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Switch to Digital Television Picking up Steam

Posted by Zonk on from the now-i-want-a-steam-powered-tv dept.

Alioth writes "The long-anticipated switchover to purely digital TV began last night in Britain. Although digital broadcasts have been available for a while in most parts of the UK, they have been running alongside the old analogue frequencies. Last night, in the small hours, the analogue signal for BBC2 was switched off forever in the town of Whitehaven in Cumbria. Analog signals are expected to have been switched off over the whole of the UK by 2012. Meanwhile in the states Best Buy has stopped selling analog televisions. 'Best Buy is the first consumer-electronics retailer to report an exit from the analog-TV business. More than 60 million U.S. households currently rely on an antennas or analog cable, and cable operators are required to guarantee their customers will receive broadcast channels until February 2012.'"

8 of 327 comments (clear)

  1. errr by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why does analog cable have to change?

    Its not like it interferes with the broadcast spectrum.

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
    1. Re:errr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Cable has to change because the cable companies want to cram more and more digital channels, on-demand TV, and other services (phone, internet, etc.) onto one piece of coax. Analog channels take up space, and why would cable companies want to transmit both a digital and analog version of the same thing if they're not required to?

      It doesn't directly interfere with the broadcast spectrum, but it's not as if it's a completely unlimited resource.

    2. Re:errr by Novus · · Score: 5, Informative

      Why does analog cable have to change?

      Its not like it interferes with the broadcast spectrum.
      True. However, converting from digital to analogue may require permission from copyright holders, which your cable operator may not be able to get. For example, in Finland, cable operators were threatened with legal action for converting digital-only TV channels to analogue for rebroadcast in cable networks. Just before the terrestrial analogue TV network went off-line on 2007-09-01, leaving only digital transmissions, a lot of people were concerned about their continued ability to receive analogue TV by cable. After some negotiations, cable operators were permitted to convert the channels that were previously (also) transmitted in analogue form into analogue for a few more months (ending 2008-02-29).
  2. Digital TV works over antenna by fahrvergnugen · · Score: 5, Informative

    The article is misleading. Digital television is still broadcast over the airwaves, and you won't have to give up your antenna or switch to pay-TV services like cable or satellite in order to receive it. In fact, the best way to receive HD broadcasts from the major networks is likely via an antenna, as cable & satellite providers sacrifice quality by recompressing the video streams.

    --
    Even Jesus hates listening to Creed.
  3. End of the World? by Rob_Ogilvie · · Score: 5, Funny

    The FCC says there will be no more Analog after 2012. The Mayan calendar ends in 2012.

    Coincidence?

    --
    Rob
  4. The problem with digital.... by celardore · · Score: 5, Informative

    When the signal is poor, it becomes next to unwatchable. Comparable with really bad codecs on the PC. With analog and a poor signal, it may have been grainy but was still watchable to a certain extent. Digital has blocks, pausing, sound artifacts and all sorts of other things that make viewing uncomfortable. If you live in the hilly areas of England, consider getting cable - oh wait, they don't offer that because of the terrain?? Oh well.

    1. Re:The problem with digital.... by Fnagaton · · Score: 5, Informative

      When the analogue signals are turned off this will allow a power increase for the digital signals which then reduces digital signal reception problems.

      --
      Martin Piper
      Owner - ReplicaNet and RNLobby
    2. Re:The problem with digital.... by arkhan_jg · · Score: 5, Informative

      Digital signal transmission is currently at 2 to 5% maximum power so that it doesn't cause interference with the analog signal. as the analog transmitters are turned off, they can ramp up the digital transmission power levels to that currently enjoyed by analog transmitters. There will also be much more bandwidth freed up that the analog signals used, allowing more bandwidth (i.e. less compression to start with) for existing channels, and new channels such as broadcasting HD channels in mpeg4 as opposed to the wasteful mpeg2 used for SD broadcasts. The end result will be far more channels, and a far better quality in a given area than analog gave, and even better coverage overall, including areas that can't currently receive digital and only get weak analog signals.

      i can't WAIT until analog is fully turned off.

      --
      Remember kids, it's all fun and games until someone commits wholesale galactic genocide.