As the title says, here’s the place to talk about HD broadcasting.
Old thread: http://www.mediaspy.org/forum/index.php?/topic/22490-hd-broadcasting/page-37?
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With HD broadcasting of main channels heading back towards the norm, with MPEG4 being used.
How many years is it likely to take for MPEG4 ONLY broadcasting in Australia (with MPEG2 no longer used)?
I’ve recently visited family for christmas and noticed my parents TV has “NO SIGNAL” appearing on all current MPEG4 channels, 76 (New Channel), 78 (racing.com), etc.
The TV is a flatscreen LG TV purchased only around 4 years ago for about $2000. So the family are pretty annoyed that TV channels are not working on it already.
Personally, I think it will be 2020 or later before ALL TV channels become MPEG4-only broadcasts. And by then, it’s possible that online streaming might start to take over from terrestrial as the primary delivery form of television.
I reckon the nbn would need to be in more places for that to happen, plus the networks need to be more friendly with sharing the m3u8 URLs so users can link these up to an iptv system to interact in the same way they do now. Like who wants to download a heap of different apps to access all their favorite channels.
I would expect the primary channels to remain in MPEG-2 SD for the next decade at least.
The lack of MPEG-4 support would have come down to cost - the majority of televisions made in the last 5 years would be fully capable of doing MPEG-4 decoding on a hardware level, but it adds some extra profit to not pay the decoder licensing fees to switch that on, so got sold here as MPEG-2 only.
Happens in the UK with digital radios - ones that are sold here as DAB+ models being sold as DAB only in the UK - with a small number of models letting you pay money to unlock DAB+ as an option on them, and the rest just being junked if they continue down the path of making the switch.
It’s always worth searching for your model of TV on the manufacturer’s website - there might be a firmware update, or a menu option that lets you
This would have been avoided if the government labelling scheme at the time of the digital switch had labelled MPEG-4 capable boxes and sets distinctly. It was already on the cards as the “Freeview” branded boxes had MPEG-4 support as a requirement, but I suppose the royalties from the Freeview branding meant more to the networks than the amount of MPEG-4 receivers in the market.
Agreed. Seven has been good with their m3u8 links, I’ve already incorporated all their streams within my iptv / fta setup.
I believe they were sniffed by users on Whirlpool. I have not found anywhere that Seven has willingly provided this information to people. I too have added it to Cumulus TV on my Nexus Player though.
Thanks for getting back to me.
Visiting family, I checked all 3 TVs in the house (all purchased in the last 6 or so years).
The 2 flat screen TVs with built-in digital tuners could not receive the MPEG4 channels.
While the old box analogue TV purchased in 2001 with a $20 set-top box attached, does receive the new MPEG4 channels.
The change to MPEG4 is poorly being advertised to the general public in my opinion. I asked a few other people about the “New Channel” (76) on their TVs and the response I got was “it’s just a blank screen at the moment” or “It says No Signal on that channel”.
When I informed the people that it was due to MPEG4, they had never heard of it and were all very annoyed that their TVs couldn’t receive the channels. One response I got was “why can’t they just leave it the **** alone”.
“why can’ these leave it alone??”
so… you don’t understand technology, and because of that you need to hold back the rest of Australia because you can’t be bothered understanding how things work or why things need to change, and the reason why a $20 STB can pickup mpeg4, but a TV that was most likely designed to use the existing MPEG2 Australian standard for DTV, and nothing futher, can’t pickup MPEG 4?
do people who puchase new vehicles, magically expect their car to work the the latest technology simply because “I’ve only had the car 5 years”?
or run with the latest petrol i.e 10% ethanol because their car is 5 years old?
seriously , people who can’t be bothered understanding technology, should have no ability to comment on why nine HD requires a MPEG4 decoder, unless they can be bothered understanding technolgy first…
no wonder Australia is so far behind in tech, especially with digital TV (yes I know it started with the govenment).
wonder why, I can’t purchase the latest wiggles “DVD” in Australia, in anything less then DVD quality…
can’t download it legally online in Australia.
if you live in the US… hell you can legally purchase a HD copy on Google Play!!!
Australia - nup… only DVD, but only if you buy a physical copy…
but… Australia doesn’t understand tech - the people out there that “can’t tell” any difference between SD, and 720p is amazing…
yep - go tell that to my 150 inch projector…
even idiots installing foxtel blamed my projector because having a screen that size highlighted how bad foxtel is…
go see HD in Europe and US… then look at the mess foxtel dishes up…
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The question still arises as to whose responsibility it is to let the viewer know that Nine are using MPEG 4. None of their on air promotion of the 9HD stream has had any caveat regarding older receivers. Finding out because a relative has retuned the TV and told you is hardly conducive to accepting the situation or understanding technology.
People might be more accepting (and better educated) if there had been an education program. I thought it would have been better if networks had worked together towards the introduction of MPG4 with a joint implementation date or dates per region. After all, there is the Freeview group that they all participate in (except SBS and WIN) that would have been a perfect platform to use. Might have also sold a few Freeview Plus more devices.
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NBN Television Hi Joel, at this stage, HD was more a metro rollout but rest assured, we’re working hard on getting a HD signal into all of our regional areas.
Like · Reply · 27 December at 15:43
Chill! Chill!
My personal opinion is that MPEG4 is excellent! I don’t live in a capital city, but recently visited Brisbane and 9HD on a new TV was the best quality of FTA TV i’ve ever seen.
My post was simply pointing out that to the General Public (those that don’t follow the media, etc. closely) there is no information being given about the changes.
When visiting family and friends and travelling on the Christmas period I asked close to 30 people about the new TV channels and not a single person had heard anything about MPEG4 and none of them understood why the new TV channels were not working on their TV sets.
They all posed questions to me similar to: “why are they changing it? It works perfectly as it is”, etc.
Again, I love the idea of MPEG4.
But I’m just trying to point out that the other 80-90% of the population that has no idea about MPEG4, etc. are not being adequately advised on the gradual changeover to MPEG4, which is causing confusion!
None of the people I spoke to even realised that 76 (New Channel) had a static image on it. Everyone I’d spoken to said the channel was blank with no video.
I wonder when Ten will go HD everyone else bar SBS ? is…
Is it a cost issue ?
Memories…
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I reckon that some of Ten’s current management won’t want HD main channels taking audience away from Foxtel HD.
Although sooner or later, I do think that Ten will eventually have to follow the others.
What about the ABC? They’re even worse than Ten. Not even their HD channel is in HD.
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Is that promo squished? I don’t remember it being 4:3
[quote=“TV_Addict, post:13, topic:279”]
I wonder when Ten will go HD everyone else bar SBS ? is…[/quote]
What do you mean “bar SBS” ? SBS has been HD on 30 since the start.
A 16:9 version
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But is Sbs airing actual HD content ? is it 720p or 1080 i ?
Yes. 1080i
It’s ABC that doesn’t air any HD content.