As frustrating as it is for those of us on MS or peeps that appreciate the better PQ, I doubt anyone else in regional Qld notices they don’t have 7 in HD. Living in Melbourne and being used to the Metros, when I’ve been home to Rocky, I’ve changed my mum’s and sister’s TVs so the HD channels are the main ones they see but they’ve never noticed the difference. I think 7 aren’t too worried because they think everyone else is the same and can’t tell the difference between SD and HD.
It seems like such an effort just so a HD watermark can be inserted on top of the existing feed. If only Seven invested in equipment at each transmission site that did that for them without the need for BCM to playout duplicate channels. When Prime HD launched last decade, they installed equipment at each site that would play local advertising over the top of a statewide HD feed. It was synced with the playout and was triggered by a hidden code in the feed. Genius idea.
Meanwhile, Nine and Ten have a completely opposite attitude towards HD.
Nope, you’re thinking of 7flix. From what I can tell with the online streams, there are as many localised 7mate’s as there are 7’s. So it seems like Seven have the capacity to swap 7mate for 7 across Regional Qld. We also know their transmission sites are capable of outputting MPEG-4 channels. What isn’t certain is if they’re able to transport an additional SD channel to their sites, or if their equipment at BCM can handle simulcasting the 7 service.
7, 7Two and 7Mate have different feeds for each sub-market and 7Flix (as I’ve been reminded tonight) has a North/South feed. Only the racing channel is state wide.
ON the Gold Coast the SD channel carries the local news while the HD channel continues with the Brisbane feed. They could use that system regionally as well.
Although I think Regional Queensland advertisers would complain if their ads aren’t seen by local viewers on the HD channel! And would Seven really be happy if regional viewers were watching Seven News Queensland live on LCN-70 instead of the local/condensed state edition they’re supposed to be seeing?
Seven Gold Coast probably runs the exact same ads (despite the localised watermark, promos and late afternoon programing to accompany the 5.30pm local news bulletin) as the main Seven Brisbane feed. With both that and the fact that Seven Gold Coast airs the full hour of Seven News Queensland live every night, it mightn’t matter as much if the Gold Coast can watch the main Seven Brisbane feed on LCN-70.
Replacing 7mate’s HD with 7HD isn’t the answer.
Firstly, that HD gear may not be MPEG-4 compatible, but it would also leave no gear for 7mate to still be broadcast in SD as the main channel will still require the same gear to broadcast the SD version. It would require new gear as it is still adding a channel, despite it being the same content.
It is my understanding that 7flix (for the whole of Australia) is played out of MediaHub (or it was to begin with anyway) as BCM didn’t have the capacity to accomodate it - that’s why Seven didn’t use it for the Olympics as it would be a lot more complicated to out something on it live.
[quote=“SydneyCityTV, post:1284, topic:279”]
Seven Gold Coast probably runs the exact same ads (despite the localised watermark, promos and late afternoon programing to accompany the 5.30pm local news bulletin) as the main Seven Brisbane feed.
[/quote]Correct. Between 4.30 and 6.00 the ad breaks on both channels are the same length and play the exact same ads. The only difference is that any news promos are a version that includes both Brisbane and Gold Coast presenters.
If I was in control of broadcasting, etc., I’d severely reduce the bitrate of the MPEG-2 simulcast channels, and put most of it into 3 x MPEG-4 HD channels.
For those in signal overlap areas like Sydney, Central Coast, Gold Coast, etc., the way it is currently is actually a positive thing – i.e. I get to have both 7 and 7mate in HD. Though I can see why those who can only get the regional affiliates’ signals would prefer to have 7HD.
After the switchover with WIN, many other Channel 9 Affiliates don’t have HD yet. Murrumbidgee, Mildura, Griffith, WA have primary Channel in SD. It is about that Channel 5 should get it in HD.
