No HD watermark add-on, or location name watermark either
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Interesting that the Gold Coast place name has also disappeared from the SD channel (it was never on HD as that is a relay from Brisbane).
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Currently in a hotel, so not using a tv that is terribly familiar. Did they just swap the HD and SD decoders around for 7 and 7mate? I don’t seem to have an SD simulcast anymore (not that that’s a bad thing).
Currently SD Sunshine Coast channel has just disappeared. 7HD is now present on LCN 6, 60 and 61, now labelled 7HD.
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A bold move if permanent (likely not).
Is 7HD in MPEG-4?
I don’t know how to tell using my TV
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I notice that 7QLD are using MPEG sound rather than Dolby that other commercial HD services use.
Channel list.
All the HD services are pointing to one transport stream
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There’s no chance of SD disappearing altogether yet.
Just think of the people in Ayr.
MPEG 2 HD and SD together (which would need about 9 M/bits out of 23) couldn’t be done without sacrificing TWO, Mate or Flix.
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Wow… HD as the only stream for 7?!
Surely they’re still setting it up properly 
If not, as mentioned ^, a very bold move, and a move which I would love to see the other networks do.
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If Seven Queensland are only transmitting a HD stream, it could be in MPEG2 so all viewers have access to the main channel?
But if it’s in MPEG4, most likely a glitch one would imagine.
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Just checked on my other TV, 7HD is broadcasting in MPEG2-HD
Just like the Sunshine Coast, 7HD Townsville is on LCN 7, 70, and 71
7mate is now in MPEG2-SD
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In Townsville i’ve got:
LCN 7: “7HD Townsville”, MPEG-2 1080i
LCN 70: “7HD Townsville”, MPEG-2 1080i
LCN 71: “7HD Townsville”, MPEG-2 1080i
LCN 72: “7TWO Townsville”, MPEG-2 576i
LCN 73: “7mate Townsville”, MPEG-2 576i
LCN 74: “7food network”, MPEG-4 576i
LCN 76: “7flix Townsville”, MPEG-2 576i
LCN 78: “RACING.COM, MPEG-4 576i
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Now looking back at recordings from the change; the regional 7HD was always in MPEG2. It is just that at the changeover the SD channel remained but about 30 minutes ago, it go redirected to the HD stream as well.
Very interesting.
So they’ve basically just switched 7 and 7mate over.
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Yes and in a way that didn’t affect anyone’s tuner. 7HD now running at 7.8 Mbps for video.
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I wonder if there will be complaints from viewers with SD only equipment?
HD capable TVs only became mainstream about 10 years ago, which sounds like a long time, but many people hang onto their equipment for longer than that.
I do wonder why they bothered to invest in MPEG 2 encoders when that is an outdated technology?
Going MPEG4 would have made more sense and would help to phase out MPEG2.
I agree that MPEG 4 would have been better but there are only a small number of SD only TV’s nationally.
The 2017 report said that 97% of households receive HD on every TV in the household (bearing in mind that only 98% of TVs can receive digital TV on every set).
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Let’s hope it is permanent, someone needs to finally bite the bullet and quit screwing around with old tech you can’t hold the hands of MPEG2 SD viewers forever
I have also noticed that all the main 7 channels are just “7 Toowoomba” no mention of HD and no SD simulcast at present
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Thinking about things a bit more, I wonder if the Regional QLD transmission of Seven’s main channel only in MPEG2 HD is just a temporary thing (gives viewers their much craved HD channel without needing any technical upgrades at the soon to be decommissioned BCM) until the playout moves to NPC when the 7-8mbps stream will probably be split into two - say, a 3mbps-ish MPEG2 SD stream with the rest going to the permanent HD channel in MPEG4 at 4-5mbps?
With an estimated 97% of households being able to receive HD on every TV in the household (which is likely higher in regional areas, since many there probably upgraded to Digital TV later than metropolitan markets), it’s probably a smart idea for a temporary solution when you think about it!
Yep, for a long, long time the rules were that there had to be triplecasting - the same signal on analogue, SD and HD. The only multichanneling was on ABC and SBS with channels which had to be very specific and were quite restrictive - e.g. World News Channel for SBS not allowed to show anything in English and ABC Kids/Fly for Kids and youth.
Once the rules were relaxed a little, it was only the HD channels late at night able to do a bit of breakaway programming before finally having multichannels allowed with 7TWO, 9GO! etc…
The only way to legally get a third channel was by having the HD channel become that hence 7mate, 9Gem, One being in HD before switching back to being the main channels once the rules were relaxed again to allow more multichannels.
Hope that clears things up a little more about how we ended up back to the future!
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This change has been quite fascinating, it’s interesting to know that there is no SD version of 7 available at all.
Excellent way to force viewers to use the HD simulcast… offer nothing but the HD option!
My parents have an old (non-MPEG4) TV from about 10 years ago, and Mum just called me a moment ago saying that 7HD had appeared on her TV, and she “couldn’t find 7 One”, she said “because it said HD I thought it wouldn’t work on our TV, but it actually does”.
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