Freeview — Tag

The FreeView Consortium has announced some details about the PVR system they have approved for use with FreeView|HD.

Of interest,

It will run a system with features like American TiVo, which suggests similar content for viewers and features series link technology similar to that employed by Sky’s new HDi decoders.

and

Browning explained that - using Shortland Street as an example, if the receiver has a programming clash for a weeknight episode, it will look forward and choose between rescreenings on other digital channels, or pick the episode out of the weekend ‘Omnibus’.

The device will include two tuners, but an unspecified hard drive size.

Meanwhile, the Sony PlayTV for PlayStation 3 has been dated for Europe, to be released on September 10th this year. Major technical challenges were to blame for the delay, as the device was supposed to be released around March… at least, that’s what the SCENZ chief had said late last year. They snuck in some PlayTV-required code in the latest firmware update, 2.41. New Zealand and Australia are looking at a January/February release next year, “because on their digital terrestrial they haven’t actually set the standards yet.” Ummm, Australia hasn’t, but New Zealand has.

While on the topic of FreeView, I got a FV|HD box the other week and was somewhat impressed by the quality. You wouldn’t of thought that upscaled content would look better, but it certainly does.

Freeview terrestrial service will be differentiated with the name Freeview|HD. This is a good idea and reduce the confusion between what the satellite service provides and the terrestrial service provides.

Meanwhile there is going to be three new channels for Freeview, bringing the total television channels to 13. The first is TVNZ 7, the new factual channel from TVNZ. It will have news on the hour, every hour from 9am to 11pm each day, and on weekdays have a “breakfast zone” of rolling news bulletins from 6am to 9am. The 8pm news will be one hour long and will reportedly provide more depth than One News at 6pm. Available from 30th March. TVNZ 7

Te Reo, or what was previously known as Maori Television Rua, will be a channel only in Maori language (hence the name, for international readers, Te Reo means “the language”). It will only run for three hours a day to start with, but will eventually be extended. Available from 28th March. Maori Television (No UTF-8 support in WordPress??)

TVCentral is only going to be available in Waikato/Bay of Plenty area as it’s the first regional channel to jump onto the Freeview bandwagon (that’s slow moving). It will also only be available on Freeview|HD for now too, so available sometime in April, though if you have a UHF aerial in Waikato/BoP you can pick it up already. TVCentral

Just been informed vai the MythTV NZ mailing list that Sky has started fighting back against Freeview by loading on Freeview only channels to the mix.

Only Stratos and Parliament TV have been loaded on channels 89 and 94. EPG coming soon.

Technically there is nothing stopping Sky from doing it. However it’s just ethically bad. Here are two channels that are free-to-air and yet Sky have them available to pay for (Sky’s Free-to-Air package is $15 a month). Then you have to think about whether Triangle TV had to pay to get Stratos on Freeview (I’m not sure about its status). It apparently costs a lot to get onto Freeview, but hey, Sky will happily take money and not pass it on.

Update: Read the comments for a message from the Triangle TV CEO who basically says “all involved knew ahead of time and before Sky made access available to its viewers and are quite happy about it.” Good to know.

TVNZ have released more details on their HD launch next year. To sum up:

• It will be on Freeview DTT only, Sky will not be able to receive the content, nor will the current Freeview Satellite service. Freeview DTT will be available from March next year.
• 50% of content on TV One will be in HD, 80% on TV2.
• It will be 720p (the current standard from HDTV) and surround sound will be broadcast when available. SD content will be upscaled.
• TVNZ6, TVNZ7 and TVNZ Sport Extra will not go HD.

They have the technical stuff, MPEG-4 using the H.246 ABC codec, 23 Mbps and statistical multiplexing 2 HD channels with 3 SD ones.

Time to get me an HD ready TV

It has been announced on Throng.co.nz that TVNZ will go High Definition from July 2008.

The up shot of this announcement is that the Beijing Olympics, held in August next year, will also be broadcast in HD on TV One.

As Freeview Terrestrial service will be the only one that can support HD at this stage, you’ll need a Freeview DVB-T box (from March 2008). And of course an HD-TV.

Remember, next year the Playstation 3 is getting a DVB-T tuner too…

Freeview will be getting three new channels over the next month:

• TVNZ 6, TVNZ’s new general programming channel, starts on 30th September. It will feature three sections; Kidzone with childrens programming, Family with general family entertainment, and Showcase with dramas and comedy. It will be channel 6.
• [ Oooh, so Wikipedia isn't right 100% of the time – VIBE is Sky only ]
• Triangle Stratos is Triangle TV’s regional TV spreading across the nation and starts on 3rd October. It will specialise in international programmes mainly and will feature show from DW-TV, Voice of America and Al Jazeera English. Channel 21.

TV One and 2 will be going widescreen on September 22nd too.

Notice the two channel gap between Triangle and VIBE? Future homes of Parliament TV and Alt TV?

TV3 and C4 have appeared on their transponder on D1, along with Radio New Zealand’s National and Concert. They are on frequency 12456000Hz, polarity H at 22500000 symbols/sec.

Freeview launches officially next Wednesday. For more, see the Freeview website. It appears they only have two set top boxes that are official and they cost about $300. The benefit of Freeview is because the channels are not encrypted you are not limited to them.

I’m thinking of writing up a few articles on how to make your own MythBox. Maybe.