About time too. It'd be a great shame if the additional bandwidth caused by the analogue switch-off was wasted with more home shopping channels, all in the name of creating a bit of cash for the government - especially in light of the huge success of the BBC's HD trial (I recently went to an AV trade show, and those stands that weren't playing movies were playing BBC HD material)
With all the technical advances to date I still dont know why we are watching standard def. come Japan had annouced that their entire country received HD signals on there free network yars ago. about 7 to be fact. And here we are still moving over to digital. Be years before we catch up to Japan and get HD BBC for free. Well not free as we pay TV licence.
It would be nice to get HD on our little Freeview system, however, wouldnt that mean we would need a larger Ariel in order to receive a decent picture anyway, costing us, yet more money. Sam
Rather than higher resolution, just give higher bit rate feeds to improve the picture quality. Freeview picture quality could be much better on the current systems - but the broadcasters are happier to use their bandwidth for more channels (thus more ad revenue), than to have higher picture quality. A high quality 576p feed will look just as good as an average quality 720p one - and wouldn't require changing the existing set top boxes or broadcast systems. When they say: "We believe the nine million households that have invested in Freeview, encouraged by the Government’s digital switchover programe, are entitled to the same picture quality as cable and satellite viewers, irrespective of their ability to pay." They totally ignore the fact that the current freeview boxes are not HD capable and would need to be replaced anyway. I would propose upping the bitrates for all freeview channels giving better picture quality for existing boxes, but also introducing a handfull of core HD channels viewable via a freeviewHD box. Over time as HD becomes the norm move more channels to High Def by reallocating the bandwidth alloted to SDTV channels. This will allow a gradual move from AVERAGE QUALITY SDTV>GOOD QUALITY SDTV(plus limited HD for those who invest in new boxes)>HIGHER PERCENTAGE OF HDTV(at the expense of those still using SDTV). The main point should be increasing the quality of the existing service though, as broadcasters seem happy to give second rate PQ if it allows them to broadcast more adverts. Should the government regulate this, rather than a switchover to HDTV, they will be doing a far greater service for those looking for higher picture quality.
People in the US don't even understand what HD is, my family thinks I'm crazy for buying an HDTV even when I tell them someday you WILL need one. They always complain I set the resolution too high for their eyes when I set up a new computer for them
Agreed with the raising of the bit-rate. As the BBC has their own mux they usually have a higher bit-rate and BBC1 looks awesome on freeview compared to E4.
Ofcom really need to ask themselves whether the public really needs another 20 home shopping channels. I mean, there are about 40 TV channels on Freeview at the moment, and I watch no more than 10, and no more than 3 or 4 on a regular basis. All the government is hoping for is a multi-billion bidding frenzy, a la the 3G auctions.
