No more Analog TV...

[veeten]

as of 12:00 est., US television broadcasters will be digital. Still, some will have to get a decoder to get the new signal.

Are some still doing analog TV in the rest of the world? :)

[MrJan]

We went fully digital at the beginning of May, completely pointless IMO as when there is interferance with an analog signal you can still see some of the picture, interferance on digital means turn it off and read a book.

[steve_spackman]

I plan on continuing watching analog TV here in the US, regardless of the switch. I figure a screen full of snow beats 99% of the available programing and I don't have to pay a cable company for it.
:D

:rotflmao:

Seriously though, you are correct! The amount of tv channels, yet the lack of decent programming leaves alot to be desired!

[Jag_Warrior]

I plan on continuing watching analog TV here in the US, regardless of the switch. I figure a screen full of snow beats 99% of the available programing and I don't have to pay a cable company for it.
:D

That's the exact reason I haven't gone for HD. And after the last sales call from DirecTV, I think they understand my feelings on that really well now. :vader: Why do I need to see greater detail on a show that I'm not going to watch anyway?

Would it be nice if we could see "Grand Prix" or "Le Mans" in HD? Or maybe "The Godfather" or "Once Upon A Time in the West"? Sure! But that's not going to happen, and I don't watch American Idiots, Dancing With the Tax Cheats or Desperate House Hos. So why do I need HD?

[christophulus]

I've been on digital a few years so I'm not too sad to see it go. North West UK switches in November I think.

Besides, the red button coverage on the BBC (especially the F1 practice sessions) is certainly worth the cost of a Freeview box!

[themo]

we are starting to have analog switched off in the next few weeks,only 1 of the 6 tvs we have is ready and can recieve digital now.

[steve_spackman]

and I don't watch American Idiots, Dancing With the Tax Cheats or Desperate House Hos.

:D

[Camelopard]

The switch to digital has been put back a few years here in oz.

[Mark]

We have just started the process of analogue switch off in the UK. They are doing it region by region with starting next year and being complete by the end of 2012.

A few isolated areas have already had analogue switched off.

For most people, myself included we won't notice any difference whatsoever. I've got Sky satellite, and if that doesn't work I've got Freesat, and if that's not working then there's freeview. It takes the breakdown of three seperate services to get me down to analogue :p

The problems are going to come from two areas. Firstly it's quite common for households to have digital TV in their living room but analogue in their bedroom / kitchen etc. It'll involve buying new boxes and quite often running wires etc as internal aeriels are often not sufficient for good freeview reception.

Secondly is older folk, who are quite happy with their 4-5 channels and don't know what this digital stuff is all about and wouldn't know what a SCART lead was if it stole their pension book!

You can have eduation and advice and adverts, but I think for many of them the only way to fix it will be to go around their house and do it for them! Even then you've got the likes of my aunty who has a freeview box, but it works badly because she hasn't got a good aeriel, and shes in a rented house so getting it fixed is not so easy.

I'm sure there are many who'll wait until analogue is actually switched off, before doing anything, if they do anything at all!

[Mark]

That's the exact reason I haven't gone for HD. And after the last sales call from DirecTV, I think they understand my feelings on that really well now. :vader: Why do I need to see greater detail on a show that I'm not going to watch anyway?

Would it be nice if we could see "Grand Prix" or "Le Mans" in HD? Or maybe "The Godfather" or "Once Upon A Time in the West"? Sure! But that's not going to happen, and I don't watch American Idiots, Dancing With the Tax Cheats or Desperate House Hos. So why do I need HD?

You need a zonking great TV to get the benefit from HD. I have a 32" 1080p television, and yes, I can tell the difference between HD and SD but only if I sit with my nose a foot away from the screen.

I'm somewhat glad now that we didn't go for SkyHD (£10 extra per month) and instead got the standard Sky+ and got a FreeSat capable TV. That way we get a little bit of HD, via the BBCHD channel, but don't have to pay any extra per month for something we'd hardly ever use.

[raybak]

Would be nice to get One HD here in in Canberra. We are the nations capital but can't get the HD feeds that the rest of the country gets. One HD had all of Le Mans live. Plays ARC and NASCAR live but we can't get it. At least I can watch the Tour de France live on SBS 2

Ray

[Langdale Forest]

completely pointless IMO as when there is interferance with an analog signal you can still see some of the picture, interferance on digital means turn it off and read a book.

I agree with that because the squeaking noises that the digital makes when there is interference is almost suicidal. :mad:

[Brown, Jon Brow]

Our switchover is in November/December.

