Australian Viewers not switched on to HDTV

FREE-to-air networks still had work to do in convincing consumers of the benefits of digital television, Ten Network television operations head Grant Blackley said yesterday.

Mr Blackley said about 30 per cent of Australian homes had free-to-view digital television, but "on encouraging further adoption, as an industry we still have a job to do", he said.

Ten said this week it would launch high-definition digital broadcasting on a new channel, Ten-HD, on December 16.

The channel will feature more than 50 hours weekly of programs that cannot be seen on the existing Ten channel, including some sport streamed from the US, and documentaries.

Mr Blackley predicted that up to 20 per cent of consumers would be able to access HD channels by Christmas.

"Estimates of the number of HD-enabled households range from 15 per cent to possibly 20 per cent by Christmas," he said.

Mr Blackley's figures include not only viewers with an HD television, but those with an HD set-top box that enables them to view channels such as Ten-HD on an older television.

He sees set-top boxes as a key to encouraging viewers to switch over to digital. "These receivers cost just a couple of hundred dollars and the price will continue to decline," he said.

The Australian Digital Industry Suppliers Forum predicts there will be at least one HD TV in a majority of Australian homes within five years.

Full Story by Nick Tabakoff Australian November 23, 2007

Seven Day EPG Launched on Channels Nine and Ten

From today Australian Digital TV Viewers can access a seven day Electronic Program guide on Channels Nine and Ten and some of their regional subsidiaries.

The Australian networks have been slow to adopt the broadcasting of their programming on EPG's, leading to the introduction of a 3rd party paid subscriber service in 2004.

EPG's are commonplace overseas and are the basis of the success of the hugely popular TIVO. Channel 7 will launch TIVO in Australia in January 2008. Ahead of this Channel 7 will broadcast an EPG in December.

Digital TV viewers who have set top boxes with hard drive recording (PVR's) will benefit the most from EPG's. Instead of setting timer recordings, the viewer need only browse the EPG listing to select a program they want to record and the PVR will work out the start and stop times and apply the name of the program to the recording.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation to Launch New Childrens Digital TV Channel

Federal Communications Minister Helen Coonan announced last Friday that the federal government would give $82 million to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to create a digital children's channel.

It would operate 15 hours a day and deliver programming for children up to 17 years of age.

Being commercial free, children would not be exposed to junk food advertising and other undesirable content.

The new service could be in operation by next year and would be expected to boost to the uptake of digital TV. It would also create opportunities for local producers of children’s TV.

Sanyo Launch In-Car Navigator and Digital TV Combo

Sanyo is about to launch a new wide screen digital car navigation device that includes a digital terrestrial television tuner.

The Gorilla NV-HD880FT is the first portable car navigation system to include a digital TV tuner.

It contains a 30GB Hard Drive and and displays images on a 8 inch wide screen touch screen TFT screen. Resolution is 336,960 pixels.
The unit measures 38mm x 121mm x 206.8mm in width and weighs only 950 grams.

The device was unveiled at this year's Tokyo Motor Show and will be on sale in Japan in November.

Product Review : Strong SRT 5490 High Definition Digital Terrestrial Television Receiver PVR

Seen at: www.dpanda.com.au

The Strong SRT-5490 High Definition Personal Video Recorder (PVR) that was developed specifically for Australia in conjunction with the local subsidiary.

It is a dual tuner high definition digital terrestrial television receiver with a 250GB hard disk drive. Part of the disk is reserved for the system leaving space for around 60 hours of high definition recordings and 90 hours of standard definition recordings.

The twin tuners let you capture two programs simultaneously, while watching a previous recording. The unit has a multi-event timer to program automatic recordings. Recordings can be transferred to a PC for later editing or archiving off to DVD.

The unit can output standard definition video via Component. High definition in 576p, 720p or 1080i can be output on Component and DVI, a digital video format.

The unit includes a USB port as well as an Ethernet port on the rear panel. Firmware updates can be downloaded from Strong and uploaded via the USB port. It can also be used to attach an external storage device such as a hard disk or thumb drive, to allow you to play MP3’s and JPEG’s.

The inclusion of an Ethernet port means you can network the SRT5490, allowing the downloading of ecorded programs to a PC for editing, authoring DVDs.

The SRT5490 has very sensitive tuners which allow it to perform well in fringe reception areas.

Time shifting is supported and is one of the main reasons for purchasing a PVR. Pressing the pause button will cause the current program to be recorded into a buffer area of the hard disk allowing you to start and stop it at will. The program can even be restarted while recording is still in progress.

High Definition Only Television Channels Set To Buoy Uptake of Digital TV in Australia

During November and December 2007, commercial TV broadcasters, Channels 7, 9 and 10 are all commencing exclusive "HD only" programming on their High Definition TV channels.
So unless you own an HD set top box or PVR, you won't receive the three "new" commercial channels.
Up until now the networks have broadcast all High Definition programs simultaneously in standard definition digital as well as analogue.
The move towards exclusive "HD only" content is designed to generate more interest in the uptake of Digital TV.
High Definition TV offers a similar quality of viewing experience to watching a movie at the cinema.
Most High Definition Digital Television transmissions contain digital audio tracks with surround sound.
Australia will start switching off it's analogue TV transmissions in February 2009

U K Commences Switch from Analogue to Digital TV

The switch from analogue to digital television began in the United Kingdom, yesterday with the Copeland and Whitehaven areas of Cumbria in the North West of England losing their BBC2 terrestrial signal. The process of changing all TV transmissions to digital nationally, is expected to be completed by 2012.

Australian analogue television transmissions are scheduled to commence being shut down in February 2009.

Welcome to Digital TV Australia's Blog

Let's kick off with Digital TV Australia's first post.
The aim is to share news and information about everything to do with Digital Television (and Digital Broadcasting generally) in Australia.
Hopefully it will prove interesting and informative.