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[BBC News] Digital switchover dates released


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There's not only a lot of mis-selling going on regarding the digital switchover, but also a lot of mis-SPELLING!

Terry M. - did you mean you were thinking of setting up a ROGUE aerial installer business?

 

Nope. I was just thinking about how my clients will blush when they realise how badly I have ripped them off ;)

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More than one phase. It isn't just about switching off the local stuff.

 

^ I'm prepared to be wrong about that but I don't believe I am.

 

Don't think so, not from what I've seen anyway. Plus we'll (Douglas transmitter) not get everything because it's a relay.

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I can't help thinking it's going to be a HUGE cockup. One of the satellite options has to be the best for people over here.

 

I hate to think how many people are going to get to switchover date and find the service they get is pants. It's going to be chaos with people generally not able to set up and test their equipment until the actual phased switch on. Especially people with tvs in bedrooms/kitchens etc which aren't connected to a proper aerial are in for a shock, especially since the nice man in the shop sold them a digital tv.

 

I don't have an aerial at home and won't be fitting one. Satellite, either with or without a subscription, or even MTs recently demod IPTV should be better options over here.

 

At least we can rest easy knowing the government will be well on top of the situation, and that everyone will be fully informed and advised in plenty of time :lol:

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We've got digital back home in Scotland and its p1sh. Not a strong enough signal to get a constant picture. At least with analogue if you don't get a perfect signal it is still watchable. With digital the picture just breaks up and distorts. And the sound jumps on and off.

Thank god for Sky :D Why not just get the free package from sky, then you get loads more channels and a more consistent quality picture

 

According to the official blurb once the analogue transmitters are turned off in Scotland, in theory they are supposed to be increasing the signal on the digital service. Which means digital should improve once there is no analogue tv, especially if you are in an urban rather than a rural area.

 

On the ITV Scottish news last night, residents in Dumfriesshire aren't happy. They are part of the same switchover as the IOM, and some rural residents have found out that they won't get the full digital package of channels. Apparently it could end up that different areas of Dumfries could end up with different channels, but nobody with the full lot! Assume the same could happen on the IOM.

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One thing I don't get is that after switchover, the various transmitters will still all be operating on different frequencies. There isn't any saving of RF bandwidth at all, so what was the point?!

 

What should have happened is that the digital kit gets installed at every site, but not switched on. Once everything is ready they would switch off analogue and then switch on digital.

No 'dual-running'.

 

That way, we'd only need one UHF channel for each digital multiplex. That's a massive saving in bandwidth. (COFDM works fine where transmitters on same frequency overlap.)

 

Does anyone know why it didn't happen this way? The only thing I can think of is that it stops most people needing to change the band of their antenna. (Although some regions will have digital signals in a different group to their current analogue ones, so that can't be the whole story.)

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What should have happened is that the digital kit gets installed at every site, but not switched on. Once everything is ready they would switch off analogue and then switch on digital.

No 'dual-running'.

......

Does anyone know why it didn't happen this way?

 

Because it isn't just about what happens on the IOM. It's also about what happens in lots of neighboring regions. The band has to be divided up such that all the different regions to not interfere with each other. Including places hundreds of miles away. It has to be accomplished and tested in stages.

 

The scenario you are describing could only work if the whole of the British Isles did that all at once. Because every transmitter site will be adjacent to several others at least. And so on. It just could not happen like that.

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One thing I don't get is that after switchover, the various transmitters will still all be operating on different frequencies. There isn't any saving of RF bandwidth at all, so what was the point?!

 

Because you can 'fit' more digital channels in the same band than analog. Take the example above, dropping bbc2 lets them add BBC One, BBC Two, Five, BBC Three, CBBC Channel and BBC News.

 

What should have happened is that the digital kit gets installed at every site, but not switched on. Once everything is ready they would switch off analogue and then switch on digital.

No 'dual-running'.

 

It's only a very short dual-run to make sure everyone's got the kit, so they only lose bbc2 while they scramble round to get the digital gear. Hardly a big deal.

 

Here's the shutdown list, with channels and frequencies, you can see the overlap prevention:

 

Douglas

Glen Maye

Jurby

Foxdale

Kimmeragh

Port St Mary

Ramsey

Union Mills

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what I don't understand is the panic they are causing, getting people to go out and buy new equipment which will be out of guarantee before you can tell if it even works ! even the digital chap who was on MR a few weeks ago conceded that fact.

 

I know someone who has had the whole house wired up, digital in every room, but not a picture to show for it 'til next summer, by which time the equipment will be obsolete :D

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I know someone who has had the whole house wired up, digital in every room, but not a picture to show for it 'til next summer, by which time the equipment will be obsolete :D

 

It's obsolete now as it's SD and will remain so at least until the end of next year when they might be rolling a single HD channel out on terrestrial which won't be usable with the majority of terrestrial decoders anyway.

 

Satellite customers have been migrating to HD for the last year or so, and freesat has HD channels too.

 

I also find I'm watching more and more off t'internet than off tv schedules. Ad's are stripped, they're full HD, series are automatically leached using RSS, all playable through cheap consumer hd boxes like the Xbox 360.

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What a crap selection of channels.

 

I know it's better than the four on analogue, but we seem to be missing out on the Discovery/UK channels that are standard across the UK, and WHY have we got BBC Parliament and BBC Asian Network when another two better channels could have been substituted ? We have our own parliament and a negligable Asian population, so why are these two white elephants being imposed on us ?

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What a crap selection of channels.

I know it's better than the four on analogue, but we seem to be missing out on the Discovery/UK channels that are standard across the UK, and WHY have we got BBC Parliament and BBC Asian Network when another two better channels could have been substituted ? We have our own parliament and a negligable Asian population, so why are these two white elephants being imposed on us ?

 

Don't think there's any Discovery channels anywhere on UK terrestrial, they're satellite only.

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