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 couldnāt find anything in the settings to force the logos to update.
The channel names are listed correctly, itās 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.
Couldnāt 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.
Iād say thatās where the icons came from in the first place.
Iāve had them do a software update, and try the āsit on the channel for a whileā 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 Nineās only SD channel without them. Perhaps itās been for a while as I never look at the SD channel.
Iāve been to a few relatives house who do the same.
They should at least place HD on the single digit LCNs and keep X1 for the SD version temporarily.
Also, why donāt Foxtel swap the HD versions of FTA channels from the 200s to the 100s for people with a HD plan like they do for their own channels.
So Fox 8 is on 108 with the standard plan and 208 in HD (but nor receivable). Then if you get the HD plan Fox 8 ist still on 108 while 208 is the SD version.
The reason why Nine SD channels have black bars is because all of the SDs are MPEG-2, unlike SBS, 10 and 7. Basically these are the formats of Nineās channels, MPEG-4 in Bold:
As it is shown, Nine are very reluctant to use MPEG-4, unlike Seven and Ten I feel like making 9Gem HD only (like SBS Viceland, SBS World Movies, 7mate, 7Bravo and 10 BOLD) and putting 9Life and 9Rush in MPEG-4 would solve the problem with the black bars.
They must be saving half a channelās worth of video bandwidth using the black bars. Crazy how desperate they are to hold on to MPEG-2. 9Life and 9Rush should have been MPEG-4 from the beginning
Advertisers will take an extra percent on audience reach over picture quality.
This would be solvable but for networks being totally unwilling to invest in decent audience communication - organising an industry wide shift. Instead people just slowly lose channels at random times - and either accept it and pick another channel, or think their TV is broken and decide to buy a new one.
Ideally some of the āHBBā stuff would have worked well enough that itād be seamless to stream the HD versions of the channels on a compatible TV without going to the 9now app
Itās weird that itās still a 720x576 channel though - crush it to 544x576 or something.
From a quick sample of Nine Melbourne (~2min)
9HD - 4Mbps
GemHD - 3.65Mbps
Life - 2.4Mbps
Go - 2.1Mbps
9SD - 2.0Mbps
GemSD - 1.9Mbps
Rush - 1.7Mbps
Extra - 1.2Mbps
Feel as though the networks have done themselves few favours with viewers with this hodge-podge mix of SD and HD channels across MPEG2 and MPEG4 and lack of coordination and clear communication. All itās done is resulted in confused and annoyed viewers (typically of the older generation), and probably driven them towards streaming services in some case.
What Iād like to see is a two-part process to transition from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 reviving the Freeview branding:
The first part would be to move all channels on their primary LCN (i.e. LCN9 in the case of Nine, 93 in the case of 9Gem), and broadcast them in MPEG4 (either HD or SD). Call this service either just āFreeviewā or āFreeview Pro/Max/Next etcā.
The second part would be to phase out the MPEG-2 services to the bare minimum (i.e. main channels) Use LCNs 102, 103, 107, 109, 110 (or another suitable range- maybe the 900s?)). Call this service āFreeview Liteā. Before and once in place, run an advertising campaign with something along the lines of āFreeview has upgraded itās broadcast technology to allow for more great channels in better HD quality. Most TVs and set top boxes should be compatible but older TVs may require a new set top box. In the meantime Freeview Lite will continue broadcasting the main channels until (insert date here).ā
Run an advertising campaign and partner with retailers to provide set top boxes for something like $20-$30 during the transition period too to assist those that donāt want to upgrade their whole TV.
Iād also have the MPEG-2 channels broadcast an on screen reminder every 15 minutes (with a pop up or crawler message).
