Digital TV Technical Discussion

Watched the replay of 730 on ABC News in Brisbane. The picture quality was appalling, blocky and out of focus.

ABC main channel HD and SBS HD far better.

How long has channel 24 been suffering this?

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Channel 24 is MPEG2 SD. Was HD up until 2016 when ABC HD happened.
It needs to go back to HD, I agree that the picture quality is terrible on the channel.

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Thanks @Nicholas. Is the iview stream any better?

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All the ABC live streams are up to HD 720p I’m pretty sure.

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Seven should consider bringing 7twoHD to metro and regional areas, as well as making two HD simulcasts on LCN 7/6 and 70/60 (Keeping the SD feed on 71/61 like in Tasmania).

How I think this will play out:

Metro:

7
7HD Sydney

70
7HD Sydney

71
7 Sydney

72
7TWO Sydney

73
7twoHD Sydney

74
7mateHD Sydney

75
7Bravo Sydney

76
7flix Sydney

78

Regional:

6
7HD Canberra

60
7HD Canberra

61
7 Canberra

62
7two Canberra

63
7twoHD Canberra

64
7mateHD Canberra

65
7Bravo

66
7flix

67
ishoptv

68

They should just go 7two HD only. Seems to have worked for 7mateHD, for which there is no longer a SD simulcast.

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I think for the first few months they will keep the SD simulcast like they did in RQLD before going HD only. Also why was Tasmania the only state/market to receive the HD simulcasts of the main channels on the single-digit numbers? Will other mainland states do the same?

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Tasmania is operated by Southern Cross Austereo, they can make these HD / LCN decisions independently of the Seven Network.

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They’re not. Griffith, Mildura, Mt Gambier, WA and Remote Satellite have some HD channels in the single digit range.

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You’re right, but every main channel including the government-owned ones is HD on the single-digit LCN. What’s up with that? To aline with other stations in TAS?

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Tasmania would have a high early adoption rate for digital TV compared to other regional markets, thanks to the TDT joint-venture launching very early on and everyone scrambling to buy digital-ready equipment to access Ten. That makes Tassie viewers more MPEG-4 ready in 2023 than viewers in other regional markets, so it’s a good place to start the removal of MPEG-2 channels. ABC and SBS agreed to jump on-board too.

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They did, but i think that it could have the opposite impact re MPEG-4, as the equipment they bought early on would be more likely to be MPEG-2 only. Many might still be relying on this old equipment too.

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I know what you mean. I think the way SCA and WIN see it is the earlier the adoption the more likely those viewers are MPEG-4-ready today, versus people who bought MPEG-2 stuff in the late 2000s to early 2010s.

I didn’t know what topic to put this under, but I feel I should share.

All Channel 7 Markets/Lineups ranked worst to best:

  • Seven Central (QQQ): Main channel only in SD. Only 2 multis. Need I say more?

  • Seven Regional WA: Same issues as QQQ, but the LCNs are on the 6x lineup which is neat.

  • Seven SA/Griffith: Bit better than the last two, because of the main channel being in HD but needs more multis.

  • Seven SCA (Darwin, SG/BH): HD is MPEG-4 and has the datacast channels which is a plus but the stations still have flaws.

  • Seven Tasmania: All channel are in MPEG-4 and the HD simulcast is on LCN 6 for easy access.

  • Seven Metro: Bread and Butter lineup. 7Bravo and 7flix. 7mate in HD. But 7two is still not HD.

  • Seven Regional: Slight edge due to the LCN range being in the 6x but that’s about it.

  • Seven Queensland: 7two in HD and main channel in HD only. Need I say more?

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Very odd ranking. Why is the 6x range an advantage? The 7x range makes the most sense for Seven Network channels, does it not?

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It’s personal preference if I’m being honest. I just prefer the 6x because it reminds me of Prime7. The golden age of regional television in my opinion. The only time I would prefer the 7x range is if I’m in regional Queensland. This is because I like 7x, a metro LCN to go with regional LCNs (5x and 8x) if you know what I mean.

Looks like that’s what they’ll do. Hard switch from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4.

I reckon this will have minimal impact considering digital officially rolled out between 2012 and 2013 so most people should have compatible equipment.

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Does anyone know when WIN 10 and 7 in SA and Griffith will switch to MPEG-4? WIN said end of Jan

Not specifically digital TV, but anyone know why Channels 5A and 9A were named as such and not as 6 and 11?

I know 9A wasn’t used in the analogue era, but each channel has always been 7 mhz wide so it’s always existed.

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they were “new” channels that were added later to the pre-existing VHF bands. There was enough gap between channels 5 and 6 to add 5A, and channels 0 and 11 were added to the top and bottom ends in the early 1960s as the 10-channel dial originally proposed in the 1950s was not going to be able to support the growing number of services.

Correct there were always a large gap between Channels 9 and 10 but it was a vacant channel as 9A was not created until the tail end of the analogue era but my understanding (which may be corrected) is that 9A and 12 were added to accommodate the parallel operation of analogue and digital channels, and consequently to compensate for the loss of the low-end VHF channels not compatible with digital TV. And I think 9A is now reserved for DAB use as well?

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