M
Mortimer
It's a shame that different countries have different ways of implementingJ G Miller said:France, Germany, Letzebuerg, Vlaanderen and others all managed to
achieve transition to terrestrial digital without any known problems
and none of them keep changing the frequencies of the multiplexes
or require viewers to rescan at least once a month because of EPG
changes.
But then as you keep reminding everybody, foreigners will insist on
doing thing differently
subtitles (eg for the hard of hearing) and the UK method (a separate stream
alongside the video) doesn't lend itself to being transferred to DVD format.
OK, let countries keep their line/frame rates and their means of reception
(VHF or UHF), but make sure that everything else is compatible worldwide.
When analogue standards like PAL, SECAM and NTSC were devised, there wasn't
the same need for worldwide compatibility; now there is.
Also, make sure that all hardware and all software can write to one common
file format (as well as any proprietary ones) which incorporates all the
features. OK, most software/hardware can read/write MPG but that can't store
metadata like episode title, plot summary, etc and can't store subtitles,
whereas Microsoft formats like DVR-MS (Win Vista) and WTV (Win 7) can, as
can transport formats like TS - but not everything can read that.
Is there any hardware player that can read WTV? It would be so nice to be
able to record and edit out commercials on my PC, and then access the
resulting files (a shared drive on the PC) on a player connected to the TV.
Some "extenders" (to use Microsoft's term) exist, but they seem to require
the PC to "push" the video rather than using the player to "pull" the video
off the shared drive, so you need to control the playing from the PC which
may be in another room :-(
Here in the UK we seem to have made a real hash of the conversion to
digital, with a retuning when digital switchover enters its first phase and
then another one a week later when it enters its second phase. And there's
talk that some of the mobile phones that use the UHF frequencies that are
freed up when all the transmitters have turned off analogue may interfere
with neighbouring digital TV, requiring someone (mobile phone operators?
broadcasters? householders?) to pay for bigger aerials or in extreme cases
satellite instead of Freeview, if reception is compromised.
If there is a chance that mobile phones may interfere with TV, it sounds as
if someone hasn't done their job properly and should rethink the selling off
of the spectrum if they can't coexist.
And I pity people who get their TV from a relay rather than a main
transmitter because they won't get the full six multiplexes so they will be
missing some channels. At last I'm OK where I am.