HD Broadcasting

Just checked on my other TV, 7HD is broadcasting in MPEG2-HD

Just like the Sunshine Coast, 7HD Townsville is on LCN 7, 70, and 71

7mate is now in MPEG2-SD

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In Townsville iā€™ve got:

LCN 7: ā€œ7HD Townsvilleā€, MPEG-2 1080i
LCN 70: ā€œ7HD Townsvilleā€, MPEG-2 1080i
LCN 71: ā€œ7HD Townsvilleā€, MPEG-2 1080i
LCN 72: ā€œ7TWO Townsvilleā€, MPEG-2 576i
LCN 73: ā€œ7mate Townsvilleā€, MPEG-2 576i
LCN 74: ā€œ7food networkā€, MPEG-4 576i
LCN 76: ā€œ7flix Townsvilleā€, MPEG-2 576i
LCN 78: ā€œRACING.COM, MPEG-4 576i

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Now looking back at recordings from the change; the regional 7HD was always in MPEG2. It is just that at the changeover the SD channel remained but about 30 minutes ago, it go redirected to the HD stream as well.

Very interesting.
So theyā€™ve basically just switched 7 and 7mate over.

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Yes and in a way that didnā€™t affect anyoneā€™s tuner. 7HD now running at 7.8 Mbps for video.

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I wonder if there will be complaints from viewers with SD only equipment?

HD capable TVs only became mainstream about 10 years ago, which sounds like a long time, but many people hang onto their equipment for longer than that.

I do wonder why they bothered to invest in MPEG 2 encoders when that is an outdated technology?

Going MPEG4 would have made more sense and would help to phase out MPEG2.

I agree that MPEG 4 would have been better but there are only a small number of SD only TVā€™s nationally.

The 2017 report said that 97% of households receive HD on every TV in the household (bearing in mind that only 98% of TVs can receive digital TV on every set).

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Letā€™s hope it is permanent, someone needs to finally bite the bullet and quit screwing around with old tech you canā€™t hold the hands of MPEG2 SD viewers forever

I have also noticed that all the main 7 channels are just ā€œ7 Toowoombaā€ no mention of HD and no SD simulcast at present

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Thinking about things a bit more, I wonder if the Regional QLD transmission of Sevenā€™s main channel only in MPEG2 HD is just a temporary thing (gives viewers their much craved HD channel without needing any technical upgrades at the soon to be decommissioned BCM) until the playout moves to NPC when the 7-8mbps stream will probably be split into two - say, a 3mbps-ish MPEG2 SD stream with the rest going to the permanent HD channel in MPEG4 at 4-5mbps?

With an estimated 97% of households being able to receive HD on every TV in the household (which is likely higher in regional areas, since many there probably upgraded to Digital TV later than metropolitan markets), itā€™s probably a smart idea for a temporary solution when you think about it!

Yep, for a long, long time the rules were that there had to be triplecasting - the same signal on analogue, SD and HD. The only multichanneling was on ABC and SBS with channels which had to be very specific and were quite restrictive - e.g. World News Channel for SBS not allowed to show anything in English and ABC Kids/Fly for Kids and youth.
Once the rules were relaxed a little, it was only the HD channels late at night able to do a bit of breakaway programming before finally having multichannels allowed with 7TWO, 9GO! etcā€¦
The only way to legally get a third channel was by having the HD channel become that hence 7mate, 9Gem, One being in HD before switching back to being the main channels once the rules were relaxed again to allow more multichannels.

Hope that clears things up a little more about how we ended up back to the future!

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This change has been quite fascinating, itā€™s interesting to know that there is no SD version of 7 available at all.

Excellent way to force viewers to use the HD simulcastā€¦ offer nothing but the HD option!

My parents have an old (non-MPEG4) TV from about 10 years ago, and Mum just called me a moment ago saying that 7HD had appeared on her TV, and she ā€œcouldnā€™t find 7 Oneā€, she said ā€œbecause it said HD I thought it wouldnā€™t work on our TV, but it actually doesā€.

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Wow. Never thought Iā€™d see the day a network making a move like this. About time. Hope itā€™s permanent.

I would have thought the technology between transmitter and household is generally unrelated to playout? The way I understand it is; BCM is producing 7 in HD for each Qld market now, so they have the capacity, and using MPEG-4 or MPEG-2 encapsulation is optional at each transmitter depending on the available bandwidth. So BCM could be outputting 7HD in MPEG-4 for all we know. I could be wrong.

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Gotta admit it, credits needs to be given when itā€™s due (if permanent of course).

For all the shits I give Seven these days (and thatā€™s a lot), if they decide to do this in QLD then I for one welcome the move. Youā€™d usually Nine or even 10 would be the first ones to take the plunge.

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Iā€™ve been suggesting it here for years. Great to see itā€™s finally happening (permanently hopefully). Now thereā€™s simply no excuse for all the joint-ventures to not offer their primary channel in HD!

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ur lucky, prime 7 only has one channell for hd and thats lcn 60 and thats in mpeg4

How about the affiliation fees? Seven will no doubt want an increase if the JVs want a HD feed.

Maybe. Iā€™m not sure how it works and if theyā€™re all just in HD anyway, but it wouldnā€™t surprise me if thereā€™s a fee. We do know all of Nineā€™s channels are played out in HD.

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Possibly. But wouldnā€™t playout of the 21 Regional Queensland channels (taking into consideration that thereā€™s feeds of Seven, 7TWO and 7mate for all seven sub-markets) only really be needed to provide the content for terrestrial transmission/online streaming in the relevant sub-markets?

For all we know, the process of encoding MPEG2 SD and MPEG4 HD versions of the exact same feed may be more complex than we might think and with playout eventually moving to Sydney, it mightā€™ve been decided that for the sake of months (rather than years), it was easier for BCM to just change over the decoders used for Seven & 7mate playout for Regional Queensland, with separate MPEG2 SD/MPEG4 HD feeds coming when NPC takes over.

Iā€™d imagine more space would be needed at BCM/NPC for Sevenā€™s metropolitan channels, since a few versions of the feeds for Seven, 7TWO and 7mate (including clean feeds for affiliate use, the separate SD/HD feeds, etc.) seem to be produced for various uses.

Of course, Iā€™d be happy to be corrected on anything Iā€™m wrong with here by someone who knows more about the technical side of playout & transmission! :slight_smile:

In recent years, I personally wouldā€™ve presumed that Seven have been running HD feeds of at least the main channel and 7mate at BCM for the metro markets even though only one service was being sent to viewers at home.

Aside from the AFL-related breakaway transmissions weā€™ve seen (the last two years, only for 24 hours in Melbourne & Adelaide on April 24), there are some regional/remote affiliates who even now would still have a need for 7mate content in HD!

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You could be right mate. Anything is possible. Iā€™ve seen conversions happen on site with specialised equipment. Iā€™ve also seen sites that take the feed and simply retransmit as is (ABC and SBS regional). Sevenā€™s decision to go MPEG-2 for 7HD either takes advantage of not having to change anything at each site, or at playout, or both. Or, as a long shot, they are equipped to do MPEG-4 but have decided to trial MPEG-2 in Qld.

Who knows?

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In terms of different equipment for SD and HD, only rack space is neededā€¦ where the HD presentation output (before watermark) is routed into a downconverter, from there into the watermark generator, then into the MUX for that market, then off to the transmitter.

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