and I think, or at least hope, there is a bit of fight within the industry against the continual sell off of the spectrum to mobile companies.
I don't know. Buy a new telly these days, and the first thing it wants to do is to 'see the internet' and give itself an IP address ! A colleague recently bought a TV for his early twenties daughter for her bedroom, he was going to run an aerial lead into the room for it, but she said,
'don't bother, I can use iplayer, and Netflix',
(oh, and she apparently still doesn't watch BBC 3)
I'm 14 years away from (the present !) retirement age, I don't expect DTT to still exist by then (but then I could'nt see any point to SMS messages back in 1998, so let's see !)
Like radio, DTT will continue as part as a multi-plaform arena. We're already seeing this with Freeview Play, YouView and Now TV's Smart Box which have combined DVB-T/T2 and streaming.
However, I suspect when we do eventually move to T2, the SD channels will continue to cram in as many streams per mux as possible at 544x576 leaving the PSB's and a limited selection of commercial operators using 1080p.
Agree, hybrid is very much where we are at the moment and though internet TV via the TV is increasingly common it is still some way off being the primary way we watch TV.
Personally I think Sky are more likely to drop satellite distribution in favour of a completely IP delivery platform before DTT is consigned to the scrapheap. Yes, our expectations of how long technology lasts has changed considerably in the last decade or so but there are always those left behind, and no government is going to want to be the one who turns their TVs off.
Like radio, DTT will continue as part as a multi-plaform arena. We're already seeing this with Freeview Play, YouView and Now TV's Smart Box which have combined DVB-T/T2 and streaming.
However, I suspect when we do eventually move to T2, the SD channels will continue to cram in as many streams per mux as possible at 544x576 leaving the PSB's and a limited selection of commercial operators using 1080p.
I can clearly see the BBC using PSB1 entirely for HD streams of its channels, and ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 doing the same with PSB2.
However it's certain that capacity constraints could prevent offshoot channels from being converted to HD on Freeview. PSB3 currently can fit 6 HD streams, and that's an issue that can befall the commercial PSBs on their own capacity.