Quilgy
Established Member
Hi All,
I am moving from Australia to the UK soon (for a while anyway) and just want to suss out the basics of Digital TV in the UK. You'll only want to keep reading if you're interested in what's happening in Oz and helping out a soon to be Londoner.
I'll give you a run down of Oz DTV first so you know where I am coming from.
We have 5 free to air analogue TV stations that are duplicated on free to air terrestrial DTV. Everything shown on analogue is shown in SD digital (576i). The main advantage of digital is a slightly better picture and sound, 16:9 (sometimes) and some of the nice things like EPGs. Very rarely we also get multicasting, for eg the Rugby World Cup where they also had a stats page and another version of the game, albeit just with different commentators, same picture.
Some digital programming is also shown in HD (576p, 1080i, no 720 at all) and as far as I know, some SD content is upconverted to HD to keep people happy (although the smart ones know they're being shafted).
Each station (of the 5) has around 5-6 digital "channels" allocated to them which get used for multicasting but usually just show the same thing as the main channel. There's been some very dodgy legislation over here that prohibits a station showing more than one program at a time across their digital channels. So they can multicast one program with say different camera angles, but not show sport and a movie at the same time. This is why in Oz currently, digital is really only good for getting a better, wider picture and better sound. Oh yeah, and *no* interactivity either, not a cracker.
An SD box here starts around £100, or AU$250. HD Boxes start around £300. One or two models have a PVR built-in and they are rare.
OK, now that's done I'm keen to find out a few things about your system. I have read a little about Freeview, and just from that it seems you guys are very different. They seem to re-transmit on behalf of other analogue stations rather than being a station themselves?
Anyway, I'm keen to know starting prices for STBs, what your SD and HD are like (ie 576i/p, 720, 1080 etc), about interactivity and about what features you get on digi that the analogue lepers are missing out on.
Looks as though you have heaps of channels too. I understand you pay a licence fee annually to have a TV? Is there additional fees for DTT?
I am avoiding the pay-TV scene for now (ie - monthly subscription for extra channels, cable, satellite etc) so I'm just interested in your free to air terrestrial for now.
Thanks in advance, Matt
I am moving from Australia to the UK soon (for a while anyway) and just want to suss out the basics of Digital TV in the UK. You'll only want to keep reading if you're interested in what's happening in Oz and helping out a soon to be Londoner.
I'll give you a run down of Oz DTV first so you know where I am coming from.
We have 5 free to air analogue TV stations that are duplicated on free to air terrestrial DTV. Everything shown on analogue is shown in SD digital (576i). The main advantage of digital is a slightly better picture and sound, 16:9 (sometimes) and some of the nice things like EPGs. Very rarely we also get multicasting, for eg the Rugby World Cup where they also had a stats page and another version of the game, albeit just with different commentators, same picture.
Some digital programming is also shown in HD (576p, 1080i, no 720 at all) and as far as I know, some SD content is upconverted to HD to keep people happy (although the smart ones know they're being shafted).
Each station (of the 5) has around 5-6 digital "channels" allocated to them which get used for multicasting but usually just show the same thing as the main channel. There's been some very dodgy legislation over here that prohibits a station showing more than one program at a time across their digital channels. So they can multicast one program with say different camera angles, but not show sport and a movie at the same time. This is why in Oz currently, digital is really only good for getting a better, wider picture and better sound. Oh yeah, and *no* interactivity either, not a cracker.
An SD box here starts around £100, or AU$250. HD Boxes start around £300. One or two models have a PVR built-in and they are rare.
OK, now that's done I'm keen to find out a few things about your system. I have read a little about Freeview, and just from that it seems you guys are very different. They seem to re-transmit on behalf of other analogue stations rather than being a station themselves?
Anyway, I'm keen to know starting prices for STBs, what your SD and HD are like (ie 576i/p, 720, 1080 etc), about interactivity and about what features you get on digi that the analogue lepers are missing out on.
Looks as though you have heaps of channels too. I understand you pay a licence fee annually to have a TV? Is there additional fees for DTT?
I am avoiding the pay-TV scene for now (ie - monthly subscription for extra channels, cable, satellite etc) so I'm just interested in your free to air terrestrial for now.
Thanks in advance, Matt