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Freeview, What a Mess (IMO).
I think Freeview UK is a right mess now, looking at the channel lineup, there is so much teleshopping and adult filth, it shouldnt IMO be allowed, the transmittion companies are trying to squeeze every bite out of the bandwidth so what IMO is happening is that the quality of the Freeview transmittion is ending up just like what it was back in the ITV/On Digital day, I'm still missing the BBC Multiplex, so can't watch BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three & BBC News yet I still have to pay my TV Licence Fee even though I'm not getting the BBC Siginal , I think the broadcasters should go over to Freesat instead, it would be cheaper for them (I'm refering to the likes of Quest and Yesterday and Dave).
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This has led to the situation where mutliplex operators try to cram in as many channels as they can to maximise profits. Same thing is happening on DAB. As a result, smaller channels are priced out of DTT whilst video and audio bitrates are reduced to a significant point where I have seen the picture on Dave break up into a mass of squares with even loss of colour, that's how badly compressed some channels are on DTT.
Only way we can solve this is to replace Ofcom with an ITC style regulator, who cares more about the technical specifications for DTT and stipulates what genres and formats are covered on a multiplex and the platform as a whole. It won't happen because it goes completely against the laissez faire approach our Government takes to business.
than my ; not fit for purpose;
Thanks, hope you do not mind if I use this.
If they are not on Freeview, why are they on the freeview EPG?
Why get so upset? This is digitalspy, not mumsnet*
Freeview does not have an EPG in the way Sky or Virgin does. Each DTT box has its own EPG which justs receives the freely available channels broadcast in the UK. Freeview as a company has no control over what appears on the EPG, as the TUTV / Sky Sports EPG entries show.
I hate those channels too, but removing them will not make ONE iota of difference because they are broadcast during the downtime of the mainstream channels. Remove them all and all that would happen would be half a dozen more blank screens at night.
Here's a tip if they offend you DELETE THEM or use the PARENTAL CONTROLS PROPERLY!!.
I do however, stick to my line that the Babestation channels should be prosecuted under the Trades Description Act as there isn't a babe amongst them.
Shopping is on a lot of other systems around the world, and some even have hard core porn, or at least show porn at night depending on local laws.
Plus many other DTT systems around the world have sizeable pay operation on it too, which we don't have.
Plus we have ONE pretty dominant pay TV operator in Sky, many other countries have far more competition, but even that does not necessarily mean theirs is better quality.
That's inaccurate actually.
The mux was different back then and it had very poor coverage. Many had a reduced service or none atall.
As for extra channels there has been a slight reduction however transmission and encoding technology is miles better than it was in 1998. The bulk of channels on Freeview that were new slots look almost the same. There's been a few shopping channels at a reduced bitrate that's all. There's every right for teleshopping and other channels to be there if they pay the bills. Infact these sorts of channels due to there phonelines make more money than advertising model channels.
As for people who say take away plus ones and get more bitrate. My recommendation is have you tried HD?
Whats the quality please?
Its not like Freesat is overflowing with space either. Infact its been given as a reason why some channels are not available on Freesat but are on Sky, Cable and even Freeview due to lack of availability of appropriate satellite capacity (Five initially for example and they have still to launch fiver and five usa giving this as the reason)
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but AFAIK, the reason Five USA and Fiver are not available on Freesat because BSkyB's encrypted services are using the less overspill transponder, if BSkyB's encrypted services were moved onto another transponder (shouldn't make any difference to BSkyB because their services are encrypted) it would free up space on the transponder that has the less overspill and Five USA/+1 and Fiver/+1 would be able to launch on Freesat and the programme rights holders will be happy.
That's personal taste on channels some people may like them.
And picture quality has not deceased on all channels. As I mentioned compression technology used by mux operators is a much higher standard in it even was in say 2005.
Compare Dave Ja Vu to Sky Travel and there would have been no significant difference. Plus the more channels they have the greater the advertising window. Shame it's not used for more variety mind you.
Of course they could legislate for better quality, and hence fewer channels. Will you be OK with your licence fee doubling?
At the end of the day the TV companies do their best to please as many viewers as possible, which means a large variety of content & timing. Personally I find the sports, film and shopping programmes to be pointless, but clearly lots of people disagree with me, so I watch what I want & ignore the rest. No way would a freeview assembled to my personal tastes ever manage to stay free! I suspect the same would be true for most of us.
Can't say I've ever seen anything on Freeview that could be described as 'filth'. Where is it? I feel that this needs exploring, all in the name of science of course.
Oh, there is plenty of *real* filth on "Freeview".
Have you never seen the Kim & Aggie shows on the Four streams? Sure there is even a programme with "Filth" in the title on one of the sub-prime channels that focusses on council cleaning crews in London.
I never said "control the content", I'm talking about the quality of the siginal.
If you poison is 'Babestation' content then use the Internet and free up space for some better quality programming...
An overnight HD channel? I think the BBC mentioned something about that in the early days of HD on DTT.
In theory yes the likes of Sky could move and free up Freesat space but why would they do that?
The UK government can't force them to move and its in Skys interest to actually limit freesat as it allows them to sell their "Freesat from Sky" packages and then have customers they can upsell to, something they can't really do to Freesat customers