Badly needed too, 6pm news picture quality is woeful.
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Not sure of the correct thread for this question, mods please move if thereâs somewhere better.
I visited regional QLD last week and found out that 7mate is only available in MPEG4 HD now.
73 (which is still MPEG2 SD) is just showing a placeholder to switch to 74.
I now live in a Prime7 market so wasnât aware of this change, is it just regional QLD or is 7mate only available in MPEG4 HD in the metros now too?
My parents (who I was visiting) were annoyed about the change as they still only have an MPEG2 TV, and 7mate is a channel that they do frequently watch.
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Both SD & HD versions of 7mate are still available in Sydney and presumably, all other metro markets.
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Interesting. The change must only affect Regional QLD then, they now have 7 (main channel) and 7mate as HD only channels.
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Very interesting. I consider RQLD to be a bit of a test market for these kinds of things. If it wasnât broken before, why remove 73? It must mean a new channel is coming.
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Still have SD MPEG2 7mate on 63 & HD MPEG4 HD on 64 here in Toowoomba
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I think thatâs simply to align with the 7 Metro LCNs, where 73 is 7mate SD.
Again, like the WIN HD Illawarra move, hopefully it means MPEG 2 SD broadcasting is becoming a thing of the past.
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I meant the removal of the actual channel, not the use of 73 and 74.
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Just not enough space to run both 73 (SD) and 74 (HD) perhaps?
I was up there on Monday, and the Gold Coast still has 73 and 74 (SD and HD).
Gold Coast is part of the Brisbane licence area rather than regional Queensland.
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Oh interesting! I had assumed the change would be across all RQLD markets. Pity I didnât get a photo of the placeholder. It was a blue, white, and black background with a 7mate logo with a message below to switch to channel 74.
Then on the TV I was watching on, 74 came up as âNo Signalâ because it was an MPEG2 only TV.
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This person had the same problem.
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Which market did you visit?
Mackay
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Crazy speculation would be 7two going HD for the Olympics.
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If this somehow ends up being the case (7SD, 7HD, 7two, 7two HD, 7mate HD, 7flix) they should revert 7flix back to MPEG-4 even if it remains SD. Then the only non-MPEG-4 channels are the focus channels 7SD and 7two SD. Makes a future dumping of MPEG-2 SD much easier if itâs only two âduplicateâ channels.
Preferably they should move 7mate HD to 73 to keep 7mate on the âsameâ channel number. The channel is approaching 10 years this September, keeps it easy for normal viewers.
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7Two wonât be HD for the Olympics. It was going to last year, but 7 have decided to use 7Mate as the secondary channel, with 7Two taking coverage during AFL/News.
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IIRC hasnât Olympic content been spread across all three channels in previous years? Seems like 7two HD would close the HD coverage gap they currently have.
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