Why digital television in Australia is a farce
Digital Television arrived late in Australia. The free-to-air commercial networks had lobbied as hard as they could to stop it, but it was inevitable. So they took the next step - they agreed to allow it to happen, but the government had to set certain limitations. These included
So 4 years on, where are we ?
Well, prices of STBs have finally dropped to a reasonable level, especially if you only want Standard Definition (read : DVD quality picture, CD quality audio on your existing CRT television). All the major suburban areas have digital coverage, although you may need to factor in the cost of a new aerial anyway. If you want High Definition (HD) expect to pay $$$$$s for a new television that can accept the signal, and even them expect to get screwed over. Because of the very loose version of HD we have in this country, many Plasma and LCD televisions pass as HD because they have 720 or more vertical scanlines. 720p (progressive) is the minimum HD requirement in Australia, however many HD programs, especially blockbuster events, are broadcast in 1080i. Televisions that can show 1080i without compromise make up about 0.0001 percent of the televisions available on the market.
There are only two new digital only channels. Both are run by government funded stations. One shows only native laguage news services from around the world. The other show repeats of childrens programs and documentaries. We do not have any of the features promised years ago, such as multi-angle viewing of sports programs. The electronic programme guide, by which digital Personal Video Recorders (PVRs) are programmed, consists of the programme that is on now, and the programme that is on next. And these are rarely accurate, and sometimes do not get changed for hours. The commercial stations often buy the cheap version of overseas content, so we get 4:3 versions of product viewed elsewhere in glorious 16:9.
The real joke in all this. The idiots within the Australian government who put all this together are starting to look stupid. The take up of digital television is this country is well below the take up rate for DVD and plasma. This is dispite Australia's deserved reputation as an early adopter of new technologies (we have the fastest take up rate of mobile phones, one of the fasted of DVD, and one of the highest penetration rates for both). Their response to this is to begin a governmental enquiry into the poor take rate of digital television services in Australia in the hope of determining exactly what is wrong with the Australian people, and why aren't they availing themselves of this marvellous new technology. The reason is obvious : we voted for morons who were more interested in the good publicity they might get from the commercial stations if they bent over, than in the best interests of the Australian people.
Yes, I own a digital STB PVR. It is standard definition because there is no incentive to go High Def, certainly at the outrageous cost to do so (a subject of another post some day), and I am not a happy television watching constituent of this wide brown land.
- No further networks to be licensed for 7 years
- Reduce the requirements for a signal to be called High Definition
- Any extra channels that were set up could only show News. No entertainment.
- Set standards that were unique in the world to ensure a delay in provision of equipment
So 4 years on, where are we ?
Well, prices of STBs have finally dropped to a reasonable level, especially if you only want Standard Definition (read : DVD quality picture, CD quality audio on your existing CRT television). All the major suburban areas have digital coverage, although you may need to factor in the cost of a new aerial anyway. If you want High Definition (HD) expect to pay $$$$$s for a new television that can accept the signal, and even them expect to get screwed over. Because of the very loose version of HD we have in this country, many Plasma and LCD televisions pass as HD because they have 720 or more vertical scanlines. 720p (progressive) is the minimum HD requirement in Australia, however many HD programs, especially blockbuster events, are broadcast in 1080i. Televisions that can show 1080i without compromise make up about 0.0001 percent of the televisions available on the market.
There are only two new digital only channels. Both are run by government funded stations. One shows only native laguage news services from around the world. The other show repeats of childrens programs and documentaries. We do not have any of the features promised years ago, such as multi-angle viewing of sports programs. The electronic programme guide, by which digital Personal Video Recorders (PVRs) are programmed, consists of the programme that is on now, and the programme that is on next. And these are rarely accurate, and sometimes do not get changed for hours. The commercial stations often buy the cheap version of overseas content, so we get 4:3 versions of product viewed elsewhere in glorious 16:9.
The real joke in all this. The idiots within the Australian government who put all this together are starting to look stupid. The take up of digital television is this country is well below the take up rate for DVD and plasma. This is dispite Australia's deserved reputation as an early adopter of new technologies (we have the fastest take up rate of mobile phones, one of the fasted of DVD, and one of the highest penetration rates for both). Their response to this is to begin a governmental enquiry into the poor take rate of digital television services in Australia in the hope of determining exactly what is wrong with the Australian people, and why aren't they availing themselves of this marvellous new technology. The reason is obvious : we voted for morons who were more interested in the good publicity they might get from the commercial stations if they bent over, than in the best interests of the Australian people.
Yes, I own a digital STB PVR. It is standard definition because there is no incentive to go High Def, certainly at the outrageous cost to do so (a subject of another post some day), and I am not a happy television watching constituent of this wide brown land.
posted by Gunslinger at 16:53
1 Comments:
What a great article. I think the best thing about digital tv is being able to copy the mpeg2 steam directly to your hard drive.
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