A question about American TV. Why are some of the American shows that are shown in the UK broadcasted in 4:3 instead of 16:9 ? Pretty much everything in the UK is 16:9 (widescreen)

[Mark]

Our switchover is in November/December.

A question about American TV. Why are some of the American shows that are shown in the UK broadcasted in 4:3 instead of 16:9 ? Pretty much everything in the UK is 16:9 (widescreen)

Much of American television destined for home consumption, that just happens to appear on our screens is still made in 4:3. However drama series and the like which are made for export are done in 16:9.

You'll notice that American dramas on UK TV are usually shown in 16:9, same as the rest of the stuff, however some of the minor cable/satellite channels still don't have widescreen capable equipment, so will show the 4:3 versions of American shows.

I believe the relative lack of widescreen in the USA comes from them not having standard definition widescreen like we've had here. They've basically gone straight from 4:3SD to 16:9HD, without that 16:9SD step inbetween. So a programme which isn't shot in HD is likely to be 4:3.

[Langdale Forest]

For some reason the only way i can watch BBC2 without throwing at rock at the TV is when the video recorder is on.

[PuddleJumper]

I read a few weeks ago that when the digital TV signal goes live in the North West (our signal comes from Winter Hill) it will include the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 HD channels. Great, I thought, now's the time to buy a HD TV. They all come digital ready these days so come the switch on date I can watch things like "Defying Gravity" in HD.

However, I found out this week that a digital ready TV will not be enough to get the HD channels and you will need additional equipment which isn't even available yet. :\

[Dave B]

Freeview HD will be a gigantic waste of time. It'll only support four channels initially, at dismal bitrates and resolution, and will suffer even more when a fifth HD channel is squeezed into the same space.

If you want HD bite the bullet and get Sky, Virgin or Freesat. Freeview was only ever designed to be a basic service to replace analogue.

[Langdale Forest]

HD is pointless, it is not even that good.

[christophulus]

Freeview HD also has the added annoyance of having to compress all the other channels' bit rates, and getting rid of most of the BBC red button streams. Waste of time.

[Valve Bounce]

I don't know what stage we are at in Oz; we do have digital and HD, and I was able to give my 20 year's old Sony to the maintenance guys.

But the advantage here is that I get F1 live on Channel 1 HD, the Sports Channel, which also has other motorsports, Gridiron football (College as well as NFL), NBL, Soccer, Baseball, and other sports. That alone is good enough for me to be happy we've gone digital and I have a digital TV. In addition, I get "The Wire" on ABC2 and Unit 1 on SBS2 and The Eagle also, which are just about the best shows I have ever watched on TV, all on Digital.

For those in Melbourne, COSTCO has great prices in TV's and if you are not satisfied, you have three months to return it. Can't beat that!!

So yeah! contrary to guys above from elsewhere, Digital TV in OZ is one helluva blessing.

[snijers FE]

In Belgium we have the two systems. Analoge and digital. But I think analoge will desepire the coming years. HD is coming up here very strong.

[Daniel]

Testing

[Mark in Oshawa]

If you have the money for a large HD TV, and you watch sports, then HD is worth it. For 90% of the dreck out there, no.......

A buddy of mine is an audio man in TV production. He is very fond of saying "I help make this crap, they pay me. they cannot pay me enough to watch it".

Sums up most of the dreck foisted on us....

That said, I think Analog is a dead format in Canada for most since 95% of Canadians were on cable or satellite services anyhow. With the large distances and weak US signals for their networks, I don't know of anyone who would bother with antenna unless they have a little TV up at the summer trailer and they want to watch the ball game on a Saturday afternoon. Even so, most of the people I know with trailers have satellite dishes.....

[inimitablestoo]

I presume they had to wait to do the digital switchover in the US until George Dubya had left office. The chances of him misunderstanding the instruction "Press the red button know" don't bear thinking about... ;)

[Dave B]

HD is pointless, it is not even that good.
It is if you see it done properly. The trouble is that much of the content on HD channels is upscaled SD (Channel 4 and Sky 1 are the worst culprits), and very often when you see HD sets displayed in stores they're connected up by composite video - or worse: RF - and therefore displaying awful pictures. Also keep in mind that many people watch HD on terrible quality "supermarket" LCD sets which will make even the best source look dubious.

Watch something like Sky Sports HD on a proper setup and if you can't see the difference you need a trip to the opticians.

