Cable Forum

Cable Forum (https://www.cableforum.uk/board/index.php)
-   Science & Technology (https://www.cableforum.uk/board/forumdisplay.php?f=26)
-   -   Analogue terrestrial switch-off (https://www.cableforum.uk/board/showthread.php?t=35117)

altis 15-09-2005 06:51
Analogue terrestrial switch-off
 
Quote:
Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell is expected to announce the formal go-ahead for the switch-over from analogue to digital television.
In a speech to broadcasters, she will say viewers on the English-Scottish borders will be the first to have their existing TV signals switched off.

This will happen in three years' time, and the rest of the UK will follow, region by region, ending in 2012.

...

The switchover will enable the analogue spectrum to be sold off for other uses, as well as encouraging the public to take advantage of multi-channel television.

...

Switching off the existing analogue signal means every TV and video recorder, in every room, must be connected to a digital receiver if it is to work.

Many people may also have to pay for a new aerial.

...

On Wednesday evening in Cambridge, Ms Jowell is expected to announce the timetable for switchover, starting in the ITV Border region in 2008.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...io/4247622.stm

atlantis 15-09-2005 08:35
Re: Analogue terrestrial switch-off
 
I think it's up to all of us now who have ederly relatives to get them used to digital tv, like freeview, so once we set it up for them, there will be no fear for them using it, now, and after it happens.
I've bought my mum a bush freeview box, with 2nd gen tv guide listings, which are easier on my mums eyes (she's 82), for £45 from tesco's, now she's enjoying tv, as she said "I can now watch channel 5 properly).

Martin 15-09-2005 13:16
Re: Analogue terrestrial switch-off
 
My aunty made the switch to Freeview digital and it has proved quite painless! She just uses the extra channels all the talk of interactive and radio on the tv are just that bridge to far!! I hate to think how she'd manage with Cable or Sky.

Angua 15-09-2005 13:24
Re: Analogue terrestrial switch-off
 
Neighbours have just switched to freeview from sky and you should see the hastle they are having with the aerial as the old sort has a terrible reception. :D

AndyCambs 15-09-2005 14:08
Re: Analogue terrestrial switch-off
 
It's ok this rush to digital TV, and encourage people to buy Freeview boxes, Sky packages or NTL/Telewest subscriptions, but how can you manage to record one programme when you are watching another on the video recorder? Does that mean we all have to buy new types of recorders as well?

Martin 15-09-2005 14:11
Re: Analogue terrestrial switch-off
 
You would need another box to record on the video if you were watching another! Personally Sky+ is probably the way forward now!!

Chris 15-09-2005 14:35
Re: Analogue terrestrial switch-off
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin
You would need another box to record on the video if you were watching another! Personally Sky+ is probably the way forward now!!
Sky+ is only the way forward if you want to pay a subscription for the privilege of videoing your favourite programmes and don't mind being unable to pop your recordings in a box for long-term safekeeping, as you can with a trusty VHS videotape (my mum still has most of Live Aid on tape!).

If you want to continue home taping, then you need to buy a freeview decoder for your video recorder. However as the digital terrestrial market matures, recorders (probably DVD rather than VHS based) with integrated digital reception are bound to appear. I believe the reason we don't already have them is that the UK has been leading Europe in the uptake of digital terrestrial, and we alone are not a large enough market for the likes of Sony and JVC to bother manufacturing them.

atlantis 15-09-2005 14:55
Re: Analogue terrestrial switch-off
 
Or you can go to:

http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/freeviewreceivers.html

And maybe buy this:

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2005/09/9.jpg
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2005/09/10.gif Fusion FVRT200

Features: Personal Video Recorder (PVR)... Record programmes in digital quality without videotapes and pause live TV. Record up to 80 hours of TV onto a 80Gig hard-disk. Twin tuner records 2 channels simultaneously.

Available for £179.99 from Dixons

Chris 15-09-2005 16:03
Re: Analogue terrestrial switch-off
 
Quote:
David Sinclair, policy manager at Help the Aged, welcomed the expected announcement, but warned that in a recent survey, 57% of older people still saw digital television as a threat.

