All posts by Pete
Below are all of Pete's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
How can you tell me one minute to ask for increased bit rates whilst on the other hand state that it is against the law to give the BBC more capacity on another Multiplex. The BBC are not magicians and neither am I !!
The planners on the other hand were tremendously short sighted unlike some of their European counterparts. We always seem want our people in this country to accept lower and lower standards, whilst trying to kid them that they are being given "better" technology. More does not always mean better. Look at TV, can you honestly say there is much added value in many of the additional Digital TV & TV +1 channels ? I would scrap any that receive very low viewing figures and give the bits to the remainder to improve standard Freeview picture quality. Freeview could then easily accommodate the best programmes from the channels removed on those remaining. You could already fit most of the best of ITV3 & 4 + BBC THREE & FOUR on ITV1 & 2 + BBC ONE & TWO (as is sometimes the case anyway now). All the shopping, quiz, bidding, casino and sex channels can go today as far as I'm concerned.
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Will the DAB Local & National transmitter build still be possible to the same extent and in the same time frame, with the 5 year freeze on the BBC licence fee, plus the new commitments required of it, e.g. i.e funding BBC WORLD SERVICE TV & RADIO plus ITV Local News ?
I asked this same question in a previous post and there was no reply surprisingly.
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If this is correct those who oppose the FM switchoff are certainly not Luddites but realists. Pigs ear is an understatement.
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Big Dave : Apart from BBC World Service, Asian Network, Five Live Sports Extra on 64 kbps and BBC Radio 4 (at times) and BBC Radio 5 Live @ 80 kbps MONO and a string of commercial stations now broadcasting at less than 128 kbps. Areas such as Hollingworth nr Glossop despite being very close to Holme Moss receive very weak digital radio signals bearly strong enough to penetrate the outside walls of a building.
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Yes Josh, poorer quality pictures with much pixellation, the loss of Ceefax and low bit rate poor quality channels most with Logos/DOGs with advert/promo breaks of 5 minutes or longer. Plenty to look forward to then. Still there are always the 10 sex channels !!! so at least you will be able to use your mobile phone credit up getting them to move their bits for you.
Bet you can't wait !!
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So where is the money coming from then, if the BBC licence fee is not to be increased for 5 years and it now has to pay for other services. The figures simply don't add up, do they. Also materials and transport/petrol/diesel/oil costs have increased dramatically recently, surely this must have a knock on effect. Is the race to go fully digital worth all this expense when at the end of the day we end up with lower quality broadcasts (with more programmes in mono that were previously in stereo in higher audio quality heard in fewer locations).
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I will only buy HD when the DOGs disappear, until such time I would prefer more bits to go to the existing standard Freeview BBC 1 & 2 channels and ITV1. Football on the ITV1 channel looks very poor on standard Freeview compared to the analogue picture which was much much better. Ironically when programmes recorded in HD went out on analogue pre switchover they were perfect here in North Macclesfield from Winter Hill and recorded well on my digital disc recorder. I cannot say the same for the standard Freeview output which at times pixellates so much you can see large chunky squares in fast action scenes, extremely disappointing and a huge let down after all this forced investment from the viewer and all the hype from the government and broadcasters. Is another quiz channel a good use of capacity ? NO NO NO NO NO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Quite right Brian, same bit rate but far worse pictures than we used to get on analogue so why bother !!!!!!!!
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If you don't believe me Brian I can show you the same programme I recorded on disc from analogue pre switch over, compared with a recent repeat on a digital standard Freeview broadcast, the difference is staggering. Analogue knoocking the spots off digital in terms of picture quality (even with 90% digital signal strength). The only gain since switchover being so called "choice". But what a choice, generally poor quality old programmes repeated and repeated and repeated in cycles that can only bore you to tears, they are repeated so often. ITV4 must be on its twentieth round of repeats of THE CHAMPIONS & THE SAINT by now. My old VHS tapes are better with much shorter ad breaks and uninterupted end credits and more original content. ITV4 chopping significant chunks out of original programmes to allow longer ad breaks in the same time slot. Some BBC repreats have been really butchered as they had no ad breaks but still last an hour. I compared a Who Do You Think You are on the "Yesterday" channel with Jeremy Paxman recently. Compared with the BBC TWO original, "Yesterday" cut one side of the Paxman family out altogether making a nonesense of the story !! Nevada Smith ran from 14:15 to 17:00 last Saturday 2 hrs 45 minutes (without the dverts the film lasted 1 hr 45 minutes. You lose the will to live waiting for it to restart by which time you've totally lost the plot and the will to live. Thank God for the Toshiba hard drive recorder with post recording edit facility which allows you to chop the adverts out post recordings !!
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Monday 3 January 2011 11:31AM
Dear Mark (Aberfan Aerials)
HAPPY NEW YEAR & TO ALL HOSTS & CONTRBUTORS TO THIS SITE
I would like to see DAB with higher bit rates on the equipment I have already bought, but after almost 12 years I have given up hope of this ever happening, indeed bit rates seem to have gone only in one direction only since DAB started, which is down (or fewer). That is why I do not want VHF/FM switched off as it continues to be the best source of hi-fi quality radio in this country and I don't want AM / LW to be switched off either as broadcasts from these transmitters reach parts of Scotland, Wales the Peak & Lake Districts & Europe that DAB and even FM NEVER WILL.
If you can pursuade the powers that be to increase bit rates you are a better man than I. ALL MY ATTEMPTS TO DATE HAVE LANDED ON VERY DEAF EARS, from broacasters to government ministers, including the Labour minister for Culture Media & Sport (at the time), Andy Burnham after an addition of ANY QUESTIONS in Manchester (Oxford Road).