[Tomi]

In Belgium we have the two systems. Analoge and digital. But I think analoge will desepire the coming years. HD is coming up here very strong.

We got digital tv about 10 years ago, they stopped the analoge brodcasting about 2 years back.

[Daniel]

HD is great. I'm watching a HD programme downloaded from iPlayer on a 24 inch 1920*1200 LCD in our bedroom at the moment and the difference is noticeable compared to SD content even though it's only 720 and not 1080. Whether there is enough HD content is another thing.

[Mark in Oshawa]

I presume they had to wait to do the digital switchover in the US until George Dubya had left office. The chances of him misunderstanding the instruction "Press the red button know" don't bear thinking about... ;)

Alas no. It was advocates for the poor that were delaying the change. It seems those boxes were part of a gov't plan to subsidize the conversion of older TV's and the plan's went awry when people buying the boxes then hoarded them. This great and wonderful idea was supported by people like ACORN and other poverty advocates. I suspect who was in the Oval office had no concern or knowledge of it all.

Then again, in you world, I suppose you would blame George Bush if you ran out of toilet paper.

[Mark]

Indeed I don't see the point of Freeview HD. Freeview is supposed to be the replacement for the analogue TV service to provide a basic broadcast service for those who can't afford / don't want to pay subscriptions to Sky, Virgin, or indeed buy freesat equipment.

HD is certainly a premium service so I see no issue to having it restricted to satellite and cable, platforms able to deal with it.

[Valve Bounce]

Are we talking about the same thing?? I'm totally confused by many of the preceding posts. Here in Oz we have 1HD which shows the Grand Prix live. The cars look fantastic, clear as anything, and all the colours are true and the image sharp when the cars are going flat out.

I can only say that alone is enough for me to love HD.

Of course, we have a helluva lot more on HD, as I mentioned in my post above.

And it's all free!!

[Daniel]

Indeed I don't see the point of Freeview HD. Freeview is supposed to be the replacement for the analogue TV service to provide a basic broadcast service for those who can't afford / don't want to pay subscriptions to Sky, Virgin, or indeed buy freesat equipment.

HD is certainly a premium service so I see no issue to having it restricted to satellite and cable, platforms able to deal with it.

Sadly the people want HD on freeview so they get HD on freeview even if it is slightly pointless. At least you can brag down at the pub that you've got HD on your tele :mark:

Another good thing about watching TV on a PC is that it's that at least with our PC's they've got more than enough horsepower to upscale stuff and you don't get loads of artifacts :)

[Mark]

Problem is unless you've got at least 37" then HD makes little difference to a good SD picture.

I've got a 32" 1080p TV and the HD picture is excellent, but it also does a good gob of SD, so much so that the difference between SD and HD is small.

[Daniel]

Problem is unless you've got at least 37" then HD makes little difference to a good SD picture.

I've got a 32" 1080p TV and the HD picture is excellent, but it also does a good gob of SD, so much so that the difference between SD and HD is small.
HD looks fantastic on my 24" LCD and is a big step up from SD. All depends how close you're sitting to it I guess.

[Valve Bounce]

My HD is superb - that's when I am wearing my glasses. The cars look great.

[Mark]

Of course nobody gets HD F1. What you have is just upscaled SD, not true HD at all, far from it.

[Dave B]

Indeed. Sorry Valve, you've not yet seen an F1 race in HD.

Admittedly the increased bitrate means that you're more likely to see something closer to the original transmission but it's still SD - just not as bad SD as usual.

[Valve Bounce]

Indeed. Sorry Valve, you've not yet seen an F1 race in HD.

Admittedly the increased bitrate means that you're more likely to see something closer to the original transmission but it's still SD - just not as bad SD as usual.

OK! but it is on digital. My old Sony couldn't pick it up.

[inimitablestoo]

"Press the red button know"
Slightly disappointed no one's picked me up on the spelling error there, but never mind.

In F1 on HD I believe you can just about make out the Red Bull pit guys from the Toro Rosso pit guys :)

[Mark]

OK! but it is on digital. My old Sony couldn't pick it up.

Digital and High Definition are entirely different things. One is the method of transmission and the other is the quality of the picture.

[Dave B]

Digital and High Definition are entirely different things. One is the method of transmission and the other is the quality of the picture.
A lot of people get confused though. How many people think they've got HD because they bought a £30 "upscaling" DVD player, or because they're watching an SD transmission on their HD-ready TV?

[Drew]

Both areas where I live have switched over to digital, i'm pretty happy with it tbh. But I guess it depends where you live and what the signal is like...