RE: FW: [dvduk] New Sky boxes (DVDUK : OT)

["Keith Doxey" <ukha@xxxxxxx>]

Thats what annoys me about the way they are selling Digital to the Great
Unwashed.

They say that Digital TV will do for TV what the CD did for Music. It will
if they implement it in the same way but they arent. What they are offering
is something like 192K/128K MP3 and reserving the right to drop the bitrate
for "selected" channels.

Just like CD compared to FM radio, there will be no wierd and wonderful
wavey lines or crackles as there are on Terrestrial TV, but at least with
analogue you can still make something out from the snow/lines/whatever.
Digital either works or it doesnt. It has a sort of partway stage when
everything gets huge great pixels on the screen but IMO that isnt a good
picture :-(

Digitised TV straight out of the camera requires about 216Mbit. It can be
compressed down to 34Mbit with no ill effects. At 8Mbit you are hard
pressed
to spot the difference on most material, but they are taking it as low as
2Mbit :-(

To achieve that level of compression quality suffers and so does error
correction. When a mistake occurs it takes much longer to rebuild the
picture.

The more choice promised by Digital doesnt seem to mean more programme
choice but greater choice of where and when to watch it. Do you want to
watch Neighbours, Eastenders, Corrie, Home & Away on Living, UK Gold,
UKGold2, BBC1, BBC Choice etc.

I still find times when there is absolutely nothing I want on ;-(

<RANT MODE>
And like you I object to them putting up the price for more channels when
you can only watch one. I probably only ever look at 10 anyway.

I would prefer the option of being able to buy individual channels at 50p
per month as an alternative to having 100 channels forced on me for £30 per
month just because I want one that is only in the top package. They could
also then implement Pay Per View for what IMHO it was intended
for....Occasional Viewing. Something on a channel I dont normally receive,
"no problem Sir", press the button and we will charge you 75p to
watch it
for the day. If I find I like that channel I can add it and they get an
extra 50p every month.
</RANT MODE>

Keith


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Phil Harris [mailto:phillip.harris1@xxxxxxx]
> Sent: 12 June 2001 20:28
> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: [ukha_d] FW: [dvduk] New Sky boxes (DVDUK : OT)
>
>
>
> No Keith ... you must be mistaken.
>
> I distinctly heard Chris Smith on the radio on my way into work a
> couple of
> months ago and he was saying just what an opportunity digital TV
> was for the
> British public and how much better everyones picture quality and
reception
> was going to be.
>
> Are you telling me what he said wasn't right?
>
> Hmmm ... I guess there must be some reason why our new digital system
was
> designed from the ground up to *EXCLUDE* all those horrible American
ideas
> such as "High Definition" and extendability ... pah ...
who'd
> want something
> like that eh? I mean whatever next? They'll be wanting to go from
> 405 lines
> to 625 soon and then I bet you those decadent pussies will want to add
> colour too! I know ... lets scupper their plans ... let's design a
system
> that's pretty much obsolete from the start and then force everyone
into it
> by selling the analogue waveband.
>
> Oh ... those "free" boxes to watch free to air broadcasts
... yes, they're
> free as long as you pay a subscription. Yes, I know it's not
> quite free but
> it's nearly free isn't it? Oh yes ... you still have to pay your
> TV licence
> ... the actual definition of what it's for is getting pretty fuzzy now
but
> we still want you to pay it. Oh yes sir ... you can get your free box
> without paying a subscription ... that'll be £400 sir.
>
> Sir?
>
> Sir!...
>
> Phil
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Keith Doxey [mailto:ukha@xxxxxxx]
> > Sent: 12 June 2001 20:16
> > To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> > Subject: RE: [ukha_d] FW: [dvduk] New Sky boxes (DVDUK : OT)
> >
> >
> > Have you noticed the artifacts creaping into some of the SKY
channels
> > recently as they cram more channels on the same number of
transponders
> > thereby reducing the bit rate.
> >
> > I was watching Discovery the other night and a truck crossed a
bridge in
> > about 5 or 6 noticable steps rather than smooth movement. Have
> > also seen the
> > picture refreshing on other channels particularly when there is a
> > chop shot
> > from one camera to another.
> >
> > Maybe they hope that Composite especially over UHF will mask
> some of this.
> >
> > Keith
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Phil Harris [mailto:phillip.harris1@xxxxxxx]
> > > Sent: 12 June 2001 20:10
> > > To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> > > Subject: RE: [ukha_d] FW: [dvduk] New Sky boxes (DVDUK : OT)
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > Well, gee, S-video is a US standard, here we use SCART.
its
> > > only recently
> > > > that sets have started to come with NTSC capability,
and S-video.
> > >
> > > Is S-Video a "US" standard? I seem to think it's
been around
> for a long
> > > time. I have a couple of older TV sets that have s-video
> capability but
> > > don't have a hope of displaying NTSC.
> > >
> > > S-Video and SCART are completely different things though -
> S-Video, like
> > > composite and RGB is a standard for the transmission of
video
> > > signals. SCART
> > > is a connector, just like mini-DIN and phono.
> > >
> > > I think that the ommission of S-Video as an output format
from a
> > > $ky box is
> > > almost as stupid as the ommission of an SPDIF output from
the
> > spec too (I
> > > believe that Nokia did include an SPDIF output but that's
about
> > it) for an
> > > emerging digital format to exclude a commonly available
video
> > format (and
> > > the best quality routeable format for most of us) and any
> form of multi
> > > channel audio is frightening.
> > >
> > > Phil
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ____________________________________
> > > Automated Home UK
> > > http://www.automatedhome.co.uk
> > > ____________________________________
> > >
> > > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
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> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
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