Freeview UK got many things right in it’s early stages but it’s HD transition isn’t one of them - indeed we’ve had two HD muxes close in the last couple of years, leaving just the one for the main PSBs. It was always known they would close but the plan should have been there to convert two of the SD muxes at that point to offer more content in HD.
There are signs though things are beginning to move - the BBC are finally making their regions HD next year and fazing out their SD services on satellite with a plan to follow suit on Freeview down the track, and ITV HD’s channels are no longer behind a paywall on Sky so that exclusivity barrier has been removed.
Bit of info - HD is done differently in the UK. Basically traditionally Freeview was set up on DVB-T muxes (like Aus) which are used for SD channels, but HD channels are only transmitted on DVB-T2 muxes, where they take up less space. One DVB-T mux was converted in 2010 to launch HD channels, then two more temporary muxes launching around 2013. No kind of HD switchover plan was ever implemented, although since 2016 all Freeview branded equipment has had to be able to receive the DVB-T2 signals.
In theory had they adopted a plan to convert all the SD muxes (perhaps leaving one as a legacy mux for those with old equipment) all the Freeview channels could have been converted into broadcasting in DVB-T2 with all the core channels (i.e. the BBC/ITV/C4 spin offs and a few others) in HD.
Agree. Nine’s main channel is bit starved. Especially when they also give 9Gem a big share of the multiplex. THough even the static images didn’t look as good as could be expected for live sport especially on the commentary desk.
One of the reasons could be like the ABC, Nine squeezes all SD multis into MPEG-2 SD which take up a lot more bandwidth. SBS, 10 and 7 have most of their multis in MPEG-4.
My parents up in Central QLD have (finally) purchased a new TV today at the Boxing Day sales - LG OLED 65 inch. (Upgrading from an old TV that was only MPEG2)
I was helping them set it up via FaceTime and noticed the the channels all auto populated with channel logos, but the logos are all incorrect.
No idea where the icons have come from as they appeared automatically after tuning.
When flicking the channels, the LCN, channel logo, channel name, and current program appear.
The logos are all aligned with the previous channels before the last affiliation swap.
This is a brand new TV first turned on today.
LCN8/80, 9/9HD are showing a WIN logo
The 10 multi channels in the 50 range are showing 9Gem/9Go/9Life logos
The 9 multi channels in the 80 range are showing 10Bold/10Peach logos
I couldn’t find anything in the settings to force the logos to update.
The channel names are listed correctly, it’s just the logo next to it is off.
For example, LCN 54 is correctly listed as 10 Shake in the text, but has a massive 9Life logo next to it
Agree, connect the TV to the internet, tune into one of the affected channels and leave it on that channel for a few minutes, then try another affected channel etc. A software update would be your next option.
Happened on my TV too in inner Melbourne, showing 10 as WIN.
Couldn’t do anything to resolve it via digital aerial.
Oddly enough, when I connected my HDHomeRun as the TV tuner (rather than using digital aerial direct to the TV) all the channels show correctly.
TV had to be connected to the internet as part of the setup process, it was connected to the internet before any of the channels were even tuned in to it.
I’d say that’s where the icons came from in the first place.
I’ve had them do a software update, and try the “sit on the channel for a while” method and neither have fixed the issue.
I noticed recently that Nine SD has those horrible black bars that 9Go, (Rush, 9Gem have. Not sure when it started; I thought it was Nine’s only SD channel without them. Perhaps it’s been for a while as I never look at the SD channel.
