All posts by Pete
Below are all of Pete's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Why is ITV1+1 in the West & West Country ITV1 WALES ??? AN HOUR LATER instead of the correct region ?
| link to this comment |
Brian can you put this general DIGITAL RADIO thread back on the Digital Radio Home Page for easier access please. Ta
| link to this comment |
Perhaps you could simply anwer my question without being so sarcastic. A brief summary will do.
| link to this comment |
The BBC World Service might have been funded by "grant" in aid in the past, but from 2014 it is being funded out of the BBC licence fee as confirmed on BBC R4 "PM" again this week, when discussing the cuts.
Brian, what makes you think it will be totally closed down ? I cannot see this happening in my lifetime, even though its rich mix and range of programmes have drastically reduced, including pop & classical music, drama and comedy programmes most of which have been replaced by rolling news and business programmes in a very boring schedule (compared to 5 or 10 years ago) and the odd documentary and sport programme.
Nevertheless there would be a huge outcry if it was axed altogether. At least you can hear it in daytime hours these days in the UK, but sadly not on Freeview in the evenings in Scotland and Wales soon. 648kHz is very poor now in this part of the UK, as Radio Clwyd is on 657kHz (just next door and drowns it out). I guess 198kHz (1am - 5:20am) will go at the same time FM is switched off.
| link to this comment |
If actual coverage doesn't match predicted I for one will be rioting !! EGYPT ain't seen nothing yet if this is the case.
| link to this comment |
That's precisely my point Brian future DAB prediction is subject to the way DAB reception behaves, particularly on the move in a car, due to surrounding topography and obstructions + indoors in walled buildings. This, in my opinion, is why DAB radios are not fitted as standard in many new cars. If we are not careful we will be switching off an FM/LW/AM system "before" we have proved whether or not its replacement does work in all the so called "predicted areas" and there most certainly will be more gaps in remote parts of the country as the new transmitters will definitely not be enough to duplicate LW coverage, which gets into just about every nook and cranny of Britain, parts of Ireland and quite a bit of Western Europe, even Jordan on occasions as I heard myself on a number of occasions when the atmosphere was suitable !! I don't expect DAB will manage that, not by a long chalk !!
This is similar to switching off analogue UHF only to find, in good reception areas, BBC1, 2 ITV1 & Channel 4 STANDARD Freeview is beaming out a poorer quality picture (even @ 100% signal strength) as a result of insufficient bit rate capacity. No mention of this in all the pre-switchover hype. All this plus the loss of Ceefax and the lack of ability to watch one programme whilst recording another, without splashing out on more expensive kit. You talk about choice but when you weigh up must of the output where is the real choice amongst all the repeats, which far fewer Freeview channels could easily accommodate. I'd love to see the viewing figures for some of these digital channels, but they seem to frightened to publish them. There was a time when the main four channels figures were on Ceefax but that ended years ago, funnily enough just as digital TV began ? It is also sad to see ITV restricting the higher quality HD versions of most of their channels to SKY & VIRGIN only. You would have thought that as ITV have ploughed quite a bit of dosh into FREESAT, all their channels would be available on that platform at least, ditto FIVE HD.
| link to this comment |
Wednesday 26 January 2011 11:16PM
Sadly I cannot listen on line in the car, nor when I'm out walking in the Peak District, but in both locations I would still like to hear LIVE radio in the best quality possible, with a decent signal and without spending a fortune on batteries in the case of my pocket DAB radio.
Are you sure Wor;d Service is in stereo on line, it wasn't a few weeks ago ?
I do not really wish to deny choice to anyone, unless we get to the point where there are so many trashy TV channels the picture quality of the good main ones has to suffer. I think the planning of digital TV & radio leaves a lot to be desired however. I also hate seeing established services lose sound and/or picture quality which is a huge mistake when you are trying to pursuade people to embrace the new technology, which in the case of radio I did in the very early days only to hear it decline.