Digispy

Check this 5.1 lovers….

http://www.dtsonline.com/proaudio/112202.shtml

Interesting.

That would shift a few (capable) freeview stbs!

A last minute addition to the Communications bill published today gives the Government reserve powers to force platform operators to carry the 11 public service digital TV channels.

This would have the effect of forcing the BBC to cease discriminating against BBC Parliament’s viewers on DTT by requiring them to carry the same service as on DSAT and DCAB.

Can’t think who put this idea into their heads

When will the next update from 2.4 be broadcast for the GDT1500?

Source:broadcastnow.co.uk

In an article written by Paul Revoir, Broadcast draws attention to a lack of information for channel operators from Crown Castle.

“Freeview is set to miss its expected launch date of late October amid indecision over the platform’s channel line-up and technical capacity”

Crown Castle fear the Entertainment Channel would cost money. (Goodness knows how? MC)

Apparently the channels had expected to hear by last week.

Channel 4 and others “have been lobbying the ITC to ensure that the facility for a pay service is built into the technology of the (new?)boxes before they hit the high streets. The first (new?) DTT boxes are expected this autumn. “

(Fortunately)

A Freeview representative said ‘It is not delayed and everything is on track for an autumn launch as planned.’”

Just a thought here but I am the proud owner of a Pioneer ITVD box and was wondering whether it broadcasts DOLBY DIGITAL sound, as in surround sound and the like. I notice that it has on the menu only the option of ‘Stereo’ and on AV1 (Scart Channel) the TV display informs me that it is receiving stereo, instead of “Nicam Stereo” which I normally get on normal TV.

So the question: does DTT have dolby Surround sound within the signal and does my box make use of this via the scart (I know RF has only mono)??

Anyone seen the front page story in today’s Broadcast newspaper? A C4 spokesman, in support of NTL running the DTT network, tries to blame Crown Castle for the technical failings of ITV Digital. The transmission coverage of DTT is a pan-industry planning concern. You can’t blame the contractor for supplying the sites/powers/frequencies as specified by someone else. NTL would/could have done it no differently. It wasn’t Crown’s fault that 64QAM was chosen, and it wasn’t Crown’s fault that coverage reached only 70% (or whatever it was). The same article quotes the BBC Chief Engineer saying that the bitrate tests over the jubilee weekend proved that squeezing in 5 services into a 16QAM mux resulted in pictures which were, and I quote, “crap”. Here here!

Seems to me like they have little enough to broadcast on the one mux.

So what will they use the other for?

Just a quick note to let you all know what we have been told at frontline customer service…

A memo has been passed round to all teams working at the call center to advise us that whatever happens all of our jobs are secure.

This would mean that we will continue to use the same subscriber system and contine to control subscription information (unless we are calling 1.2 million peope and asking for boxes!)

If it does all go tit’s up I think it is going to happen in a similar way to Railtrack — the train’s are still running (as much as before anyway!) and people are still employed to dig up the track… the average passenger would notice very little different.

Whilst the lawyers and administrators pick over the company subs. will continue be collected — just try and stop the system taking money – as many an ex-subscriber will tell you!

Itvdig_Csr

I keep reading about planned upgrades to “key” transmitters to increase their power.

Where can I find details of which transmitters will be upgraded and when?

A little while ago I read somewhere that the Oxford transmitter was to be upgraded but the upgrade seemed to be a big cock up. Lots of channels were duplicated and my local ITV changed from South to Anglia! The change was backed out, needless to say.

I haven’t seen anything about a second attempt to upgrade it – hence my question.

My Pre-Pay expires at the end of December so I really need to know what the situation is before I decide to extend my subscription or not.

DaveP

While flicking through the new channels I noticed the promo loop on ITVSS. After a few seconds the picture seemed to stretch horizontally. i.e. the 0870 number widened. Flicking down and up a channel, the same thing happened. Hitting the EPG or Info button got back the unstretched image temporarily.

What seems to be happening is this: when the channel is tuned to, it’s an anamorphic picture (looks narrow in 4:3, fine in 16:9 display). After a few seconds, it switches to a standard non-anamorphic (as though something has mistakenly identified that I’m watching on a 4:3 screen) (looks OK in 4:3 but stretched in 16:9). Pressing an information button seems to trigger the anamorphic channel but only for a few seconds.

This behaviour is unique to ITVSS, though my IDTV does default to 16:9 on all digital channels, suggesting automatic format switching doesn’t work, and TV format sensing for ITVSS doesn’t work.

Does anyone have any info whether ITVSS is broadcast on 2 channels???

Stuart