According to this little CBC story, analogue television broadcasts will be turned off in Britain starting on Wednesday. The last analogue TV in Britain will be turned off in 2012. In the US, analogue TV broadcasts will be turned off in 2009. And in Canada, on August 31, 2011.
This is the first time I’d heard of a Canadian date.
Time to see whether I can get a digital tuner… Rogers has been trying to sell me a digital cable box for a couple of years now.
I just got a new Tivo box, and it necessitated a switch to digital cable. Wow, what a difference!!!
I just recently purchased a 30" digital TV in anticipation of the changeover.
I expect, but may be wrong, that prices for these TVs will rocket nearer the switch
We plumped for a freeview digibox last Christmas, in anticipation of the eventual switch in the UK. I’m not very impressed.
-Despite the hype, the fidelity is poor - compression artifacts are common, obvious and distracting.
-95% of the programming content is… well… shit.
You can get a basic digibox for £15 in Tesco at the moment - there seems to be an assumption that we’ll all need new TVs, but any TV with a SCART will cope with an el-cheapo digibox.
As Mangetout says the digiboxes are mucho crappo, I had one before I got my new TV.
Far better to splash out on a decent TV before the changeover, watching sport on a widescreen is brilliant
I think the crappiness is happening at the broadcast end, not in the digibox.
I’d originally heard that it was 2010 for Canada – at least, that was the original (rough) date the CRTC had set. I guess they pushed it back a year. I’ve had digital for a while now, but my external capture pod is analog. I don’t know if I’ll be able to capture digital signals with it without renting another digital box.
The switch-off date for Australia was supposed to be 2008, but it’s been pushed back until… somewhat later, because people seem curiously uninterested in Digital TV, and also because there’s still a lot of places (ie, everywhere outside decent sized populated areas) without coverage, apparently…
Yup, our cable TV is just as compressed.
The compression technology is slowly improving, but it’s got a way to go.
The other thing to note is that larger TVs show more artefacts that weren’t noticeable on old 21" 4:3 boxes.
Also, a lot of the crappiness is occurring before compression - that is, in front of the camera.
I suspected this. The extra bandwidth gets used for quantity not quality.
No change there then.
Something else. I am slap bang in the middle of the country so you’d think that good/easy digital/freeview reception would be a given. But houses here are starting to sprout great big directional aerials from their chimneys* - presumable for digital TV - why is this necessary?
They’re crazy. I’ve had a digital box for five years, and it’s glorious! I am amazed that people don’t see the benefits. 16x9 broadcasts, HD and surround sound signals, perfect reception. What’s not to love?
Just before I left New Zealand in 1999, a pamphlet was distributed that stated Digital TV was coming, and the plans were to switch off analogue in 2006. Well, New Zealand has only just started broadcasting a digital signal, so they won’t be switching off analogue for a good long while yet.
Yup, gotta have those quiz channels and ITV21*+1*.
And now SKY has plans to introduce it’s own scrambled DTT service to further muddy the waters and suck up bandwidth with the inane crap that they put out.
Reminds me of the sketch from “A Bit of Fry and Laurie” where Fry plays a waiter serving a Tory minister in an upscale restaurant. Fry removes the minister’s silverware and replaces it with a vast bag full of plastic spoons, shouting “Well, you wanted choice. It’s all shit but at least you can choose!”.
They’re worried about ugly TV aerials in Milton Keynes? Blimey.
Not really, we’re more worried that English Parnerships are going to replace all our trees with towerblocks.
I personally am bovvered that if I want to watch freeview TV I’ll either have to pay for it (via cable) or stick one of these things on my roof.
Why not put it in the loft?
Strange that Northern Ireland should share the last switch off date with the capital, but so be it.
We’ve got digital cable and my g/f has digital satellite, digital terrestrial seems patchy over here.
Whatever the means of delivery, as Mangetout pointed out, the content is mostly shit.
That would be my preference and if I do have to have a monster aerial I will try that first. But various neighbours have been sticking these things on their chimneys, mounted on three foot poles. They’d look OK on a space probe, on a suburban house they look a bit daft. Somewhere for the birds to perch I suppose.
Like I said, we’re right in the middle of the country so why are people fitting big high gain antennas. Are they running the transmitters on hamster power?
I’m completely disinterested in Digital TV except for the technology. Paying premium price for greener greens is not high on my list of priorities when what I have is good enough, and quite adequate for me.