"While there is no doubt that digital television offers enormous potential for delivering services and information to isolated older people, it's vital that vulnerable groups are not pushed aside in the dash for digital."


Dash for digital? We've been going digital in this country for five years or more and it'll be another three years before the first analogue signal goes off. That's hardly a dash. More of a shuffle, really.

I smell an over-zealous Public Relations exec let loose on her first press release. :erm:

Nemesis 15-09-2005 16:53
Re: Analogue terrestrial switch-off
 
ntl's view

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/article/...gue-switch-off

Martin 15-09-2005 17:15
Re: Analogue terrestrial switch-off
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris T
Sky+ is only the way forward if you want to pay a subscription for the privilege of videoing your favourite programmes and don't mind being unable to pop your recordings in a box for long-term safekeeping, as you can with a trusty VHS videotape (my mum still has most of Live Aid on tape!).
I personally have Tivo and used it for years with Sky and then NTL and i love it, completly changes the way TV is viewed! Since Tivo isn't made anymore SKY+ offers the next best thing! As for video i can transfer anything to my DVD Recorder so no real loss there! VHS is passed its sell by!! :angel:

AndyCambs 15-09-2005 22:40
Re: Analogue terrestrial switch-off
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by atlantis
Or you can go to:

http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/freeviewreceivers.html

And maybe buy this:

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2005/09/9.jpg
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2005/09/10.gif Fusion FVRT200

Features: Personal Video Recorder (PVR)... Record programmes in digital quality without videotapes and pause live TV. Record up to 80 hours of TV onto a 80Gig hard-disk. Twin tuner records 2 channels simultaneously.

Available for £179.99 from Dixons
So as well as take out subscription to a digital service or buy a new Freeview decoder - people have to buy a new video recorder as well?
And - quite frankly, does the quality of the programmes warrant the increased expenditure?

carlingman 16-09-2005 00:47
Re: Analogue terrestrial switch-off
 
Well I think older folks better get used to it as it is going to happen and our very own culture secretary on the news tonight stated they will be raising the licence fee so we can shell out more to pay for the over 75s to get it for nothing.

jrhnewark 21-09-2005 20:48
Re: Analogue terrestrial switch-off
 
http://www.exthus.co.uk/columns/post/29/

Sorry, hate to plug my own stuff, but I hate inaccuracies even more. Well done, Beeb. ;)

AndyCambs 22-09-2005 05:39
Re: Analogue terrestrial switch-off
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by carlingman
Well I think older folks better get used to it as it is going to happen and our very own culture secretary on the news tonight stated they will be raising the licence fee so we can shell out more to pay for the over 75s to get it for nothing.
I think that's quite likely.
We pay a television licence fee - we're now asked to pay for another decoder to receive the television programmes. It's not just simply a case of buying a Freeview box at £40 as advised by the culture secretary - at the best it would mean a new aerial to most. That is, if you are able to receive the Freeview channels. In my area, the channels are not good in transmission, and one elderly friend has problems with a tree outside his property which during the summer causes him to lose channels 3 and 4 regularly. The other channels are very pixelated.
So basically it would be FreeSky or the satellite version of Freeview in this area (or conventional Sky or cable of course) but all that means additional cost.
A tax on middle England? Yup!
Squeeze till you hear the pips squeak!:soapbox:

Graham M 22-09-2005 07:45
Re: Analogue terrestrial switch-off
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyCambs
So as well as take out subscription to a digital service or buy a new Freeview decoder - people have to buy a new video recorder as well?
And - quite frankly, does the quality of the programmes warrant the increased expenditure?
Read Please, its a Freeview Receiver AND PVR, it has dual tuners so you can watch one channel and record another! You dont have to buy one, it just makes things easier, youre not forced into anything, although i reckon VHS recorders will be next to go! And good riddance to screwed up tapes and nights enjoying the recorder with its top off trying to untangle tape from the heads.

