The sad part about all this MPEG4 talk is it’s not even new technology. And we have DVB-T2 which is already being adopted elsewhere. God only knows when Australia will get DVB-T2.
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Well…we knew Channel 9 didn’t disappear altogether. That was hardly the argument… We were talking about the commercial sense of the decision.
Why do people keep saying this as if it means anything? It is now clearly obvious that a large proportion of the population can not pick up these new channels.
It’s like 10 million people complaining to Coles that they bought mouldy Cadbury chocolate. And then someone else piping up “oh but I bought chocolate and it had no problems” - yeah, so what? Good for you. 10 million people did. Obvious problem. People not having a problem…doesn’t mean there isn’t one.
Nah.
I get what you’re saying, but I hardly think this is the station that ‘broke the camel’s back’ - there are already so many general entertainment digital channels - GEM, Go, 7Two, 7Mate, One, Eleven, that I don’t think this is an issue.
7West Media is not in business to ensure average viewers at home upgrade to anything. They are there to make $. And failing atm.
Bollocks. It’s like 10 million people complaining to Coles that their seven year old blocks of Dairy Milk have gone mouldy.
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Yes - Seven’s decision was stupid, but your post was lumping in 9HD and 7Flix - they are totally different situations with very different outcomes for viewers.
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Well stop bloody complaining then. Nobody is forcing you to do anything. I can’t receive any of the Foxtel channels on my TV, and yet there are people here who pay Foxtel to provide those channels. Just like your response of “nah” that’s exactly what I say about Foxtel. Am I missing out on stuff? Probably…but I don’t care. I still have something to watch. It isn’t like my TV is pitch black with nothing to watch on it.
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The problem with MPEG-4 is that none of the commercial networks individually or collectively have promoted that the different format is why some can’t view the new channels/services. The promotional pushes for both 9HD & 7flix made it seem like all one needed to do was retune their TV to pick up the channels when that’s not the case for many older TVs & STBs
If the networks want to launch and/or get people to watch the new channels/HD simulcasts through MPEG-4, they actually need to take the time & effort to explain to people (like with the digital switchover) what they need to do in order to receive all available digital channels
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They’ve done what a lot of big companies do. Knowingly launch something that not all people will understand or be able to get, and let support services handle the questions or “outrage”. A bit like an ISP advertising on a national platform about their amazing new unlimited data plan, yet it’s only available in a handful of areas. Nowhere in that campaign would they say this, but they still do it anyway.
Part of me wants the networks to just bloody do it already, create a bit of a storm and let people whinge about it, and when the dust settles viewers will start tuning in. The other part of me wants clear and concise messaging to gently sway the population into buying new equipment, like the Digital Ready campaign. It’s a tough one. Would better communication work? It’s not like it would have changed viewer’s situations. I imagine there would be some risk saying “coming soon, a brand new channel, but if your TV is old you can’t have it”. It’s sort of a negative campaign, isn’t it? The number of people who couldn’t get MPEG-4 would have been the same, they just would have known sooner. I don’t know what the best approach would be. I just look at social media now and no one really cares about 9HD being in MPEG-4 anymore. The dust has settled and everyone’s moved on.
I’m posted before that I think the introduction of HD via MPEG 4 could have been better handled if networks had worked together towards with a joint implementation date for each region, much like the re-stack.
The Freeview group would have been a perfect platform to use for the promotion.
It would explain that some devices would need to be upgraded with the selling point for anyone with such a device being the introduction of multiple HD services.
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I’m not complaining that my seven year old TV can’t pick up the technology. It can’t. A fact. I got over that fact two seconds after doing a scan.
I’m talking about the networks making the commercially stupid decision to use that format in the first place.
When I said a few months ago that it was silly for Nine to broadcast 9HD in that format, it is now even MORE of a problem for Seven to broadcast a new channel with entirely new content in that format.
That is, what is happening to 7Flix at the moment rams home my point (originally made regarding 9HD), as to what a silly decision it was, even moreso.
Therefore, I don’t quite get what you mean about me lumping in 9HD with 7Flix.
Stop bloody going batshit crazy over posts in an HD broadcasting thread about HD broadcasting. You seem to get particularly agitated when I mention this…it’s weird.
