Options
Closing down DVB-T - timetable?
lbear
Posts: 1,773 Forum Member
✭✭✭
If industry hopes are met and HD takes off this year because of the World Cup, it is likely to be because of a rapid increase in the number of DVB-T2 HD boxes.
The vast majority are not willing to pay large amounts for television content they can get free simply because it is in HD. By the time you get even a basic HD package from Sky or Virgin, your outlay is at least £25 a month even if you pay about £50 for installation or the box.
On the other hand the penetration of HD ready televisions, which for the last year or so have been the only larger screen option, is now getting significant. Getting Freeview HD boxes under the £100 price point is likely to signal the take off as will the four station line up likely towards the end of the year.
Soon however we are likely to see pressure from both public and broadcasters for more HD channels. The BBC output should start to get nearer its aim of 100% production and at least Channel 4 will have a couple more stations up its sleeve in HD on satellite.
So perhaps we should put pressure on an incoming government to declare an intent to convert fully to DVB-T2 as soon as the conditions allow and, ideally no later than, say, 2019 which will be the 20th year of DVB-T broadcasting in this country.
Converting most MUXes to DVB-T2 would allow HD on all the main stations with the "+1", shopping and news channels remaining in SD. Note that HD would not be a simulcast of an SD channel because any non-HD sets would decode from the T2 signal but not display in HD. In the long term, the cost of an HD receiver is likely to be not much higher than SD T2 receiver apart from the extras built into Freeview HD. A new Freeview standard stripping out connectivitiy and (maybe) HD circuits perhaps called Freeview 2G for second generation might be needed for legacy TVs and those used in secondary locations like bedrooms where the IPTV facility is redundant.
My suggestion is that the MUXes should be converted once milestones are reached - say a last date or once the next 20% of households or sets have access to T2 or other equipment that does not require a DVB-T MUX. The old basic 5 analogue stations would migrate to the last MUX left as SD simulcasts of the T2 HD station until that too can be converted by having a scheme for the vulnerable poor and elderly like the current digital scheme.
So the timetable might be something like the next MUX would convert when 40% have access or alternatives or January 2013 at the latest. The following one by the end of 2015 or when 60% penetration is met and so on.
The idea of this is that it provides the stick of final change dates when people would more channels as they migrate to T2 and the carrot, as with Freeview, of even more SD stations or finally enabling the HD ready set to receive HD.
By 2019 of course we might be wanting to use one or more HD channel for 3D. The DVB group could well be busy formulating DVB-x3 standards to cope with 3D and "two by two" or super HD broadcasting. On the other hand the willingness of the UK public to be "early adopters" would have driven a strong industry in developing and manufacturing T2 boxes for export to the countries likely to adopt it directly rather than using the first generation system.
The vast majority are not willing to pay large amounts for television content they can get free simply because it is in HD. By the time you get even a basic HD package from Sky or Virgin, your outlay is at least £25 a month even if you pay about £50 for installation or the box.
On the other hand the penetration of HD ready televisions, which for the last year or so have been the only larger screen option, is now getting significant. Getting Freeview HD boxes under the £100 price point is likely to signal the take off as will the four station line up likely towards the end of the year.
Soon however we are likely to see pressure from both public and broadcasters for more HD channels. The BBC output should start to get nearer its aim of 100% production and at least Channel 4 will have a couple more stations up its sleeve in HD on satellite.
So perhaps we should put pressure on an incoming government to declare an intent to convert fully to DVB-T2 as soon as the conditions allow and, ideally no later than, say, 2019 which will be the 20th year of DVB-T broadcasting in this country.
Converting most MUXes to DVB-T2 would allow HD on all the main stations with the "+1", shopping and news channels remaining in SD. Note that HD would not be a simulcast of an SD channel because any non-HD sets would decode from the T2 signal but not display in HD. In the long term, the cost of an HD receiver is likely to be not much higher than SD T2 receiver apart from the extras built into Freeview HD. A new Freeview standard stripping out connectivitiy and (maybe) HD circuits perhaps called Freeview 2G for second generation might be needed for legacy TVs and those used in secondary locations like bedrooms where the IPTV facility is redundant.
