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Thread ID: 70076 2006-06-21 09:19:00 FYI - Free to air digital quality pine-o-cleen (2955) PC World Chat
Post ID Timestamp Content User
464962 2006-06-21 09:19:00 I was curious about the signal quality / format etc of the proposed free to air digital TV signal so I emailed this:


In your web page 'TVNZ welcomes Government commitment to Digital' the
quality of the new digital signal was described as being 'significantly
better' than Sky TV's current digital signal. Are any specific details
available about the signal quality and if so what specifications will
the digital signal meet?

...and got this reply:


Thank you for your e-mail regarding FreeView free-to-air digital
television.

The quality of transmission for the new FreeView services will I guess
be left very much in the eye of the beholder, we have done some tests
here at TVNZ, part of research towards FreeView which have been
inconclusive when it comes to viewers deciding quality of picture and
what they prefer.

The quality of picture on screen also will depend on the maintenance of
aerials, cabling and television sets and then the tuning/adjustment of
them.

The format and specifications come into it of course and you touch on
this in your last question. The broadcasters who are cooperating in the
FreeView platform will be deciding which format they will broadcast to,
high definition or wide screen for example and it has been determined
already that the first phase of FreeView, DTH will be MPEG2 but there
has been no decision meantime regarding DTT. There will be further
announcements, publicity and promotion about this when the time comes.

Regards,
Ric




Ric Carlyon
TVNZ Digital Group 		pine-o-cleen (2955)
464963 2006-06-21 09:48:00 transmission wise the picture is "perfect" . ie what ever quality they send it you receive it as . its digital, 0 or 1, on or off, perfect or nothing . . . . which of course is its downside .

The quality of picture on screen also will depend on the maintenance of
aerials, cabling and television sets and then the tuning/adjustment of
them . is somewhat missleading . its like sky, when the signal goes bad the picture cuts out . you don't get poor pictures just nothing at all, which is why terrestal digital has been a pain in some countries . however digital is great for sat . 		tweak'e (69)
464964 2006-06-21 10:07:00 Digital is very clear via satellite or aerial but you have to allow for some picture loss or interference as the signal travels from auckland up to space and back to earth to your house it will never ever be 100% perfect. Hitech (9024)
464965 2006-06-21 10:21:00 you missed the point . the picture IS perfect . the data stream allows for loss which it can repair on the fly, up to a point . once you start lossing too much data then it pixlates, then no picture what so ever .

for eg with sky sat the signal can be crap but the picture will still be pefect, once it goes past a certain point then it cuts out and you have "rain fade" . there is no picture difference between low signal and high signal which is quite good . however if you have signal problems eg ghosting, layering, interference, it can take out chunks of data out so the picture is pefect, then nothing, then perfect, then nothing . analogue in the same sitution would show poor pics but at least you can see something . 		tweak'e (69)
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