Digital TV Technical Discussion

Want a deepdive into the DVB-T2 trial in Sydney - well Gough Lui has you covered

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The bit on VK2RTS Amateur Television was good too - admittedly I donā€™t know much about the subject in general but did manage to find this list elsewhere online:

No idea about transmission times for any stations, but the full document can be read here and with the most recent update to the directory being on March 18, I presume itā€™s reasonably up to date.

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I remember retuning my TV and picking up fuzzy analogue amateur TV back in the '90s in Sydney showing a test pattern; from a vague recollection, I think it said it originated from Gladesville. Iā€™ve never picked up amateur TV on digital ā€“ though I canā€™t say Iā€™ve tried.

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I live in Tweed Heads Northern NSW and one common thing I see is antennas mostly phased array antennas strangely tilted half way between horizontal and vertical polarisations lā€™ve always guessed itā€™s too get both NSW and QLD stations from Mt Springbrook the most common area in the Tweed too see this in is Banora Point and Murwillumbah. Can Someone tell me why some antennas in the Tweed area oddly installed like this.

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Two scenarios:

In Tweed Heads that could be to get reception from Mt Nardi NSW stations that are horizontally polarised and Currumbin QLD that are vertical.

With Murwillumbah there are a set of vertical channels at Springbrook directed at Murwillumbah plus a set of horizontal channels for Gold Coast hinterland; perhaps there is a possibility of receiving the Queensland set of channels.

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The Queensland signal from Mt Tambourine and even the Queensland signal Mt Springbrook covers quite a bit of the tweed shire. Most people on the Tweed have their antennas pointed at Mt Nardi some people get a Mt Tambourine signal come in from the side of the antenna. Thats the case for my mate who lives in West Tweed he has a new Yagi antenna pointed at Mt Nardi but gets a good signal coming from Mt Tambourine come into the side of the antenna

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Great youā€™re contributing @rhysholmes19 from Tweed Heads.

The beams from Springbrook are in different directions. Have a look on the My Switch/Digital Ready site and compare the completely different coverage predictions, Tweedā€™s urban suburbs can receive both beams but itā€™s not the best signal and most sites would need a masthead amplifier.

When you pass these antennas with unconventional mountings, what site are they pointing to?

Tweed Heads/Banora Point and the other urban suburbs north of the Tweed usually have two aerials, one towards Mt Tamborine and the other to Mt Nardi. They are the highest powered sites with the best coverage.

Reception will be more likely from Currumbin in coming years when the work is done on Albany Lane to quadruple the output as TXA have foreshadowed for some years. Currently, thereā€™s stronger signals south of Kirra Hill (the iconic north facing panorama of the Gold Coast skyline often seen on surfing comps between the Kirra SLSC/Pizza Hut and Coolangatta town centre).

Whatā€™s going on most likely is an ā€˜enterprisingā€™ antenna installer is selling unwitting customers add ons of a higher spec antenna (itā€™s not the best quality phased array model), masthead amplifer, mounting and more time to install, the real cream higher labour costs.

Installers arenā€™t a licensed industry, however, heā€™d be an outlier, any reputable installer would not do this.

This is correct. You can receive the Mt Tamborine signal quite easily down the Tweed coast to the end of it, Pottsville/Wooyung where thereā€™s sufficient distance between the receiving site and any terrain.

Same goes for the high points at Ocean Shores, Byron Bay, Lennox Head and Skennars Head.

The higher the gain antenna, the better the front to back ratio usually. So it will become more directional.

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Yeah mate at my home in Banora Point I have two Farraco branded log periodic antennas one pointed at Mt Springbrook for my NSW channels as Mt Nardi is blocked by a hill and the other pointed at Mt Tambourine for my QLD channels with a Kingray amp installed by a local antenna installer. Yeah these weird tilted antennas are usually pointed West in the Mt Springbrook direction i have always thought this weird method was a trick used by TV antenna installers to get both horizontal and vertical signals from Mt Springbrook using the one antenna

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Iā€™ve heard the ā€˜Mastheadā€™ excuse before. Had a installer in the Geelong area put an antenna up some time ago, just put what looked like the cheapest one up without a amp and getting 95% signal most of the time, except for when the interference kicks inā€¦

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Today marks 6 years since analogue TV was switched off in Canberra & Southern NSW, which includes Wollongong, Orange, Dubbo & Wagga Wagga. This switch-off meant that Canberra became the first capital city in Australia to go digital-only, about a year before all the other capitals joined in.

Canā€™t believe how long ago it is now! :open_mouth:

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Ten is having problems with closed captioning in Melbourne tonight. First the captions were not available for the entire episode of MasterChef, and are still not working during Shark Tank.

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Has this actually happened yet? I would have thought 4K on FTA would be a big deal around here but I havenā€™t seen anything.

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No the test transmissions are of 2x 1080 loops only, no 4K.

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With so much live sport on tonight I checked out the bit rates for HD streams with some surprising results for Brisbane and surrounds.

Seven HD 2.7 (Pirate movie)

7Mate SD with AFL at 5.0

Nine HD 3.7 Cricket

Ten HD 6.0 Rugby Union

SBS One HD 4.3 Soccer

SBS Viceland 4.6 Documentary

ABC HD 4.6 (British stuff)

7Mate 7QLD 9.7 AFL (Mpeg 2)

WIN HD 6.5

9 HD Southern Cross Qld 5.3

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Analogue doesnā€™t get switched off here in Singapore until end of this year.

I saw these billboards at a local train station promoting the switchover earlier today.

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Has anyone else seen this?

https://www.acma.gov.au/theACMA/draft-five-year-spectrum-outlook-2018-22

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Some very interesting tests going on at current with the DVB-T2 test transmissions.
When I flicked over about half an hour ago, they were actually running a 4K loop.
They were running two loops one from NITV, and one from channel 9 with fotage from Vivid.
On channels 401, 402. 403 were, 540p 1080p, and 2160p 4k test of the NITV and 9 loops. They are now back to running a bouncy ball with test colours inside it across the screen.
The 4K test loop looked amazing on my tv.

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A rather interesting development when the DVB-T2 trial ends on June 30. Or has it been extended?

Rang Broadcast Australia to let them know I was receiving the test and telling them how good the 4K loop looked. I did ask how long the test was going to continue for but the guy on reception was not sure how long it would continue for.
He did ask if a tech could call me back to get feedback. I said yes.

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4K loops are on the DVB-Tv2 test at present on 401

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