My suggestion is that the MUXes should be converted once milestones are reached - say a last date or once the next 20% of households or sets have access to T2 or other equipment that does not require a DVB-T MUX. The old basic 5 analogue stations would migrate to the last MUX left as SD simulcasts of the T2 HD station until that too can be converted by having a scheme for the vulnerable poor and elderly like the current digital scheme.
So the timetable might be something like the next MUX would convert when 40% have access or alternatives or January 2013 at the latest. The following one by the end of 2015 or when 60% penetration is met and so on.
The idea of this is that it provides the stick of final change dates when people would more channels as they migrate to T2 and the carrot, as with Freeview, of even more SD stations or finally enabling the HD ready set to receive HD.
By 2019 of course we might be wanting to use one or more HD channel for 3D. The DVB group could well be busy formulating DVB-x3 standards to cope with 3D and "two by two" or super HD broadcasting. On the other hand the willingness of the UK public to be "early adopters" would have driven a strong industry in developing and manufacturing T2 boxes for export to the countries likely to adopt it directly rather than using the first generation system.
0
Comments
I think any there should be three HD muxes and 3 SD muxes. Two should be DVB T2 and one should be as it is today carrying BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, C4, Five, BBC News, ITV2, Film4 and BBC Three/CBBC. It's not really justifiable to give QVC, Bid TV, BBC News all HD channels.
They should wait to see how it takes off with 4 HD channels first. With Sky stopping SD boxes it does add pressure on speeding up things. I personally would rather see SD in it's current form stay for years to come.
I don't think there should be a timetable as analogue is still getting shutdown and it may be 2012 earliest. I'd say 2015 for another DVB T2 mux and 2020 before anymore gets converted. If all TV's and boxes are that format from today it's realistic to shut all the muxes down by 2020 as the lifespan of TV equipment would cover the period of 5/10 years.
DVB-T will not last longer than 2015 even without any government action. Remember - all present analogue viewers will need a digital solution at DSO - very few will buy MPEG-2 equipment after this summer.
No they could NOT. The DVB-T2 standard is so close to the teoretical upper limit for an 8 Mhz channel that changing the standard cannot be worthwhile. Changes to the MPEG standard is however likely.
Lars
That said, it would be a good idea - broadcast spectrum is limited and making the best use of it should always be a priority. If changing to carry SD channels via DVB-T2 then you may as well adopt MPEG4 for the SD channels at the same time, making better use still of the space.
Converting from terrestrial analogue to digital was just a case of buying a £20 freeview box, going from SD to HD requires the purchase of not just a new box but a HD ready TV too, and they don't come as cheap as a box.
Another issue is the have had to coompress to hell the DTT signals and it shows in the poor quality of the HD at presnt if you want decent quality HD DTT is not the way to go
I was conflating the T2 broadcasting and H.264 compression so apologies if that caused the confusion.
Yes as part of this, the SD channels would convert to DVB-T2 with MPEG4/H.264 compression.
As for Freeview viewers having to buy another box on first generation switch-off, I wonder if the move to "T1.5" which supposedly killed half the boxes in the country if the press coverage at the time was to be believed was really a problem. The change seems to have gone comparatively smoothly apart from a few grumbles. Boxes did go down to well under £20 around that time people seemed prepared to pay, what, less than the cost of buying the family a round of burgers? - to get a new box if they needed it.
One of the points about my proposal is to avoid the sudden change where boxes became redundant overnight. With the move to HD, they will have the necessary T2/H.264 DTT box or will have the tuner built in. Those with HD but not using DTT will be getting their signal via satellite or cable and are likely to continue to do so. They will not need a T2/H264 receiver apart from the secondary sets in say bedrooms without a feed.
On the other hand, as MUXes convert they will get a further increased number of SD channels as an incentive to "go T2". It is also a fair bet that within a couple of years of final DSO in 2012, most larger screen televisons will be sold with T2 tuners built in.