I’m back from a short trip I had, and obviously that meant grabbing some bitrate analysis in a few different markets, as everyone does for fun…
Anyway closest to home for me to start with, Ballarat. I didn’t bother sampling the ABC/SBS setup…
WIN
| WIN Television | Video | Format | Audio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | Ch9 Ballarat | 2.3Mbps | MPEG-2 SD | 128k MP2 |
| 81 | 9Gem | 4.15Mbps | H.264 HD | 384k AC3 |
| 82 | 9Go! | 4.82Mbps | H.264 HD | 384k AC3 |
| 85 | GOLD | 0.98Mbps | H.264 SD | 128k MP2 |
| 84 | New Channel Coming Soon | 0.48Mbps | H.264 SD | 128k MP2 |
| 83 | 9Life | 1.32Mbps | H.264 SD | 128k MP2 |
| 80 | 9HD Ballarat | 5.5Mbps | H.264 HD | 384k AC3 |
| Nulls | 1.08Mbps |
So WIN is kinda the least interesting, the “New Channel Coming Soon” isn’t, and their “Ch9” branding over just “9 Ballarat” bothers me, but those are some pretty good bitrates compared to what Nine Metro dishes out.
I really don’t know why they don’t put the time into a proper program guide for GOLD - I ended up watching half of an Alive and Cooking episode on there - which included one “ad break” for a Crawfords DVD collection. Other than randomly stumbling on it, you’d have no reason to try and watch it - despite it not being wall to wall advertorials like Nine’s Extra.
Seven
| Seven Network | Video | Format | Audio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6/60 | 7HD Ballarat | 2.78Mbps | H.264 HD | 256k AC3 |
| 62 | 7twoHD Ballarat | 3.00Mbps | H.264 HD | 256k AC3 |
| 64 | 7mateHD Ballarat | 4.11Mbps | H.264 HD | 256k AC3 |
| 65 | 7Bravo | 4.16Mbps | H.264 HD | 256k AC3 |
| 66 | 7flix | 1.05Mbps | H.264 SD | 128k AAC |
| 67 | TVSN | 1.42Mbps | H.264 SD | 128k AAC |
| 68 | RACING.COM |
1.33Mbps | H.264 SD | 128k AAC |
| Nulls | 3.28Mbps |
Seven just seems like they stopped including the SD version of Seven in the multiplex, but haven’t otherwise corrected for it, so there’s excessive nulls. It would shock me if that’s something required as a stat-mux safety barrier, so probably could be allocating that.
Southern Cross Ten
| SCA | Video | Format | Audio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5/51 | 10 Ballarat | 2.42Mbps | MPEG-2 SD | 256k MP2 |
| 50 | 10 HD Ballarat | 4.11Mbps | H.264 HD | 384k AC3 (5.1) |
| 52 | 10 Peach Comedy | 2.47Mbps | MPEG-2 SD | 256k MP2 |
| 53 | 10 BOLD Drama | 2.8Mbps | MPEG-2 SD | 256k MP2 |
| 54 | Nickelodeon | 1.70Mbps | H.264 SD | 256k MP2 |
| 55 | SBN | 1.63Mbps | H.264 SD (640x576) | 192k MP2 |
| 56 | Sky News Regional | 1.75Mbps | H.264 SD | 192k MP2 |
| 57 | gecko | 1.15Mbps | H.264 SD | 128k MP2 |
| 58 | you.tv |
1.40Mbps | H.264 SD | 64k AAC |
| Nulls | 0.46Mbps |
So a few interesting things there - I didn’t realise it myself but I cross checked Ten Melbourne, and it indeed also has surround sound enabled on their HD channel. I don’t know if any programming airs with native surround sound.
SBN has an odd horizontal resolution - but that has otherwise vanished as a thing broadcasters use to squeeze bits - otherwise all channels are 1920x1080i for HD services, or 720x576 for SD services.