How international are Freeview boxes?

In article 8333a90b-1a6a-4e37-aa2b-
, Boltar wrote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_wave:

"Stereo transmission is possible and offered by some stations in the
U.S., Canada, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Australia,
The Philippines, Japan, South Korea, South Africa, and France.

So what? You can still listen to stereo AM with a mono AM radio. Try
listening to IBOC with a DAB radio or watching MPEG4 with an MPEG2
decoder.

Indeed. And try making something that will receive digital broadcasts
with nothing more than three electronic components, a pair of headphones
and a long piece of wire, and no power supply at all. It's still
possible to do this with medium-wave AM, but it will never be possible
with digital radio.

Rod.
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On 26 Sep, 13:41, J G Miller wrote:
Because the UKofGB&NI jumped into DVB-T right at the start,
8k FFT chips were significantly more expensive than the slower
2k FFT chips for the receiver-decoders, the powers that be in the

Is there much noticeable difference between 2K and 8K transmissions?
Is the 8K noticably more interference proof or is it more theoretical
than in practice?

B2003

On Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:42:00 -0700, Boltar wrote:
Is there much noticeable difference between 2K and 8K transmissions?
Is the 8K noticably more interference proof or is it more
theoretical than in practice?

I do not have sufficient technical expertise or data to give you a
quantitative answer, but I can say that for QAM-64 transmissions (as
opposed to QAM-16) it makes a substantial difference for less than grade
A signal strength in protecting against impulse interference and dropouts
and provides a more "robust" viewing experience.

That is why the Freeview licenced Multiplexes 1, B, C, and D were
required to transmit in QAM-16 as opposed to QAM-64 for Multiplex A.

QAM-16 is more robust than QAM-64 but the disadvantage is that there
is less bandwidth to sell for program content, which is why Multiplex 2
and A are overfilled with 9-10 TV stations but there are only 4-5 tv
stations on the Freeview multiplexes.

For further information see

Ofcom Recommend 64-QAM & 8K-mode for Freeview

at

http://www.digitalradiotech.co.UK/ar...64-QAM-amp-8K-
mode-for-Freeview.php

QUOTE
Unfortunately, the UK rushed into using the inferior 2K-mode (if the UK
had waited 6 months then we could have used 8K-mode)
UNQUOTE

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Brian McIlwrath
saying something like:

Does France transmit any digital channels on VHF??? "UHF only" used to
be a UK&Ireland only thing.

Hah. I thought so too, until I came here (Ireland) 14 years ago. Then I
discovered the UHF TV I brought with me needed a downconverter to
receive the two main Irish channels on VHF. Since then all sets sold
here have had a VHF/UHF tuner and modern auto tuners are pretty seamless
in that regard.
--

Dave

Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:

Does France transmit any digital channels on VHF??? "UHF only" used to
be a UK&Ireland only thing.

Hah. I thought so too, until I came here (Ireland) 14 years ago. Then I
discovered the UHF TV I brought with me needed a downconverter to
receive the two main Irish channels on VHF. Since then all sets sold
here have had a VHF/UHF tuner and modern auto tuners are pretty seamless
in that regard.

Err? What, exactly, were you downconverting the VHF channels to? (I'm
assuming your UHF tv didn't have an IF input!)

Personally, I'd have used an upconvertor!

Terry

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Terry Casey
saying something like:

Err? What, exactly, were you downconverting the VHF channels to?

See above - referring to "UHF only" sets.
--

Dave

"Grimly Curmudgeon" wrote in message
...
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Terry Casey
saying something like:

Err? What, exactly, were you downconverting the VHF channels to?

See above - referring to "UHF only" sets.

Well you were upconverting it then. No doubt with a Labgear Televerta.

Bill

On Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:29:56 UTC, Mark Carver
wrote:

Mind you, the FM radio band in Japan runs from 76 MHz to about 96 MHz,
that does cause difficulties, notably some Japanese 'grey import' cars
and car radios that find themselves in 88-108 regions.

Yup, our "grey" Daihatsu only gets radio 2 :-(

--
Regards
Dave Saville

NB Remove nospam. for good email address

In article
,
Boltar wrote:
On 26 Sep, 13:41, J G Miller wrote:
Because the UKofGB&NI jumped into DVB-T right at the start, 8k FFT
chips were significantly more expensive than the slower 2k FFT chips
for the receiver-decoders, the powers that be in the

Is there much noticeable difference between 2K and 8K transmissions? Is
the 8K noticably more interference proof or is it more theoretical than
in practice?

Well, there should be no noticable difference when the signal is strong
enough. :-)

However in principle, the 8k system should provide better protection
against ignition interference. (This assumes 'clicks' somewhat shorter than
the duration of the individual symbols.)

In practice, though, we won't know until it comes into use as the behaviour
will depend on various factors... and I think they will be winding up the
TX power at much the same time, thus making it hard to sort out one factor
from another! :-)

Slainte,

Jim

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We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "Bill Wright"
saying something like:

See above - referring to "UHF only" sets.

Well you were upconverting it then.

Doh! Of course I was.

No doubt with a Labgear Televerta.

Something similar - I unrecall exactly which. It now lives in Spain
where an ex-pat from one of these groups ran into the same problem and
couldn't get one locally.
--

Dave