Chris 22-09-2005 10:52
Re: Analogue terrestrial switch-off
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyCambs
I think that's quite likely.
We pay a television licence fee - we're now asked to pay for another decoder to receive the television programmes. It's not just simply a case of buying a Freeview box at £40 as advised by the culture secretary - at the best it would mean a new aerial to most. That is, if you are able to receive the Freeview channels. In my area, the channels are not good in transmission, and one elderly friend has problems with a tree outside his property which during the summer causes him to lose channels 3 and 4 regularly. The other channels are very pixelated.
So basically it would be FreeSky or the satellite version of Freeview in this area (or conventional Sky or cable of course) but all that means additional cost.
A tax on middle England? Yup!
Squeeze till you hear the pips squeak!:soapbox:
The Freeview signal is weak in some areas because if it were stronger it would interfere with the analogue signal. It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario. But when your local analogue signal is switched off, they will immediately boost the digital one and your elderly neighbour's reception problems should disappear.

altis 22-09-2005 11:45
Re: Analogue terrestrial switch-off
 
It should all go smoothly like this :disturbd:

Quote:
In each region, consumers can expect changes to take place over a period of weeks. This could happen as follows:

* Messages appear on screen saying that from next month one analogue service (for example BBC TWO) will no longer be available
* On the named date, the analogue service stops and the digital multiplex carrying BBC TWO (and also BBC ONE, BBC THREE, BBC FOUR, CBBC, CBeebies) will move to the frequency channel vacated by analogue BBC TWO
* Shortly afterwards, messages appear on screen saying that some or all of the other analogue services are about to stop
* On the named day, or days, BBC ONE, ITV1, Channel 4 (or S4C in Wales) and Five stop transmitting in analogue, and the multiplexes carrying these digital services move to the frequency channels vacated by the analogue service
More info here:
http://www.digitaltelevision.gov.uk/

Chris 22-09-2005 11:52
Re: Analogue terrestrial switch-off
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by altis
It should all go smoothly like this :disturbd:


More info here:
http://www.digitaltelevision.gov.uk/
So if the freeview service moves into the frequencies vacated by analogue, that should remove the possibility of everyone having to buy a new aerial also?

bob_builder 22-09-2005 12:55
Re: Analogue terrestrial switch-off
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris T
So if the freeview service moves into the frequencies vacated by analogue, that should remove the possibility of everyone having to buy a new aerial also?
I guess so. However, as the current Freeview frequencies are freed up this will leave room for new digital muxes so you might want a wideband aerial in any case!
__________________

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeph
Read Please, its a Freeview Receiver AND PVR, it has dual tuners so you can watch one channel and record another! You dont have to buy one, it just makes things easier, youre not forced into anything, although i reckon VHS recorders will be next to go! And good riddance to screwed up tapes and nights enjoying the recorder with its top off trying to untangle tape from the heads.
Dixons has already stopped selling VHS machines. Over time TVs, DVD recorders, etc. will all come with an integrated digital tuner and eventually they will phase out the analogue tuner altogether.

jrhnewark 22-09-2005 16:56
Re: Analogue terrestrial switch-off
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris T
So if the freeview service moves into the frequencies vacated by analogue, that should remove the possibility of everyone having to buy a new aerial also?
As I say, it doesn't take an Einstein to see that we have five analogue channels and five digital multiplexes.

Hopefully the multiplexes will launch in the channels that get vacated, keep things in group and meaning no new aerials - and it would be a lot easier for the engineers. As soon as possible, the Government should say whether or not this will happen and if multiplexes on masts which have both analogue and digital will move into the channels previously used for analogue when analogue is switched off on those masts.

I can't see them making any big announcements, though, no matter what we say. It'd be so much easier, though, as you'd be able to say to people that once analogue is switched off, they WILL be able to get digital through their existing aerial if they get good analogue reception with it currently. :)

altis 22-09-2005 17:29
Re: Analogue terrestrial switch-off
 
Erm, look up three posts James.

When you think about all the relays involved with each main transmitter then there is obviously no other reasonable way of doing it overnight.

I wonder which mux will end up on Channel 5.


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 11:39.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
All Posts and Content are © Cable Forum