All posts by Martin
Below are all of Martin's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
On my comment above on the small diagram the Ready wording is lined up exactly under HD, not to the left where it is now.
| link to this comment |
What this report really is saying is about a 2nd change when many people who already have bought equipment once. Have to go out and replace/upgrade again their freeview SD tv's/boxes and buy DVB-T2 versions if they want to watch the HD channels.
Why do they continue in this country to sell HDTV's that still only have SD tuners in them, when the HD versions cost so little now to produce.
| link to this comment |
Brian,
No not like the logo in the link you have said. Basically I have seen in my local Tesco's a few months ago a TV that are being sold.
They have the red Freeview logo and next to it HD in big silver letters which makes it look like the Freeview HD like this:-
Freeview
/ Home
/ HD
Underneath it level with the HD lettering says Ready, as in the HD Ready logo.
If I had a picture of the brand make and model I could show you. But this tv when you look closer at the spec can see that it doesn't have Freeview HD built in.
| link to this comment |
You can actual see this was going to happen in the next few years after switchover. I receive my channels through Belmont and since it also started broadcasting digital signals, there have been 11 frequencies used 5 analogue & 6 digital.
Now we have gone back to 6 frequencies again you would of thought what they would do with the other 5. Plus Freeview desperately needs more capacity due to the compression of a lot of channels.
Now if they broadcast and use on all the frequencies using the newer DVB-T2 MPEG4 system by 2016. I bet on it that by about 2020 the rest of the DVB-T channels will cease to be broadcasted and switched to DVB-T2. Hence another switchover on equipment like I was saying earlier. When people are only just buying equipment for this switchover still with only the DVB-T spec.
The DVB-T MPEG2 spec has been broadcasting here since 1998. Over the next 5-10 years I would say DVB-S broadcasting on satellite will go the same way and completely switch to DVB-S2 MPEG4.
| link to this comment |
Brian, I was only talking about the new 7 frequencies stated in the report going DVB-T2 for HD. I forgot to say new frequencies in my last comment. Not that we know what channels will be broadcasted and what system will be proposed in the report.
It's a shame as we are the first country to use DVB-T2 that we are not exploiting it and making manufactures only sell the DVB-T2 spec products in the UK. Sky now only sell DVB-S2 spec boxes.
Technology moves quickly and we didn't really think how to design this generation of flat screen tv over the last few years. Products should be designed so you can upgrade them like a PC and of a modular design. The tv's and PVR's are basically computers and they get more intelligent every year, just like Smart TV's we are seeing which have more processing power.
By only changing the tuner(s) in the product swapping in and out the tuner card and not replacing the whole thing. Wouldn't that be a better way to implement things.
I know this is thinking out of the box and really something for the future. But anything is possible.
| link to this comment |
Brian,
I know it's not a simple software implemation. That's because you are taking out the DVB-T hardware and replacing with DVB-T2 tuner hardware. If products were designed this way.
People are replacing and upgrade things every 3 to 5 years, not every 10-15 years when you used to buy a tv. Why not design it with the right hardware and processor to start with.
Processing power isn't really an issue these days. Not when the technology has already been used in Japan using a cell processor which is also used in a PS3 designed in 2006. Toshiba made a television in 2009 that implemented this.
Toshiba Shows First TV Based on Cell Chip | PCWorld
Sony is also gearing up with a new version to do this in it's Bravia range:-
Sony Banking On New Super Fast Cell Processor For PS4 & Bravia TV - Smarthouse
I am talking about tv's in the last couple of years should all have DVB-T2 tuners built in as standard. Also building products that are upgradable and last. In the last 10 years I have upgraded 7 devices in my house.
Just remember how many devices are no longer able to be used after the switchover, i.e old ITV Digital boxes which only came out 13 years ago and many other devices.
| link to this comment |
Hi Brian, I haven't posted anything in a while but I want to just go back to my post I made on Thursday 18 August 2011 at 5:37PM. I was talking about future proofing and upgradeable hardware in tv's. Well under 5 months down the line at CES 2012 Samsung are showing us this is possible. Read this BBC report about it:-
BBC News - Samsung's 'future-proof' voice-controlled television
On top of that they have incorporated an Xbox Kinect style controller to replace the remote. It looks like Samsung are watching consumers ideas about future tv developments. Where people have been using a Kinect gestures to control a tv on Youtube.
| link to this comment |
Thursday 18 August 2011 12:10AM
Alan Clarke:
The only Freesat TV models that LG made are the discontinued LF7700 models. These tv's only have Freesat HD DVB-S2 and Freeview DVB-T tuners in them.
I have seen tv's on display in supermarkets and the outer box displays the Freeview logo and next to it HD and underneath it Ready like this close together:-
Freeview HD
Ready
They are clearly not proper Freeview HD tv's but only Freeview & HD Ready. Generally they are Tesco cheap brand models. One way to catch people out.