dshan

The impression I got is that these are fourth channels, not the third channels the commercial networks are already preparing for. Which is interesting because three channels is easy - they just rename and reprogram their existing HD channels (Nine and Seven) or One Digital (TEN), but a fourth channel would surely require extra frequency allocation and where is that going to come from? Only place I can think of is UHF 35 which is just sitting there unused (aside from the recent 3D trials) since the death of datacasting. Is the gov't planning to give 35 away to the commercial networks, allowing them an extra SD channel each (and maybe ABC5 as well)? Or maybe the journo just got confused and was referring to the already announced third channels.

According to today's Age next year all the commercial networks are going to be granted an extra channel each, so it seems you are going to be disappointed (and presumably the networks want extra channels, else they wouldn't have asked for them).

That seems to be part of the News 24 launch process. First turn ABC HDTV channel 20 into an SD broadcast of ABC1, then relaunch it as the HD News 24 on channel 24. Hopefully it'll all be done and dusted this month.

I guess that's going to be the main difference between 1G and 2G Freeview devices. I'll bet the thousands who have already bought (and will buy over the next few months) 1G Freeview gear will be most impressed when they find it's unable to access the catch-up service.

I came across this article in the SMH this morning. Synopsis: The Freeview EPG is (finally!) coming in June '10, and an internet "catch-up" TV service is due in the 4th quarter. Apparently the catch-up internet service will be accessed from the EPG in some manner, the article does not specify how.

The reason for all the kids programming on ABC1-3 at the moment is pretty straightforward when you understand that children come in different ages and have different requirements - ABC3 specialises in programming for school-age children, but pre-schoolers watch TV too (whether they should or not is another issue) so the ABC caters for them by broadcasting pre-school programs on ABC2 during the times they are awake (i.e. during the day). But of course until the analog switchoff the ABC has to cater to both pre-school and school-age kids on the main ABC1 analog channel as well, and that channel has to be simulcast on their ABC1 SD digital channel... Oh the joys of an extended digital transition! Post-2013 the ABC1 can become an 'all adults all the time' channel, the school kids can have ABC3 all the time and the preschoolers can watch ABC2 during the day (but not at nap time of course!). They could combine preschool and school-age programming on ABC3 as they now do on ABC1, but then there'd be the same conflict about daytime educational programs designed to be watched at school vs playschool-type programs for the younger ones.

And you know this for a fact? You may well be right, but as far as I know there is nothing in the rules that would stop the ABC from making ABC2 HD before then. There is a rule that prevents ABC1 becoming HD before the analog switchoff. They do have to show 1040 hrs of HD per year, if they completely drop HD broadcasting they'll be in breach of the digital transition rules. Sure there are crappy ways around that as others have suggested, but although they might technically fall within the rules they'd certainly cop a lot of flack if they used them. If the ABC News channel is SD they would have the spare bandwidth to make ABC2 HD (720p) if they wished and they'd be no worse off than they are now. Still three SD and one HD channels. The other reasonable alternative is for the news channel to be broadcast in HD, seems a waste of bandwidth to me but maybe they figure this 24 X 7 news thing will rate it's socks off (for ABC values of "socks off"...) and make it worthwhile. Personally I'd like to see at least some HD entertainment programming retained by the ABC until the switchoff, particularly as ABC2 has some excellent movies and so forth on in the evenings that would benefit from it. The point is they have options.

It seems unlikely the new news channel would be HD but will occupy the current ABC HDTV channel. If the news channel is only SD then that would free up space for one of their other channels to become HD. As I understand the digital transition rules ABC1 has to remain SD until the analog switchoff in 2013 (there has to be an SD feed of the main analog channels until then), but after that ABC1 could become HD. In the interim they could presumably make ABC2 HD and thus preserve at least some HD entertainment programming on the ABC (and meet their HD transmission requirements at the same time).

