WIN should just bite the bullet in these areas and swap 9Gem for Nine on the MPEG-2 HD channel vice-versa on the SD channel. The audiences are small. WA was very late with digital rollout so there would be an overwhelming majority of MPEG-2 HD households than in other areas. I’m sure the household subsidy schemes in both SA and Mildura ensured MPEG-2 HD equipment as well. Just do it.
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People have to accept that Technology moves very fast now. It’s not like the old days where Analogue Television lasted for more than 40 years and only difference is colour and better scan lines was added. Soon HDR is being added to broadcast aswell as 4K in some countries so say by 2020, we will be still in the stone age of Digital TV if we gave up and kept with MPEG2. MPEG2 died really at the turn of this decade, 7 years later we still have it!
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So the only reason the metro areas have 7HD is because the AFL isn’t on anymore? As soon as the AFL season comes back it goes back ?
Unlikely since AFL started back nearly 4 weeks ago.
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Here’s an idea… what about timeshift channels?
So as an example, you could have VICELAND HD live in MPEG-4 and a +1 or +2 hour delayed VICELAND SD using MPEG-2.
Seems like a win-win to me. That way those who watch live only experience the best quality, the MPEG2-only people don’t miss any content, plus it could kind of count as a ‘new’ service as it isn’t a duplicate of what is already live on air (which in its current form just seems wasteful to me). Best of all, it encourages the great Australian MPEG4 revolution! 
Most people I know choose their viewing via the EPG and couldn’t care less if they land on the HD or SD channel, however with programs at different times they’ll start to take notice. 
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im boycotting prime7 till they go to hd:)
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Again, they don’t want to because the Nine affiliate is not their primary channel in monopoly areas. Providing their ‘premium’ (I use the term loosely) Ten content in HD could potentially draw viewers over to their primary Ten affiliation as opposed to Seven or Nine content that is only in SD.
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How much do you think WIN is actually paying NINE to keep broadcasting their programs though?
It wouldn’t be 50%. Every chance it’s on par or less than what they pay TEN
WDT pays 20%
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Well if thats the case I’m confident WIN isn’t paying too much more than that in SA and Griffith/MIA. If they were then perhaps 9LIFE would still be on the air
So in these cases I’m sure WIN would not care too much as long as each channel is actively making revenue, not just their WIN branded channels
As discussed previously, other issues that would stop this from going ahead:
- No SD simulcast of the main channels, locking out the very few viewers with MPEG2 SD only equipment
- Breaks number ordering (GEM on 50, 7MATE on 60, WIN HD on 80; it would be NINE HD on 5, SEVEN HD on 6, WIN HD on 80)
- WIN SA at least - would possibly require new equipment as they have one statewide feed per multichannel but two different feeds for main channels
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Not if they do what they did for TDT, they reshuffled to the LCNs aligning with metro on 5 but didn’t launch 9Life:
5/51 - Nine
50 - 9HD
52 - 9Gem
53 - 9Go!
But again, WIN has no incentive to launch these channels as it takes away from their primary Ten affiliation, so Eastern SA and Griffith/MIA will just have to be content with what they’ve got.
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This is WIN we’re talking about, so that’s a perfect reason to go ahead with it.
Channels can have more than one LCN. So they could simulcast Nine HD on 5/50, and 7HD on 7/70. Right now, VAST has ABC HD on 2/21 with no SD simulcast at all.
Good point.
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Well hopefully not forever! 
Still a lot of work to do.
Golf looks atrocious, and South Park has been fully remastered in HD. Poor form.
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Those golf highlights are a waste of good electricity, and it’s even worse that the ABC can’t be bothered getting it in HD.
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Are they even 576i?
That looks like it was converted from a 480i source. Rather badly, I might add.
A shame really, considering the American network (pretty much certainly) produced it higher than that.
ABC’s picture quality has really started to rival that of WIN’s, notably since ABC NEWS 24 was dropped to SD and ABC HD introduced
I know both come out of MediaHub but so do other channels like 7FLIX which don’t have these problems
Credit to TV Cynic for capping this. How do you fix this widespread problem? Move the HD channels to the main channel LCN?
Something needs to be done before the networks decide the HD bandwidth would be better utilised as more SD multichannels.
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This may be an unpopular opinion coming from me, but I think the commercial channels should transmit their main channel’s HD services in Stereo instead of Dolby Digital. Why? Because if you’re watching them in HD, it sounds much quieter than the equivalent SD services, which is the reason why my parents generally watch the commercial main channels through their Samsung MPEG-4 compatible TV in SD instead of HD, except in rare circumstances. In contrast, ABC, SBS & SBS Viceland transmit their HD channels in Stereo & therefore can be viewed & heard on the same volume as its SD services.
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Same issue in my house - played with the settings on our Topfield PVR (the only MPEG-4 compatible device we have) and now the inverse is true: the 5.1 HD channels are somewhat louder than their SD equivalents