HD Broadcasting

TV broadcasting was one of the things suggested with the NBN but since the bodged up network that is now being delivered, all hope of that has gone as well. It would have been good for that and Foxtel to have been coming through the fibre rather than people needing the satellite dishes or aerials but when bandwidth is at a premium for those on a node (the supposedly superior system to everything) this just won’t work. Such a shame the government couldn’t listen to the experts and now the people miss out.

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1080p IPTV streaming really is the future. The ability to pick and choose what one wants to subscribe to rather then what Rupert wants us to be watching.

Ah well, maybe one day!

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Except it really isn’t. Because things end up in different bundles of content, and you’ll be chipped away at in a bunch of $10 a month fees to dozens of different content providers, instead of getting content within one subscription.

At the moment if that just means Netflix and Stan, plus some sports code subscriptions - maybe that’s better than a Foxtel monopoly - but if the trend keeps up of each network/studio wanting their content in their own subscription bucket - we’re going to be in a situation that leaves us worse off overall, or going back to lots of content being effectively unavailable.

Or that will come full circle and there’ll be a company that does a deal with a bunch of major streaming sites to be a single subscription fee portal for them all - and then they become the new Foxtel. Then the best content provider will break free and launch the cycle again.

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And the studios wonder why torrents are so popular!!

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The way the UK has done it is by the channels working together and clearing one mux for the first HD mux a few years ago, making their own DVB-T muxes more efficient in the process. Two temporary muxes were then made available with a reach of 70%, but these are set to be claimed back for mobile companies - because watching content on a 5 inch screen is so much more in demand than watching content on a 42 inch screen in HD apparently. The intention is though that this gives a buffer for other muxes to switch to DVB-T2 in the meantime, and although no firm date has been set it’s expected to be by the end of the decade. In the UK a DVB-T2 mux can roughly hold either 8 HD channels or 6 HD + 6 SD channels.

Meanwhile next week France will do an overnight switch to DVB-T2 which reduces their number of multiplexes from 8 to 6 and switches almost all channels to HD (just two remain in SD), although 11 already broadcast in HD. They have 29 HD channels and 2 SD across the 6 muxes and achieved it by basically closing the existing platform and having all channels bid for a place on the new platform, with existing channels getting priority over newcomers.

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It’s funny that one of our closest neighbours, Indonesia are implementing DVB-T2 and will have it fully rolled out by 2017. Then they will switch off their analogue signal.

Even NZ is broadcasting all channels in MPEG-4.

When did they start deploying? Australia took far too long to roll it out which is why it’s too soon to start changing dramatically and expecting people to replace again but it needs to be looked at.

Similar with many African countries.

All but a pipe dream here.

NEP Australia Launches HD12 Supertruck at Etihad Stadium
http://www.content-technology.com/asiapacificnews/?p=10764

Comparison between the quality of a NRMA ad as shown on Nine HD Sydney:

…and the same ad as seen on Ten HD Sydney:

If that’s how an ad looks like, you can just imagine the quality difference of native HD programs on Nine compared to upconverted stuff on Ten!

Hopefully at some stage I’ll be able to do a comparison example an ad in native HD on both Nine HD and Ten HD. Apparently, Ten HD has the higher bitrate so I’d be quite interested to see how it stacks up compared to Nine HD.

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Today’s Super Rugby replay on ONE (regional) is SD :frowning:

So Ch 7 is the only network with all their channels streaming. Even on Telstra TV they are the only ones with all available to stream.Assuming things don’t change and the ABC launches in HD as planned, Seven is only network with their main channel not in HD :frowning: but the only one with them all streaming ! I don’t think the streams are 1080i HD either.

Not sure if I mentioned it on here but surely they aren’t going to show the Olympics only in HD on 7mate. They need to upgrade to a more efficient MPEG-4 for the main channel. Maybe the majority of the population doesn’t care if they see the Olympics on the main channel in SD. They could advertise as "Watch the Olympics in crystal - clear HD " .

They do have one 1080p stream which is their main channel is Sydney, although it’s not available on any of their apps.

https://sevenwestmedia01-i.akamaihd.net/hls/live/224838/MISC2/master.m3u8

Watching a bit of ONE regional yesterday, not one show was in HD. Hope this was just coincidence

So 3 weeks until the ABC launched HD ? or 7 weeks ?

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Seven has killed the HD stream. Now an SD stream :frowning:

Currently in the United States and have noticed how even smaller regional stations have HD news.

For example, here in southwest Missouri, the stations that are based in Springfield all seemed to have HD news sets and some footage as well for their local bulletins. Those stations are:

KYTV “KY3” (NBC)
KOLR 10 (CBS)
KBRK "FOX 5"
KSPR “ABC 33”

This is for a total regional population of about 500,000.

I would like to think that our Australian regional networks back home could then be in a position to at least have HD sets/graphics for studios that serve 2 million plus people (notably WiN, also NBN).

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The US stations however mostly switched from 4:3 to HD - rather than to SD Widescreen first.

For news, arguably SD widescreen is good enough.

Probably to be expected but DeciderTV is reporting that the originally slated for June (re)launch of ABC HD has been delayed to later this year, because the main focus for technicians at the moment is pre-affiliation switch technical upgrades for WIN and SCA: http://decidertv.com/page/2016/5/31/delay-confirmed-for-abc-high-definintion-launch-abctv

Now…will it be Seven or the ABC who’s first to resume a HD simulcast of their main channel in most metro markets?

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http://www.grassvalley.com/news/press/releases/view/498-win-television-increases-news-prod

WIN did upgrade all their equipment to HD back when they moved to automated systems, as the presser at the time stated. Despite this, WIN’s broadcast is still upscaled SD.

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