The switchoff begins ...

Dave Fawthrop wrote:

|
| I disagree. When the options are digital or nothing most will switch pretty
| damn quickly.

Also the cost of DTT is already falling are a huge rate. Remember the Beeb
were initially saying that a DTT STB cost GBP100, now it is down to GBP40.
In 2010 it will be down GBP10 or lower.


That is just for the box, then a new aerial. It will cost more than £100
to have a new aerial fitted.

"[email protected]" wrote in message
news
Even my wife
notices the difference and she's a woman.

So being a woman means you are blind?

Someone previously said in this thread: "I've said it before here and I'll
say it again"; and so will I ...

Why does it not seem to be possible for us to talk about society and the
people in it without using such lazy, unthinking, baseless, useless
stereotypes?

On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 09:57:49 +0100, Ad
wrote:

My sister was given a
DAB radio for Christmas, she notice the difference in the quality of the
stations and if she can notice, then I should think anyone can.

Spot the family man ...

"Ad" wrote in message
...
JB wrote:

You're seriously trying to tell me that you think people (the vast
majority anyway) would be willing to live in an apartment block that they
couldn't get TV in?

I don't see it happening myself

Then they would be on the streets then.

Do you mean evicted, or building barricades?

--
Max Demian

Ad wrote:
I expect you got bad analogue then, those of us with very good analogue
can tell the difference and digital is very poor.
Even my parents notice and they are in their 70's

True, I've never had decent analogue reception anywhere before (and two
places I lived were line of sight to the local relay - you could even
see the individual antennas on it). My current analogue reception is the
best I've had, and it still isn't very good. Digital, by contrast, looks
like DVD most of the time, unless the picture becomes too demanding for
the low bitrates they use.

But they know the quality. I give you an example, My sister was given a
DAB radio for Christmas, she notice the difference in the quality of the
stations and if she can notice, then I should think anyone can.
So the radio went back to Dixons and a normal analogue was purchased in
its place.

DAB is a bit different, they are really taking the **** with 128kbps
MPEG layer 2. Double the bitrate and it sounds OK.

OK, I'll admit I have an agenda here (apart from never having had a
decent analogue picture anywhere I've lived). Ofcom has already said
which parts of the old TV band they'll shove all the existing channels
into when analogue is switched off, and which parts they'll sell off.
The frequencies they're selling off fall into two separate bands. Its
my hope that one of those bands will be sold to mobile phone companies
for DVB-H and the other will be sold off for HDTV. Well, actually its
my hope that the whole lot is used for HDTV, but we have to be realistic.



Mobile phone companies have got enough of the spectrum and stick enough
of their towers everywhere as it is. I thought they would have learn
their lesson from the 3G system. that have not taken off and the Mobile
phone companies have lost millions because of it and then our phone
rates goes up to pay for it. We should get5 back to using a phone for
one reason and that is to receive and make calls. do you know that it is
getting impossible to buy a bog standard mobile phone, with out a camera
and all the other battery draining crap on?

I only use my mobile for phone calls and I'm dreading the day when I
have to replace it.

As for HDTV, I doubt it will come to terrestrial, Dsat is the best place
for that.
Another thing thing I got no interest in. the T.vs cost too much and at
the moment, I doubt any of the so called flat panel T.V is up to it anyway.
The CRT is still the best/

Have you ever seen any HD though? I've built up quite a collection of HD
material now, in fact I had to delete some of it recently because my
120GB hard drive was full. It very quickly begins to look normal, i.e.
'this is what TV should look like' and standard definition looks crap by
comparison.

On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 00:47:04 +0100, Ad
wrote:

I do not want to see analogue go, digital is not a patch on analogue and
it never will be.
I have said it before and I will say it again. Just because it got
digital in its name, it do not mean it is any good.
People have this idea, that anything digital is better.

Digital TV, in itself, is inherently better than analogue TV, as it
provides the (theoretical) ability to display on a viewer's TV exactly
the same picture as is captured at source. Unfortunately though, the
current implementation falls way short of this ideal, thanks to
overcompression and broadcast power limitations.

Digital TV also offers true widescreen and the potential for HDTV
(although these could of course be implemented by changing the
analogue standard), support for RGB displays, EPGs, interactivity and
other features.

Personally speaking, I'd rather see digital TV improved and driven
forward rather than trashed by the Luddites.

Charlie

--
Remove NO-SPOO-PLEASE from my email address to reply
Please send no unsolicited email or foodstuffs

On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 09:57:49 +0100, Ad
wrote:

Mobile phone companies have got enough of the spectrum and stick enough
of their towers everywhere as it is.

Are you sure you don't mean "Mobile phone companies got enough of the
spectrum"...?

Charlie

--
Remove NO-SPOO-PLEASE from my email address to reply
Please send no unsolicited email or foodstuffs

wrote:
It's very simple - come analogue switch off, the DTT broadcasts will
move into the vacated analogue frequency slots - virtually _all_
working TV aerial systems will receive them without any modification.

I'm not sure about this. Its certainly been said that this will happen
when relays start switching over, but ofcom have also said which
channels they are going to sell off. I wish I could find the ofcom
document, but basically if you divide the band into 4 quarters, the
first and third quarter will be kept, while the second and fourth
quarters will be sold off. This would indicate a bit of shuffling
around, which would necessitate a wideband aerial anyway.

"Ad" wrote in message
...
Dave Fawthrop wrote:

| | I disagree. When the options are digital or nothing most will switch
pretty | damn quickly. Also the cost of DTT is already falling are a huge
rate. Remember the Beeb
were initially saying that a DTT STB cost GBP100, now it is down to
GBP40.
In 2010 it will be down GBP10 or lower.


That is just for the box, then a new aerial. It will cost more than £100
to have a new aerial fitted.

Not if you live in an housing association :-)

On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 18:35:33 +0000 (UTC), Jim wrote:

Article @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4390579.stm

2 small towns (Ferryside and Llanstephan) in Carmarthenshire go
completely digital from 0400 on Wednesday.

I'm not sure that your statement is correct. Among all the propaganda
put out by the news reports since the analogue switch off there has
only been one report that indicated that BBC 2 was still being
transmitted on the analogue service due to BBC2W being the BBC2
flavour of choice on Welsh digital transmitters. The channel content
is such that the differences between it and BC2 Wales makes it
unacceptable to the majority of viwers.

Another point omitted from the news reports was the requirement for a
second digial STB should anyone wish to record a channel other than
the one they were watching at the time.

Technically the switch over has been a suuccess, but there are a
number of points that need to be addressed before it will be a success
with the public.


--
Cheers

Peter

"Ad" wrote in message
...




either. If there is sufficient viewing figures (and I suspect that
milestone has already passed) then the broadcasters really won't care if
you can't get TV any more.

How can it have past, not even half of the country have got digital yet,
there is still a long way to go.


Digital cable, digital satellite and digital Freeview?

Remember I'm talking about a broadcaster's point of view. They're after the
affluent, not the poor OAPs who can't afford £29 for a Freeview box.


If you can get digital, anyway, why should we settle for a system that is
worse than what we have already got?

It is about time people in this country fought for things and not lie back
all the time.



Well, I don't see this as a rioting in the streets issue. On the other hand
if you're right the government will no doubt back down.

I got shafted twice with 4* petrol so I'm unconvinced anyone will care.