[NYCLA*]

So why is digital television so pathetic in the USA when over in the United Kingdom, digital TV is more highly developed, with interactive options, multi-screens and much of it FREE my friends, FREE! Even FREE SATELLITE. You just buy the equipment. Yes, in the UK you must pay your yearly TV license, but that's a paltry sum compared to what commercial cable and satellite services in the US offer. FREE SATELLITE? INTERACTIVE TV (via the ubiquitous "red button"). Yeah, check out this link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/digital/tv/tv_nonsubs.shtml


Read about FREE SATELLITE. INTERACTIVE TV via the "Red Button", and more. Explore the page to see a demo of the "Red Button" (click links on left) as well as "compare the options". They have pay TV services too, but damn, the US is primitive.

 

[Ken H]

This ought to be interesting.

 

[HDTVChallenged]

{yawn}

 

[NYCLA*]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken H /forum/post/16927496


This ought to be interesting.

It's all true. When it comes to digital TV, in the U.S. pay more, get less. In Britain, pay less, get more.

 

[Ken H]



Quote:
Originally Posted by NYCLA* /forum/post/16927532

It's all true.

No, it's not. You need to do a lot more research before making comments like this.

 

[NYCLA*]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken H /forum/post/16927543


No, it's not. You need to do a lot more research before making comments like this.

Tell me what's not true? What's not true on that BBC information page?

 

[AntAltMike]

I get 20 digital channels with a total of over 40 subchannels off-air, and a lot of the subchannels are quality channels, like RetroTV, ThisTV and the four subchannels provided by public television affiliate WETA.


I stopped following the satellite FTA offerings several years ago, but I would wager that there are 500 or more FTA satellite channels now available.


What is "interactive TV"? Can I play Donkey Kong on it, or just call up a TV channel schedule or a stored, local weather forecast?

 

[NYCLA*]



Quote:
Originally Posted by AntAltMike /forum/post/16927590


I get 20 digital channels with a total of over 40 subchannels off-air, and a lot of the subchannels are quality channels, like RetroTV, ThisTV and the four subchannels provided by public television affiliate WETA.


I stopped following the satellite FTA offerings several years ago, but I would wager that there are 500 or more FTA satellite channels now available.


What is "interactive TV"? Can I play Donkey Kong on it, or just call up a TV channel schedule or a stored, local weather forecast?

Why yes, you can play games, among other things:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/digital/tv/tv_interactive.shtml

 

[AntAltMike]

Ah, but do they carry, "Are You Being Served?". Actually, if they want to be the Bizarro TV service, they will have to carry "Saved By the Bell".

 

[smpowell]



Quote:
Originally Posted by NYCLA* /forum/post/16927358


So why is digital television so pathetic in the USA when over in the United Kingdom, FREE my friends, .

What we need is a political movement to embarrass the US politicians into matching the UK free satellite. (There is free legal satellite service in the US but it is a DIY pieced together thing, not anywhere close to the UK system.)


I doubt if the US will ever match the Freeview system in low population density areas (not everyone in the UK can get Freeview signals either), but matching the satellite system should be pocket change compared to what they are throwing around now.


I suppose that the money could be better spent on the next generation Internet, once very high speed Internet is common, IPTV is really going to change the face of TV. Like pick your favorites out of 1,000 main channels & 100,000 hobby sites.

 

[cube799]



Quote:
Originally Posted by AntAltMike /forum/post/16927590


I get 20 digital channels with a total of over 40 subchannels off-air, and a lot of the subchannels are quality channels, like RetroTV, ThisTV and the four subchannels provided by public television affiliate WETA.

You and I have different ideas as to what Quality Channels are! Retro TV, This TV, and Other Old People TV Shows Subchannels, are almost as big waste of bandwidth as the Stupid Religious Channels!


Also most of the Channels on Freeview are in 16:9 SD, they use MPEG4, and they also have DVR that, Get This,

you don't have to pay a monthly fee for like Feevo. I Also hear that they might also have blue ray Recorders. I also like that they have Radio Stations. Also They don't have any VHF Channels.

 

[biker19]

What's with all the America bashing? I'd take any OTA network HD program in the US over virtually any programming outside of the US. Do a search for TV programming being downloaded via torrents - then you'll know who has the most desirable programming.

 

[sneals2000]



Quote:
Originally Posted by cube799 /forum/post/16928422


Also most of the Channels on Freeview are in 16:9 SD, they use MPEG4, and they also have DVR that, Get This,

you don't have to pay a monthly fee for like Feevo. I Also hear that they might also have blue ray Recorders. I also like that they have Radio Stations. Also They don't have any VHF Channels.

