The switchoff begins ...

Charlie Pearce wrote:


Most programmes produced these days in the UK are in widescreen (and

I am glad you said in the U.K, since most of our programms are imported,
that do not mean much do it?


pretty soon most programmes produced by the BBC will be HDTV - if not

Oh wow, should I get excited about that?


already). As for HDTV, I can't wait for it, and I think your
assertion that 90% of the population isn't interested is way off the
mark.


I doubt 90% of the population even know what HDTV is.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3652402.stm


TV technology has been changing ever since it was invented - why
freeze it in its tracks now? What was wrong with 405-line black and
white TV with mono sound? People had to buy new receivers and face
the prospect of their old sets going blank the day the VHF
transmitters were switched off (sound analagous to anything?) - do you
think it would have been better for everybody if things had been left
as they were?


When ever techonolgy have changed with T.v, it have improved it in so
way, digital have not, instead we just get more crap at worse quality.



But it will not be improved, that is the problem.


No, of course not. Progress has run its course.


You really think digital T.v is an improvment?
You get worse picture quality, you get the bloody red dot crap chucked
at you, you get a slow text system with les information.
You get more crap spread out over more channels.

Also why should people have to bow down to the goverment and big business?


Now you just sound paranoid and idiotic.


No, it bloody true, everything we do is for the government or the big
business.

I am getting fed up with being dictated to by the government.

Ben wrote:
Ad wrote:

Now you are talking rubbish


Am not :-P


Yes you are.

Digital T.v is nowhere near the qaulity of DVD, it do not even come
close to DVd quality,
even a DVD that is compressed to fit onto a 4.7 GB disk is still
better than digital T.V


They're both (usually) 720*576 MPEG2, the only difference is the
bitrate. DVDs manage about 8Mbps I would say, whereas DTT should be 4 or

Yes, bitrate, it means a lot.


5 but usually ends up being about 3 in the UK. Most of the time this
makes absolutely no observable difference to the picture at all. Its
only when you have high entropy scenes (i.e. lots of detail or fast

Then you are blind, it makes a lot of difference, maybe you should watch
BBc2 a bit more and see how crap it is on there.


movement) that the codec can't adequately encode the picture any more
and you end up with things like visible DCT artefacts. This does happen
and it looks crap, but as a proportion of time its quite small, and
statistical multiplexing goes a long way toward reducing it. Well over
90% of the time (depending on source material) stat-muxed MPEG2 at 4Mbps
looks exactly the same as 8Mbps.

Digital T.V is crap, there is no getting away from it, the quality needs
to improve.

JB wrote:


What make is your Sky+ box? My sky box is an Amstrad, I wish it was a
Pace, but since it is free it will do.
It will only be in use for another 8 months anyway.



Yeah, mine is a Pace actually. Was I lucky or did I do something special to
get a better one?



Mine was suppose to have been a Pace accoring to the paper I was given.
But I will say one thing about this Amstrad, the quality of the picture
is better than my mates Panasonic.
But then again, that could be just the way his T.V is set.

"Owain" wrote in message
...
Ben wrote:
.. Come to think if it, does anyone actually know of anyone who's bought
something from a freeview shopping channel?

I have purchased several items from QVC and found them (the items, and
QVC) to be entirely satisfactory.


I can second that. I purchased a digital camera from them when they were
offering it at a lower price than I could find it anywhere else. Damn fine
camera too.


(Argos exclude them from their 16 day return period) which is quite useful
if buying for a location you're not sure gets Freeview.


As do Tesco. I would have thought Argos/Tesco wouldn't have a choice though
if you returned it under the Distance Selling Regulations. I've often
wondered why they exclude them. It's not like a Camcorder you might use for
a wedding and then return :-)

news wrote:
I have purchased several items from QVC and found them (the items, and
QVC) to be entirely satisfactory.
I tried to buy from QVC, but they used a courier called "Reality", who
were strangely detached from it.

:-)

I never did get the item.

Depends on what the item is; QVC send some stuff my post and some by
courier. Couriers seem to be the weak point of almost all mail-order
operations.

Owain

JB said the following on 2005-04-01 22:27:

As do Tesco. I would have thought Argos/Tesco wouldn't have a choice though
if you returned it under the Distance Selling Regulations. I've often
wondered why they exclude them. It's not like a Camcorder you might use for
a wedding and then return :-)

You might buy it to watch a football match on five and return it saying
you don't get a signal (dispite a 1MW tx being in your back yard )

"Kev" wrote in message
...
JB said the following on 2005-04-01 22:27:

As do Tesco. I would have thought Argos/Tesco wouldn't have a choice
though if you returned it under the Distance Selling Regulations. I've
often wondered why they exclude them. It's not like a Camcorder you
might use for a wedding and then return :-)

You might buy it to watch a football match on five and return it saying
you don't get a signal (dispite a 1MW tx being in your back yard )


I guess. I just don't think it would be a popular scam. Technically, you
could do that with just about everything from Argos.

Alan Pemberton wrote:


That is the crux of the matter. All this baying and handwringing over
1080 v 720 lines is a scarlet mackerel. Give them a system that has 702
samples horizontally and what do they do? Use about half to
three-quarters of them. Then they shoot 50 fields a second and chuck
half away to make it look 'high class'. If it were up to me I'd not let
them have HDTV until they'd eaten all their greens.


Ok, whay ever. :-)