Freeview box with HD output

musa

Was in a Makro store yesterday and saw a Goodmans freeview box for
£34.It had a HDMI socket on the back and gave the impression that you would receive HD from said device.Is this some sort of upscaling fudge and of no use in receiving the HD trial?I think so.
I am going off thread here,but the trickle of DaB car radios appear in same store.

Mossy Monk

For that price I would bet my life it's not a hd receiver.

lawhec

None of the current DTT STBs sold in the UK in general are capable of HD. If they have a HDMI socket, its a gimmick to upscale the pictures onwards to an LCD or Plasma display.

fta keith

Ì totally agree with the last 2 statements here

Here is an other question here if Sky launch their mpeg4 HD Content DTT service in the UK will it be able to work in Ireland like for use for any Irish DTT pilot project or any Irish DTT roll out

Thank you for your time

Mossy Monk

fta keith wrote:

if Sky launch their mpeg4 HD Content DTT service in the UK

Sky are launching HD content on DTT in the UK? When was this announced?

fta keith

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,,2111821,00.html

Sky revises digital terrestrial launch plan


Mark Sweney
Tuesday June 26, 2007
MediaGuardian.co.uk


Ofcom: examining plans for a three-channel DTT service from Sky. Photograph: Guardian

Sky has submitted a scaled-back plan for its proposed digital terrestrial pay-TV (DTT) service to Ofcom for consultation, the regulator said today.
Ofcom's consultation, which will not be concluded until early next year, also scuppers Sky's plan to launch its DTT pay-TV service in time for the Premiership football season in August.

Ofcom is looking at a three channel pay-DTT service from Sky using MPEG2, rather than Sky's original plan for a four channel service that used MPEG4 compression technology incompatible with all Freeview boxes.

Other DTT services such as Top Up TV are compatible with the current standard MPEG2 format.

The changes to Sky's plans were revealed today in a statement from Ofcom announcing a consultation that will delay the launch of the proposed DTT pay-service into next year.

Ofcom said after a consultation period of 10 weeks, it would outline its conclusions early next year.

This timeline effectively dashes Sky's hopes of launching the pay-TV service in time for the start of the Premiership football season - when rival broadcaster Setanta starts offering Premiership matches via DTT for £10.99 a month.

Analysts believe that Sky's decision not to submit MPEG4 technology - which would have enabled it to squeeze one extra pay channel in addition to Sky News, Sky Three and Sky Sports News on to Freeview - will increase the chance of the plan winning approval.

"The change in proposal is likely to be an admission that the compression technology was a key barrier to gaining approval," said one senior investment bank analyst.

"Sky's move increases the probability that it will gain approval but perhaps decreases the desirability of the portfolio of channels to potential subscribers because there will be less choice of channels and programming."

"Sky is seeking to replace its three existing free-to-air channels with three pay-TV channels on DTT," Ofcom said today.

"However, Sky is not prosing to use MPEG4 compression technology at this stage, as originally stated in its previous announcement," it said.

A consultation document will be issued in the autumn "provided there are no further delays in the conclusion of outstanding technical and commercial issues between the applicants", Ofcom said.

Sky said today: "We remain committed to introducing MPEG4 at the earliest opportunity and all set-top boxes for our new service will be capable of receiving both MPEG4 and MPEG2 transmissions."

I hope I have showed this a fact not speculation as Mpeg4 which is HDTV technology is clearly in this article above

Mossy Monk

fta keith wrote:

I hope I have showed this a fact not speculation as Mpeg4 which is HDTV technology is clearly in this article above

More nonsense from you. MPEG4 does not mean High Definition.

lucernarian

Mpeg4 is much more than just HDTV. It was designed with allowing a video stream be transmitted at half the bandwith, but with the same quality in mind.

HDTV can be broadcasted in Mpeg2 (I think it's done in the US) but I don't think a proper HDTV stream could fit onto a DVB-T mux if it were Mpeg2 for example.

Either way, the article there is talking about letting Sky fitting more channels in the place of the existing 3 on DTT.

lawhec

Not an exhaustive list BTW, bound to be others...

Countries which use MPEG2 for terrestial HDTV

* USA
* Australia
* Canada

Countries which use MPEG4 for standard definition broadcasts

* France
* Estonia
* Norway (proposed)
* Brazil (proposed)