Freeview is currently 4:3/16:9 SD MPEG2 only, using DVB-T 18/24Mbs OTA. The majority of channels, and all mainstream networks, are 16:9 SD, and all UK commissioned content has been 16:9 for quite a while. I currently receive around 90 Freeview 'services' - though these include radio, digital text and time-exclusive video streams. The current Freeview SD service is based around 6 x 8MHz muxes - 4x18Mbs and 2x24Mbs. It will move to 5x24Mbs eventually.


Freeview HD is due to launch later this year in some regions and will be 16:9 HD (I assume 1080/50i as this is what all UK HD broadcasts currently use) and will use H264 (aka MPEG4 pt 10/AVC) and DVB-T2 36Mbs OTA.


Freesat SD and HD are already on-air, using MPEG2 for 4:3/16:9 SD and H264 for 16:9 HD 1080/50i. (Bitrates vary between 8 and 16.5Mbs for H264 HD) Currently all Freesat broadcasts are DVB-S, though Freesat HD receivers must support DVB-S2.


Both Freesat and Freeview use the MHEG5 digital interactive text system, and the BBC offer Interactive TV on both platforms. There are two full-screen Interactive TV streams on Freeview and a number of 1/4 resolution streams (mainly carrying news, weather, sport news loops etc.). On Freesat there are more lower-resolution streams and at least 5 full-screen Interactive TV streams. (This allows us to watch multiple courts at Wimbledon, multiple live Olympic events etc. on Freeview and Freesat) The Digital text services include a full news, sport and weather text service, and the interactive TV streams aren't just sport. They carry music concerts, play along games for quiz shows, secondary educational streams for classical music etc.


Freeview and Freesat both have "+" services - which are 8 day PGs with Metadata (series link, programme start/stop triggers, alternative showing information to clash avoid etc.) and DVRs for both platforms are widely available. All broadcasters on the platform distribute EPG information for the others - so if I'm watching a BBC service, the BBC provide EPG information for ITV services on a different frequency. This means you don't need to tune multiple frequencies to fill the EPG...


Panasonic now market a Blu-ray recorder with hard drive and dual satellite tuners for Freesat HD, with Freesat + DVR support.


The UK hasn't used VHF for broadcast TV since we retired our VHF 405 line service (which was on bands I and III) in the 80s. Our 625 analogue services are exclusively UHF band IV and V, and our digital TV OTA services are also UHF.


Freeview and Freesat both carry a large range of radio stations - all the BBC networks, the BBC digital-only (also carried on DAB and IP) stations, BBC stations for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the large British Asian community, and a number of commercial stations. On both platforms they are accompanied by EPG information (making recording radio shows dead easy) and digital text support services (so you get some text on-screen)


However HD is still in its infancy here, we don't have "big budget" drama, and we do have our licence fee to pay.


We don't have really local TV stations, but we do have local/regional news on BBC One and ITV1, and we have significant national variations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (Wales has it's own Welsh-language channel, S4C, and there is a BBC satellite station for Gaelic speakers, BBC Alba. There are also more variations on BBC One, BBC Two and ITV1 in the nations)


I'm not going to make any comparisons about content - as that is a purely subjective issue. Personally I enjoy some British and some US/Canadian programming, and I also enjoy Swedish TV for that matter.


I think that the US and UK have very different markets, very different geographies, and different histories. Our TV systems differ as a result. I think our broadcasters, rather than our government, have had much greater say on the technology used as well (with the BBC in particular creating or driving a lot of our infrastructure and technology)

 

[sneals2000]



Quote:
Originally Posted by biker19 /forum/post/16928671


What's with all the America bashing? I'd take any OTA network HD program in the US over virtually any programming outside of the US. Do a search for TV programming being downloaded via torrents - then you'll know who has the most desirable programming.

I think you'll find the BBC's "Top Gear" is also one of the most downloaded shows.

 

[TV Trey]



Quote:
Originally Posted by NYCLA* /forum/post/16927532

It's all true. When it comes to digital TV, in the U.S. pay more, get less. In Britain, pay less, get more.

Sounds like your on the wrong side of the "Pond". I've got a 12' aluminum jon boat you can have for free.

 

[arxaw]



 

[foxeng]

Please don't feed the troll.

 

[NYCLA*]



Quote:
Originally Posted by biker19 /forum/post/16928671


I'd take any OTA network HD program in the US over virtually any programming outside of the US. Do a search for TV programming being downloaded via torrents - then you'll know who has the most desirable programming.

This is about the technology and means of delivery offered to viewers, and how much (or rather how little) it costs the viewer in the U.K.

 

[Ratman]

Deal with what you have in the U.S. or move to the U.K.


Other than that, your ranting cannot resolve or change a thing.

 

[NYCLA*]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Ratman /forum/post/16929440


Deal with what you have in the U.S. or move to the U.K.


Other than that, your ranting cannot resolve or change a thing.

I think a discussion of what inferior technology is available in the U.S. versus the more advanced technology available overseas is perfectly legitimate, and something that should be questioned.