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All posts by peter

Below are all of peter's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.


@trevorharris

Like a needle stuck in the groove of a record, I was expecting your usual comments about 1920x1090 and 3D...

You've made it quite clear that you do not use Freeview HD and you mainly watch Sky Sports HD on satellite, so why do you have to keep on raising the SAME subjects, and make the SAME comments that very few others on this forum appear to agree with?

I agree that the PQ of current HD is no way like it was when HD first started, but it the BBC (and others) had stayed with 1920x1080 and 19.2 mbit/sec we would only be getting 2 HD channels on a transponder from the BBC and Sky.

Personally I am very pleased that there is going to be another HD channel made available as part of Freeview HD (when it arrives down south).

I appreciate your VIEW that the encoders have not improved enough for 5:1 compression but what DATA do you have to back up this assertion?

Brian - if you count this as being disrespectful, please feel free to delete it.

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@trevorjharris

I understand your concerns, but 5:1 has not been implemented on Freeview yet, so perhaps let us see what happens with the encoder improvements are implemented before assuming we will see reduced PQ. Perhaps the BBC are correct in the result of their tests?

Perhaps this increased "squeezing" will allow more HD in the future on satellite as well which may be a good thing?

Just for my background - how do you know that testing done by the BBC is "insufficient"? Do you work in the broadcast television industry?

BTW - I'm personally pleased that this change might preclude 3D (stereoscopic) until they find a way to do it that does't require 2X bit rate in a non-compatible manner as at present. After all 1920x1080 would only give half this (960x1080) to each image and you are complaining about 1440x1080 as being "substandard", so is 3D also "substandard". Do you need 2x1920x1080 (or 3840x1080) transmission to get proper 3D?

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Brian,

I get Freeview from the Whitehawk transmitter using (I believe) a group C/D aerial and can get all current multiplexes.

With the signal loss predicted -15 to -6 dB, and after the power increase at DSO, won't the resultant signal levels on COM7, COM8 and COM9 be very similar to those I currently get?

Regards

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Brian: Thanks - I'll wait, though, until something more definite happens about the use of COM7-9 before I replace my current aerial.

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Brian: Thanks for this - really useful information. I'm just amazed at how 8 MHz of analogue bandwidth can deliver 40 Mbps of data rate in digital.

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Nigel - what model Sony TV do you have? I've seen a number that are "HD" but do not have the required DVB-T2 decoder built in.

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P
BBC satellite services moving to Astra 1N on 24th February 2012
Wednesday 22 February 2012 4:00PM
Brighton

@trevorharris:

For Sky to have News HD they needed to equip one studio to transmit the one channel to the entirety of the UK using 1/5 of a transponder.

For the BBC they would need to equip every regional studio (how many do they have now?) with HD equipment and use (I guess) 3-4 transponders to provide the service.

It was the same with widescreen - there is the small matter of cost - it was the same with widescreen.

And for news - what does widescreen / HD / 3D really matter? Is the news different in HD?

The BBC has to absorb the cost with no increases in license fee over the next years - Sky can charge extra for HD and use HD (and 3D for that matter) as an USP to get more people to subscribe for £££.

Of course, if the BBC stopped regional programming then they could easily offer would be the same as Sky...

@Josh;

I'm using Windows Media Center 7 with DVB-S2 without any problems - I did have to change my receiver PCI card when the BBC changed from DVB-S to S2 though, but other than tthat I've had no problems - just needed to do a manual search on the associated transponders to pick up BBC1 HD and BBC HD.

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trevorjharris:

Firstly - where was it documented that the reduction in EPG fees was in exchange for iplayer access on anytime? I thought the iplayer access was agreed back in January; and why should the reduction of BBC affect other PSB providers?

Secondly - what is your source of information for the proposed reduction of BBC regional areas on satellite?

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trevorjharris:

Thanks for the link - I imagine the BBC would want to reduce number of regions for general cost reasons anyway - all those offices for staff, and all those transponders showing exactly the same programmes except for about 45 minutes per day.

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