Forgetting about the internet for a moment, assuming broadcast DTV is still happening in 2020 or 2025 in Australia surely we would be more likely to follow the UK (and I believe several other European countries) by moving to DVB-T2 rather than the less efficient DVB-T/MPEG-4? I don't understand why Freeview Australia is pushing the apparently already obsolete DVB-T/MPEG-4 technology as their future direction when even bigger bandwidth savings are possible using DVB-T2, but I'd be interested in the opinions of the technically knowledgeable on the subject. Is there some technical reason we wouldn't/couldn't go DVB-T2 in the Twenties? Cost and equipment availability would certainly be an issue if we were going DVB-T2 today, but not in 10 or 15 years from now. Heck, not even in 5 years from now.

Not really what I'd like to see, but... with Seven's new SD channel I'm thinking it'll be on 77 (they're tricky and innovative buggers at Seven don't forget) and upon launch it'll feature constant reruns of 77 Sunset Strip. It'll get an initial burst of ratings from Nine's demographic (i.e. residents of old folks homes) taken in by it's catchy and alluring name - Naked!!Lucky!!77 (note the innovative use of double exclamation marks, it's this sort of breakthrough, out of the box innovation that sets Seven apart from it's rivals). It'll prove particularly popular with older Chinese viewers due to the prominent use of sevens in the name and the implication that it's gambling related. After that though it'll probably go down hill...

I've left the 4-star water rating sticker on my new toilet - I want my guests to know I care... The 3-star energy rating & 4-A water rating stickers on my front-loader are so my dirty clothes know I care. :-) (Those were the days, when water got A's and energy got stars; now everything's bleedin' stars!)

9GOLD leaves me cold. But whatever they call it, and whenever they start it I know the very first program on the new channel should be the infamous Doug Mulray show that Kerry axed in the middle of the broadcast years ago. Now that Kerry's busy beta testing Dick Cheney's spot in hell and The Family are no longer running Nine they should hoist the Jolly Roger and defiantly declare their independence from the past (and then show nothing but repeats from Nine's golden age...)

I recently came across on how to make an indoor antenna for DTV reception from wire coathangers, etc. It's obviously for the USA, but I was wondering if the same approach (particularly the lengths, dimensions, etc. given in the video) would/might be work in Australia too? Specifically I'm talking Northern Beaches Sydney (apartment) receiving the North Head repeater UHF DTV channels.

'"The channels will start rolling out with the new content from March through to June. It will be a progressive launch every couple of weeks with a new channel," Parkes said.' Yet there'll be no EPG until the end of this year - brilliant! And even that date has to be dubious given they clearly haven't even started talking to the consumer electronics companies about what exactly will be required to receive this very late EPG. Freeview Australia - it's like looking at a train wreck in slow motion. Instead of suing IceTV they should either buy them or sell them their program info and let them run it, at least then we'd get something useful in time. The FTA dolts had one last chance to compete with pay TV and the internet for viewers and they threw it away. Too busy worrying about each other and their advertisers instead of making their customers happy.

From what I can work out here in Sydney SBS now have SBS (unchanged), SBS HD (unchanged), SBS 2 (no longer maps to SBS, seems to be foreign language news, replacement for SBS News?), SBS 3 (maps to SBS) and SBS 4 (maps to SBS). SBS News is gone, apparently SBS 2 now covers that (and like SBS News it does not have any entries in EPG), and both SBS 3 & 4 do have EPG entries (same as SBS of course). They seem to have achieved squat aside from leaving a couple of markers for possible future channels that might one day start broadcasting. I was forced to rescan for this?

Well, after rescanning this morning it seems SBS News is no more, it's been replaced by SBS 3 and a new channel called SBS 4 has been added. However, it seems that both SBS 3 and SBS 4 simply map to SBS at the moment. So, depending on how you look at it, the number of SBS channels has either increased by one (new SBS 4 channel and SBS 3 replaces SBS News) or decreased by one (SBS 3 & 4 simply map to SBS and SBS News is gone). Do SBS think they're TEN or something...

