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Originally Posted by old_tv_nut
The Australian government really screwed it up, when they chose DVB under the false claim that all-format decoders would become available. It never happened, and as a result, they forced simulcasting of analog, digital HD and digital SD of the same program. I don't know if this has actually done anything to promote HDTV in Australia, or just delayed it more.
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The currently available HD DVB boxes will down convert HD to SD for display on SD analog sets. If these boxes (or at least boxes that could decode HD even if they could only output SD) were available from the start of DVB broadcasting we wouldn't be stuck with triplecasting everything. This doesn't leave enough bandwidth for true HD. At least one channel tries to gain back some bandwidth by reducing the error correction. Its a lose/lose situation as those who've gone HD aren't getting what they paid for and everyone gets glitches when the reception is anything less than perfect.
I grabbed an Thomson SD box when a "faulty" one came my way for $5. It actually does work better than some of the boxes that have been brought in for repair, but I still prefer to watch the analog signal.
The bigger joke is the ads on digital cable for HD. Their signal is SD only and often compressed more than over the air SD. I've seen some programs that look like a dodgy rip downloaded off p2p.
03-15-2007, 09:32 AM
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