16/12/2016 actually, but it probably “officially” became a fulltime HD simulcast of the main channel (with very occasional bursts of 7mate breakaway programing for 24 hours due to AFL) in all markets earlier this year.
But they don’t breakaway for HD AFL… in Brisbane and Sydney anyhow.
AFL for the vast majority of time is only on 7mate in SD.
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Sorry, late to the party I guess. I had a feeling that they might’ve not switched to HD earlier because I saw a lot of comments talking about this. Hopefully Prime and 7QLD will get there soon (and hopefully GWN and Southern Cross soon as well).
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And WIN Television in Regional SA (South East & Riverland areas).
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I suppose it would be too much to ask for Prime7 to broadcast the AFL Grand Final in HD, a complete affront to AFL fans. It would appear that it is also too much trouble to have the Grand Final on 7Mate.
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Southern Cross isn’t doing much better in Tas despite actually having a HD channel it’s still upscaled garbage.
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While it will not happen anytime soon (although it doesn’t hurt to dream right?), I would love Seven to be able to (at least) broadcast these channels by 2020.
For all metro, QLD, Prime-land, SC7 and GWN7
7/71 - Ch 7 SD
70 - Ch 7 HD
72 - Ch 7TWO HD
73 - Ch 7Mate HD
76 - Ch 7Flix (would like to see them do it in HD too, but realistically probably won’t happen) SD
Now, let’s wait for that to happen some day in the future 
.
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I’d like to see that too, except 7mate in HD
7 Seven
70 7HD
71 Seven
72 7TWO
73 7mateHD
74 7mate
76 7flix
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Are we realistically going to be able to see a network brave enough to try putting all of its channels (main + multi) in high quality HD anytime soon?
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Impossible if they want to keep MPEG-2 simulcasts for viewers with older equipment. One day they will have to bite the bullet and go all-MPEG-4 but I can’t see it happening in the next 5 years at least.
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Would switching to MPEG-4 mean they will lose viewers simply because many can’t be bothered to update?
Sorry, I’m not very good at tech so just wanting to ask.
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They would lose every single viewer that has an MPEG-2 TV or set-top box, which would be a lot of people. They were reluctant switching off analog when only a small percentage of households would have been affected.
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Yes, I agree.
Maybe sometime in the next couple of years, I could see the other networks doing something similar to what SBS has been doing since April this year (two MPEG4 HD channels) but I think a transition to all MPEG4 would have to be done very gradually over a long period of time complete with a major public awareness campaign similar to the analogue switchoff & digital restack.
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When 7Flix went the other way (ie it started out as MPEG4 and then was changed to MPEG2) there was a huge increase (almost double) in its ratings as more people could view the channel.
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Thanks @WAtvVideos.
Just another quick question (sorry, couldn’t resist asking), how many HD channels can MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 output? I assume Seven (and Nine, ABC and TEN) only have some channels on MPEG-4 with others on MPEG-2.
EDIT: Is it possible to have two HD channels on MPEG-4? Don’t think it’s possible to have 2 HD channels on MPEG-2.
SBS does now.
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Very few people understand that there’s a difference between MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 broadcasts, or even that there are differences. And more importantly, a lot of people seem unable to even tell the visual difference between and SD and HD channel.
If a network decided to turn off one of the MPEG-2 SD channels, the vast majority of people affected would just think it was a problem with the network and wouldn’t even know that it would solved by buying a new TV.
Then once people do know, a lot of people with older gear wouldn’t be able to afford a new TV or set top box - that’s why they still have older gear. (Plus set top boxes are annoying to used because it’s another thing to turn on, another remote etc. so can get too complicated to work out or people would be too lazy to bother).
However, if ALL network decided to do it at the same time, giving significant warning (like 6-12 months), ran a massive education program, it might work. Like with the re-stack, most people will get the message about needing to upgrade (and if they don’t, someone who they’d complain to such as a friend or relative would know). People would be left with no choice to upgrade if they want to see anything on TV, and retailers would be able to offer specials given the influx of people buying new gear.
Such a campaign would be expensive for the network to run though, and I’d question if the benfit they’d get would make it worthwhile given that a lot of people don’t care about HD.
There’s also a significant number of MPEG-2-only TVs still out there. Freeview give out their stat of some high number of households having access to MPEG-4 broadcasts, but that just means those households have at least 1 TV that is MPEG-4 compatible. Plenty of houses have multiple TV, and it ignores that many of them will not be MPEG-4 compatible. For example, my household has 4 TVs - 1 is MPEG-4 compatible natively, 1 has an MPEG-4 set top box, and the others have no MPEG-4 capability. While it might be realistic to expect most people to buy 1 new TV, it will become prohibitavely expensive for households that have multiple TVs to replace (remembering that sub-$30 set-top boxes are just a band-aid solution that doesn’t really solve the problem).
The biggest risk is that change will stop people watching TV altogether as it becomes too difficult and expensive to access free-to-air TV.
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Would it be possible to have one main 1080p MPEG4 channel and the rest 720p MPEG4?
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Here’s a quick and simple way to think about it without having to calculate bitrates etc. (Creative allocation of bitrates will give different results, but this works for the standard range of bitrates that our broadcasters are using).
Imagine there are 6 “slots” available.
MPEG-2 SD and MPEG-4 HD 1080i both require 1 slot.
MPEG-2 HD 1080i requires 2 slots.
MPEG-4 SD requires 0.5 slots.
Some broadcasters using slightly higher bitrates, which results in only 5 or 5.5 “slots” for this method.
Shopping channels can also be squeezing in smaller spaces since they typically run lower bitrates, but if you treat them the same in your calculation, it allows for slightly higher bitrates on the other channels.
Example 1: 9 Metro
LCN 9: 9SD MPEG-2: 1 slot
LCN 90: 9HD MPEG-4: 1 slot
LCN 92: 9GEM SD MPEG-2: 1 slot
LCN 93: 9GO SD MPEG-2: 1 slot
LCN 94: 9Life SD MPEG-2: 1 slot
LCN 95: Extra SD MPEG-2: 1 slot
Total: 6 slots
Example 2: SCA-9
LCN 5: 9SD MPEG-2: 1 slot
LCN 50: 9HD MPEG-4: 1 slot
LCN 52: 9GEM SD MPEG-2: 1 slot
LCN 53: 9GO SD MPEG-2: 1 slot
LCN 54: 9Life SD MPEG-4: 0.5 slot
LCN 55: Extra SD MPEG-4: 0.5 slot
LCN 56: Aspire SD MPEG-4: 0.5 slot
Total: 5.5 slots
It’s not that scientific, and won’t always be accurate, but it’s a near-enough calculation for discussing potential future combinations.
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Isn’t SCA 9Life (and all third multichannels in regional areas) in MPEG-4?
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