well, well, well..

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25192280-11869,00.html

Peter Familari

March 16, 2009 12:00am

THAT expensive plasma or LCD will be obsolete from May 1 when Australia’s TV population – about 16.5 million of them – and its digital TV system, becomes officially outdated.

In a move sure to anger viewers, the first of the appliances built to receive programs of a planned upgrade to digital systems will be unveiled.

New high-definition set-top boxes conforming to the networks’ new specifications will be on sale by May 1.

They signal the start of changes to the way networks want to send programs to TVs.

Freeview, the organisation representing all the networks including the ABC, says the move to an upgraded digital TV system, which uses a technology called MPEG4, could take years.

“The broadcasters will not begin this transmission until the majority of the population has a device that can receive MPEG4 transmissions,” Freeview’s chief executive Robin Parkes said.

“Each broadcaster will decide this individually.”

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We currently use MPEG-2. All my devices are MPEG-2 not MPEG-4. I wonder if anyone knows how long broadcasts in MPEG-2 will be allowed to continue.

(sigh)

Great Spoof though.

Heres a link to an article that explains the concept.

http://www.smarthouse.com.au/TVs_And_Large_Display/Industry/A3W3K5T5

Freeview Search For Propoganda Spreaders
By David Richards – Friday – 06/03/2009

It’s appears that the free to air TV networks are leaving it very late to appoint a creative team for a major marketing Freeview markting campaign that is expected on air by May 1 (2008).

What the TV networks are hoping to achieve with the launch of their campaign is to convince consumer that they need to buy either a Freeview certified set top box or TV that contains technology that restricts their ability to remove TV commercials.

The campain is expected to promote 14 new HD channels that will be available via a Freeview approved device, however TV vendors have said that this is “rubbish” as most of the HD channels are already available and that that the remaining HD channels will be able to be accessed via a free electronic program guide that is built into the latest HD TV’s that are being sold by retailers.

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4 weeks ago Freeview issued specification documents to TV vendor in the expectation that they would deliver Freeview complient TV’s in time for the launch however the TV vendors have told ChannelNews and SmartHouse that they see no point in delivering

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeview_(Australia)

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Existing digital TV devices should continue to operate without Freeview certification, with the following caveats:

They will not have the enhanced EPG. PVRs may have less information to use for scheduling recordings than compliant PVRs, and may be further affected if the current EPG is reduced or removed.

Only HD devices can view the HD channels

Bob

Who knows ? You may need a new TV set even if you have a TV set that displays HD content and isn’t an High Definition TV.

Is downscaling the signal something they have in mind so that HD boxes won’t work with Standard Definition TV sets ?

Bob

(I’m not ure what country the SmartHouse article above refers to. )

Interesting. At 65 years of age am a computer dummy ? I don’t think so. I not only use YouTube but upload video to YouTube (nocensorshipaus for example). I’ve been using computer networks for over 20 years and am classified as a “computer professional” on account of the fact I can program, have knowledge of database technology and can cut code if needed.

I watch digital Free to Air TV because it’s convenient. I don’t have to sit in front of a console and press buttons.

A government Cybersafety session held by the Australian government last year was hosted by the Senior Citizen Computer Club at 280 Pitt Street. Were they ignorant of computer technology ? Not in the least. They asked the government representative the hardest and possibly the most pertinent questions I’ve heard in a long time.

Computer technology is not new. It has been in existence since the Second World War where it was developed for use in cracking cybercode and forumulated in the previous century by people such as Ada Lovelace.

I have spent most of my working life (45 plus years) working with computer technology in various forms from punched cards to mainframe computers to TRS80s to Apple IIs.

The older one becomes the wiser one becomes when it comes to evaluating technology and people’s reactions to that technology.

Bob

Still, I don’t know why they really care. TV is something young children, the clueless and old people watch – it’s not like their target audience is even able to use a computer, let alone get to YouTube to see that video.

Freeview – the Great Aussie TV swindle ?

aturner – February 9, 2009

http://digihub.theage.com.au/node/275

“Only devices which meet Freeview’s “technical requirements” will be allowed to license the Freeview logo, which means they must offer a seven day EPG, they can’t offer ad-skipping and they can’t offer an easy way to copy recordings off the box. Devices which don’t meet the Freeview requirements, such as some ad-skipping PVRs from Topfield and Beyonwiz, won’t be able to display the Freeview logo. Freeview’s Parkes says it’s too early to say if such devices will be allowed to use the Freeview EPG interface without the logo. Some vendors aren’t waiting to find out, with Beyonwiz’s Australia distributor Digital Products Group already working on a dumbed-down Freeview-compliant Beyonwiz recorder.

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I have both a “Toppy” and a Beyonwiz (Korean technology) both of which permit easy transfer of HD content to a computer where it can be edited and uploaded to YouTube (for instance). I have done it and no doubt a few people have watched “easy to transfer to USB or via a home computer network content” (including High Definition) to a computer which I have uploaded to YouTube.

As it stands Freeview is a further erosion of our civil liberties. It uses the same digital signals currently being broadcast but insists that devices which carry the “Freeview” logo be dumbed down and made less user friendly.

Bob