…? What’s this got to do with anything?
I really can’t put this any simpler for you - all Australians should be able to receive all free to air television stations - and when there is a drastic change in technology, this should be prepared and advertised MANY years in advance. As it was when digital television first arrived.
That is, what is happening to 7Flix at the moment rams home my point (originally made regarding 9HD), as to what a silly decision it was, even moreso.
Do you have any evidence at all (considering 7flix has rated as high as a 2.5 when it gets the programming right and 9Life has rated as low as a 0.9 when it gets the programming wrong) that 7flix’s ratings are tied to the format in which it is broadcast? Or are you just assuming?
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So then your complaint is with the manufacturers, for not supporting the MPEG-4 codec until 2009 (or, in some cases, 2016.)
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No. It’s a complaint (well, just highlighting a stupid decision on their part really) about the networks broadcasting free to air television stations which a large majority of Australians are not able to receive. I think I’ve made that clear…lol.
do we know that it’s a “large majority”?
Also, MPEG4 has been put in TV tuners for six years now. How long are broadcasters supposed to wait? There has to be a time when they have to bite the bullet and start to make the move. And essentially it is only minority channels and HD simulcasts that are impacted here. Primary channels, the ones that count the most, are still on the lowest common denominator MPEG2 format for SD.
Remember too that a similar thing happened with the advent of UHF. Set manufacturers had been producing sets with UHF tuners for 5 years before any TV stations started using that frequency band. Yes, there was some outcry that viewers with older sets were being disadvantaged, but nobody died. People adjusted to UHF, if they didn’t already have UHF capability they’d be buying set top boxes and/or antennas as necessary, and we moved on and took advantage of the benefits (e.g. better reception in fringe areas and access to new channels like SBS). Anyone that didn’t adapt were to accept that certain channels were not available to them.
Changing technical parameters also affected viewers in the early 1960s when the original 10-channel TV sets were not able to receive the new frequencies that had been ‘created’ on the dial. Sets with the 13-channel dials were in production for 3 years before TV transmissions began on these channels, and anyone with older sets or incompatible antennas had to get converted to pick up these channels if necessary.
Technology moves on and sometimes people get left behind but mostly only if they choose to.
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Well, the broadcasters (and everyone here) should ask themselves the pertinent question - does everyone who we want watching this channel, helping us generate advertising revenue, have a TV built after 2010? The answer is very clearly no.
That’s Seven’s problem. We can talk about the technology until the cows come home (which I accept, this is a nerdy media/tech based forum) BUT in the real world, the one in which Seven operates, that’s not the key issue.
No as the option was either no extra channel reaching no one or one extra channel (and in Nine and Ten’s case a simulcast in HD) reaching at least 50% of the population, probably more like 90% if most estimates are correct.
It was a no brainer. What is poor is the education of viewers on how to receive such channels.
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There was outcry when HD channels began broadcasting alternative content and eventually switched to full alternatives because of all the SD only TV’s and boxes out there but people survived, I think there were more people affected by that one than there is with the MPEG2/4. I’ve only heard of one person who has had issues and even the TV I thought wasn’t going to get the new channels has managed fine.
As brekkie said, the choice is either provide a new channel that the majority of people can watch or provide nothing. If there is a minority who can’t receive it, they’ll have to adapt just like they’ve had to when things have changed and moved on in the past.
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And at what point does the answer become Yes? 2018? 2020? 2025? Never? Hold everyone to ransom because Beryl hasn’t updated her TV since reluctantly plugging a set top box into the Sony Trinitron that dates back to the 1980s? No thanks.
If it was like that with computers we would still be using Windows 3.1 because how dare anyone develop anything that might be an advancement because think of the people still using 1990s computers. 
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How dare they waste tax payers money on a channel that not eveyone can view!.. Oh wait.
If you want to watch it, upgrade your TV. This is no different from the move to digital from analogue,
Maybe the real issue here is the communication to the general public that people who can’t receive the channels NEED to update their TV set. I think all channels reaslly should be MPEG 4 - its far more efficient and just overal better than MPEG 2, we all know this.
Just an FYI networks here actually wanted to bypass MPEG 4 and go straight to DVB-T2 but its the government who have stopped this.
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