Digital TV Technical Discussion

My parents. Bought their current set in late 2008 just before MPEG4 was becoming installed in tuners. They know they’re missing out on some new channels but shrug their shoulders and say they’re probably not missing much. They’re not about to rush out to upgrade :stuck_out_tongue:

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I would say probably a significant chunk (maybe not a majority, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s around 30-40%) of viewers.

To be honest, I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if Seven wanted to originally broadcast 7Flix in MPEG2 (afterall, 9Life and SBS Food Network are in MPEG2…and those channels only launched in November last year!) but because of 4ME, they couldn’t. Now that 4ME has closed down and additional bandwidth that can be used, there’s enough space to make 7Flix a decent enough quality MPEG2 channel.

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I would think that more than 50% of the population would not have MPEG 4 receivers.

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I get the feeling 7flix is MPEG2 now. The television I’m using right now (uncle) is receiving 7flix fine while it hasn’t picked up 9HD 7HD or 10HD. Can anyone confirm this???

EDIT never mind read above :stuck_out_tongue:

You can buy a MPEG4 receiver for $30.

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Well, cost while a consideration, isn’t a big impediment then.

Lack of awareness that a set top box would solve the problem is the problem.

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I agree although how many manufacturers of digital TV equipment clearly specify whether or not it’s capable of receiving MPEG4 channels? That’s also a potential problem…

It’s also a pain in the arse to have to use a set top box… For your average viewer, it’s not just buying the set top box, it’s also getting it set up which they may not be able to do themselves, and then yet another remote to work out how use and not lose… All for content that they don’t think they want or is exactly the same as what they can in the case of the HD channels.

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What’s next ? Seven announcing they will change all their channels to SD ? lol

Even their approach to HD is a joke. Probably will be the last main channel to change to HD and won’t happen till late 2017 .

Was this also aimed at increasing the audience share for 7 Flix as I see it got 1.8 percent last night which was up or is this usual for Thursdays ?

If they had advertised what MPEG-4 is then they probably would have not had to go back to MPEG–2.

Edited to add … it is like downgrading an operating system on a computer because not everyone has it yet. Even though the new system is better technologically. Well I sort of see it like that.

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Heard rumours that 7 plan on turning back on their analogue signals for senior citizens who haven’t had a working TV For the past 4 years :stuck_out_tongue:

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People in Ayr near Townsville? :stuck_out_tongue:

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So, any peep from anyone on Seven’s decision today to backflip and allow 7flix to now be received by most Australians, in addition to launching a costly advertising blitz to tell us so?

To the people telling me that no, they didn’t agree the decision made no commercial sense at the time - :joy: :joy:

You can get smug if the ratings double as a result. I very much doubt they will.

Is 9Life smashing 7flix in the ratings? A little, but that’s due to actually having shows people want to watch, not any MPEG-2 vs MPEG-4 rubbish.

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What do you want? A medal? You must be a big hero. Everyone three cheers for @Firetorch for sticking it to us all.

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[quote=“Firetorch, post:145, topic:273”]
So, any peep from anyone on Seven’s decision today to backflip and allow 7flix to now be received by most Australians[/quote]

OK so they’ve done it, doesn’t mean it will achieve anything. The content is still the same and I think that’s its biggest issue not the fact that a few people who probably won’t watch the channel anyway now have access to it.

Maybe I don’t watch Channel 7 enough but I haven’t seen any costly ads

Nailed it! :sunglasses: Thanks for acknowledging how superior I am to you - just wished you realised this a few months ago and saved me from wasting my time arguing tedious (obvious!) points with you. :kissing_heart:

They’ve been bombarding viewers with ads across all their platforms.

The content is the same crap on every other multi-channel. It’s no different to ONE or Eleven or Go or Gem in this respect.

3.2% share on a high rating Sunday night.

:slight_smile::kissing_heart:

If only they had advertised that the channel was in MPEG-4 they would have had more people watching.