The Official view on Digital broadcasts in the UK
 

Can anyone shed any real light on this?


My impression was:

The analogue will be switched off in 2012.

Those within the freeview (terrestrial) footprint are expected to go that
route and purchase TVs or Set Top Boxes to cope, between now and then.
Approximate cost £40 and falling.



Those outside this footprint (the majority of the land area?) are expected
to use SKY
Approximate cost ????


Is this actually stated anywhere as Government policy?



How does HDTV play into this? Will this run alongside? Or is this another
fiasco yet to be unleashed?





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John Beeston wrote:
Can anyone shed any real light on this?
My impression was:
The analogue will be switched off in 2012.

Those within the freeview (terrestrial) footprint are expected to go that
route and purchase TVs or Set Top Boxes to cope, between now and then.
Approximate cost £40 and falling.

Those outside this footprint (the majority of the land area?) are expected
to use SKY

The plan is that either before, or at the same time as analogue switch off,
to have all the present 1154 TV transmitters radiating at least three
of the six muxes, so in theory everyone that can receive analogue signals
today, will be able to receive at least 3 muxes after switch off.

So in short the only people outside of DTT footprint, will be the same people
unable to receive analogue terrestrial services today.

Present analogue coverage is stated as 99.4% of the UK population.

How does HDTV play into this? Will this run alongside? Or is this another
fiasco yet to be unleashed?

That's a separate issue.

On Wed, 6 Oct 2004 11:38:29 +0100, "John Beeston"
wrote:

Those outside this footprint (the majority of the land area?) are expected
to use SKY

There is some free digital satellite service in the works that was
discussed here a few months ago.
--
Andrew, contact via interpleb.blogspot.com
Help make Usenet a better place: English is read downwards,
please don't top post. Trim replies to quote only relevant text.
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"Mark Carver" wrote in message
...
The plan is that either before, or at the same time as analogue switch
off,
to have all the present 1154 TV transmitters radiating at least three
of the six muxes, so in theory everyone that can receive analogue signals
today, will be able to receive at least 3 muxes after switch off.

So in short the only people outside of DTT footprint, will be the same
people
unable to receive analogue terrestrial services today.
...

But will those people who manage with poor analogue reception be able to get
digital at all?

--

Brian Gregory. (In the UK)

To email me remove the letter vee.

Brian Gregory [UK] wrote:
But will those people who manage with poor analogue reception be able to get
digital at all?

Going by tests I did in a very marginal reception area in the Highlands,
yes - but with a fair bit of breakup. The analogue picture was very
snowy with a lot of ghosting (and quite unwatchable on C4), and the
digital picture was as per normal for DTT but would glitch quite badly
every 10 seconds (on average). This was with an old Philips onDigital
box, so modern boxes will probably do better.

I'd imagine that by the time of switchoff in areas with poor reception
the local installers/retailers will have an idea of which STBs have the
best sensitivity and can best handle glitches (e.g. by freezing the
picture and muting the sound rather than breaking up badly and
"popping"). Also, with any luck the small relay stations which serve the
areas will get a power boost.

--
Angus Rae,
EUCS, Science & Engineering Support
University of Edinburgh
The above opinions are mine, and Edinburgh Uni can't have them

"Angus Rae" wrote in message
...
Brian Gregory [UK] wrote:
But will those people who manage with poor analogue reception be
able to get
digital at all?

Going by tests I did in a very marginal reception area in the
Highlands,
yes - but with a fair bit of breakup. The analogue picture was very
snowy with a lot of ghosting (and quite unwatchable on C4), and the
digital picture was as per normal for DTT but would glitch quite badly
every 10 seconds (on average). This was with an old Philips onDigital
box, so modern boxes will probably do better.

I'd imagine that by the time of switchoff in areas with poor reception
the local installers/retailers will have an idea of which STBs have
the
best sensitivity and can best handle glitches (e.g. by freezing the
picture and muting the sound rather than breaking up badly and
"popping"). Also, with any luck the small relay stations which serve
the
areas will get a power boost.

--
Angus Rae,
EUCS, Science & Engineering Support
University of Edinburgh
The above opinions are mine, and Edinburgh Uni can't have them

Modern Freeview set top boxes are substantially better at eliminating
pixellation than the old Philips DTX6370/6371 OnDodgy boxes where
there's interference.
Regards Mike.

--
They're coming to take me away ha-haaa
All those nice young men in their clean white coats
They're coming to take me away ha-haaa.
(Napoleon XIV).



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"Mark Carver" wrote in message
...
The plan is that either before, or at the same time as analogue switch
off,
to have all the present 1154 TV transmitters radiating at least three
of the six muxes, so in theory everyone that can receive analogue
signals
today, will be able to receive at least 3 muxes after switch off.


Hmmmm ... At the moment I receive 3or possibly 4 muxes ... albeit very
unreliably..

Unfortunately none of these carry BBC1 2 ... nor (I think) BBC3, BBC4, BBC
news or Parliament ...

Although bid-up TV and abc1 are coming in stong ...

Is the criteria "at least three muxes" really deemed to be a success
criteria?





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"Andrew" [email protected] wrote in message
...
On Wed, 6 Oct 2004 11:38:29 +0100, "John Beeston"
wrote:

Those outside this footprint (the majority of the land area?) are
expected
to use SKY

There is some free digital satellite service in the works that was
discussed here a few months ago.


Just as a matter of interest ... does "discussed here" have any influence on
"the Official View"?

Is this "free satellite service" proposal documented anywhere? Who was going
to provide it?





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On Wed, 6 Oct 2004 13:02:20 +0100, "Brian Gregory [UK]"
wrote:

But will those people who manage with poor analogue reception be able to get
digital at all?

If, like us, they can't receive *any* terrestrial services, digital or
analogue, then the only source of digital services, at the moment, is
DST.

--
Alan White
Twenty-eight miles NW of Glasgow.
Overlooking Loch Goil and Loch Long in Argyll, Scotland.
http://tinyurl.com/4gday

John Beeston wrote:
"Mark Carver" wrote in message
...
The plan is that either before, or at the same time as analogue
switch off,
to have all the present 1154 TV transmitters radiating at least
three of the six muxes, so in theory everyone that can receive
analogue signals today, will be able to receive at least 3 muxes
after switch off.


Hmmmm ... At the moment I receive 3or possibly 4 muxes ... albeit very
unreliably..

At the moment yes, and I've explained to you in this group several times John, why that is.

However as part of the analogue switch off plan, Guildford analogue will of course be
switched off. When that happens, DTT services from Hannington will
be able to become omni-directional.
In other works DTT will have the same footprint as analogue, and you'll get all 6 muxes.