What we need is whole new FTV networks, not just allowing the existing guys to broadcast new SD channels. The problem is that at the moment there is no incentive for the existing networks to put any effort into Freeview or their new SD channels (let alone their existingSD & HD channels) -- the longer they can delay the switch to DTV the longer the government will have to put off licensing new networks that would compete with this cartel. Now that the DTV switch has been delayed yet again, to the end of 2013, they'll have to drop any thought of licensing new DTV networks until 2014 or 2015 at the earliest. The longer the existing networks delay, confuse and obfuscate about DTV, Freeview, etc., the longer they get to keep their little moneymaker going. They're better off if DTV and Freeview never actually, really, takes off. They just need to appear to be doing something to fend off pay TV and the government for as long as possible. The government needs to take a firm stand and announce that all analog TV dies at midnight on 31/12/13 and new DTV networks using those now vacant frequencies can start broadcasting on 1/1/14. The existing networks have until then to get their acts together or suffer the consequences. Twelve years (!) to make the switch is long enough, you'll get no longer.

Bad news for Freeview today - the truth about it is getting out. They still can't get that TEN channel listing graphic right, what hope is there for the actual service when something as simple as that has been wrong ever since the FV website started and no one seems interested in fixing it? I've seen so many supposed "start dates" for One HD/SD it's not funny. Most say April, one the other day (on Freeview member SBS I think it was) said March, now this article says "between April and June". Why should anyone get excited about new channels when Seven and Nine refuse to say when they'll start theirs or what will be on them and TEN tell us it's gonna be great mate, 24 X 7 sport (sports you ain't never heard of too!) but can't say when exactly they'll start broadcasting? The ABC and SBS's new channels are dependent on getting government funding and so may never actually appear. Why would any manufacturer bother producing Freeview EPG compatible gear under these circumstances? It's a total mess.

Well, at least now we know when Nine's new SD channel won't be starting - Jan 1, 2009. I guess that with TEN not going OneHD/SD until April or whenever and Seven having announced nothing about their new SD effort Nine don't feel any pressure to do anything with their second SD channel any time soon. The Freeview ads do look nice though. Sigh.

I've been considering this model too. Lack of support for component on CRT sets is not an issue as TV would be a HD ready LCD, but I am interested to know if it outputs SD via composite and sound via stereo jacks when the TV is connected via HDMI. The Sanyo site and manual are silent on this point which makes me suspect it doesn't, but I'd like first hand confirmation if possible.

No, TenHD is going away next year, it will be replaced by OneHD for your 24 X 7 sporting pleasure. Then there will be the all new OneSD which will transmit the OneHD programming in glorious SD digital. But to TEN and Freeview OneHD + OneSD still counts as two channels. For those foolish enough to want to watch non-sport there will still be good old TEN Digital for your 24 X 7 reality TV, game show and Simpsons viewing pleasure.

They never claimed it was 15 "unique" channels, Freeview have only ever said "15 channels". As far as they're concerned OneHD and OneSD count as two channels. PR logic is not normal logic!

I don't know if TEN's 24X7 sport gamble will pay off or not, but it's going to be fascinating to find out over the next 18 months or so. With the reality TV recession (finally!) arriving TEN have to look elsewhere now and I'm sure 24X7 sport looks good to them at the moment. I suspect many of the angry and disappointed drama fans round these parts are really, deep down, afraid that TEN have made the right choice from a revenue perspective, and so they are never going to see the HD programs on TEN they want. Buck up guys, TEN have been wrong before, they may be wrong this time too. Let's just sit back with some popcorn and beer and see what happens. They shoot network executives at dawn don't they?

Seems there's a good chance that Nine won't be around much longer anyway. Maybe the recession will have some positive effects after all. All that sport with nowhere to go, and TEN with a brand new 24/7 sport channel (though not as much money as Foxtel I guess).

So what about all the TiVos now being sold, will they be retroactively labelled Freeview boxes and be able to get this new EPG? Will the existing TiVo EPG continue after the Freeview one is released? Or have Seven simply decided to screw over all the people silly enough to trust them and buy a pre-Freeview TiVo?