Irish Times - Price Watch page - DTT articles

The Cush

Two recent articles appeared in the Irish Times Price Watch (consumer page) relating to DTT.

Monday, November 3, 2008

The digital dividend

CONOR POPE

THE DIGITAL TELEVISION buzz is getting louder. The trials have been completed and the switchover from analogue will get underway in earnest in Ireland next year. It has been described as a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" that will not only improve television picture quality, but the quality of our lives by bringing high-speed broadband access to all and delivering a range of new and as yet unimagined technical wonders into our homes.

There are, however, unanswered questions. Three-quarters of Irish homes already have access to digital television through UPC or Sky Television, so one in four consumers will need a set-top decoder to convert the digital signal into high-quality pictures and sound. The decoders will come at a cost, and while it has yet to be determined what that will be, people are unlikely to have much change out of €100.

Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan has promised that the Government will consider making set-top boxes available for free to "vulnerable" television viewers, including the elderly and people on low incomes - although in the current economic climate, Government largesse for any group can't be counted on.

The Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) transmission system will cost more than €100 million to put in place and with RTÉ's coffers bare following a downturn in advertising revenue and the Department of Communications watching the pennies closely, corners may have to be cut. Questions are also likely to be asked about the wisdom of investing in some of the new DTT channels RTÉ is developing, and people could be forgiven, for instance, for asking whether it really is worth spending money on Dáil TV.

BEYOND THE GLOOM, there is much talk of the digital dividend. DTT takes up less space on the frequencies used for television than traditional analogue signals and, in addition to extra channels, the freed-up space can be used to deliver high-speed wireless broadband in areas where access is a problem. Mobile multimedia applications, enhanced wireless networks and improved online public services will also be possible.

A trial of DTT carried out in small pockets of the east over the last two years reported high rates of satisfaction. Some 1,000 homes in Co Louth and Dublin took part in the trial and 84 per cent said they were satisfied with the overall service. It will be accessible in 80 per cent of Irish homes by the end of next year. A public awareness campaign will begin early in the new year when the pricing of set-top boxes and the manner in which they are to be distributed will become clearer.

RTÉ has plans to broadcast up to eight channels, including the four existing Irish channels and four new ones: Dáil TV, an Irish film channel, RTÉ3 (made up mostly of archive material) and RTÉ1+1 (the same as RTÉ1 but with a one-hour delay).

Earlier this summer the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) gave a licence to broadcast a number of channels to Boxer DTT, a consortium 50 per cent owned by Denis O'Brien's Communicorp group.

"The promotion of digital switchover is absolutely key to early take-up," Boxer DTT chairwoman Lucy Gaffney told a BCI conference in September. She bemoaned the lack of public awareness of the changeover.

Boxer will offer a range of packages, priced between €10 and €50 a month, in competition with cable and satellite services from UPC (formerly NTL and Chorus) and Sky.

Not everyone is pleased with the direction DTT is taking. Joe Fleming is a reader who contacted us recently with a number of gripes. He questions the wisdom of adopting a different standard from the UK and says this could mean "a return to a situation that existed years ago whereby televisions, digital recorders etc had to be specifically tailored for the Irish market with an inevitable increase in costs".

He also points out that people who decide to replace analogue aerials with satellite dishes will not be able to get the four Irish channels because they are all encrypted.

"Why should our national stations - which we fund via the licence fee - not be free-to-view?" Fleming asks.

"We don't have the rights," an RTÉ spokeswoman told Pricewatch. When RTÉ buys anything, from Desperate Housewives to the All-Ireland football final, the broadcast rights only cover the Republic, or - at a pinch - the whole island. For years RTÉ has been blocked from broadcasting on free satellite services under threat of legal action from broadcasters and programme-makers in other jurisdictions.

The spokeswoman said RTÉ gets frequent complaints and exasperated queries from viewers who want to know why the service is not available on freesat services. She says the broadcaster has been "trying to resolve it for years" without success.

"It is a highly complicated area, it is a simple as that," she says.

Under the 2007 Broadcasting Act, RTÉ has an obligation to create an international channel, featuring only home-produced programmes from RTÉ1, RTÉ2 and TG4 and that should be available from next year.

Once the analogue signals are turned off, people using satellite services will be able to access RTÉ free through separate set-top boxes, although dual boxes that take signal from DTT and satellite service will also be available at a cost.

WHILE RTÉ WILL offer a free service with a small number of channels and Boxer plans to offer more channels at a low cost, it is still not equivalent to the freeview service enjoyed by the British consumer - while a tenner a month may not sound much it is still €120 a year in someone else's pocket. Last month a new digital television service was launched which does not involve any monthly payments, although the one-off payment is on the hefty side.

Freesat dishes cost just over €100, but installation for many may be problematic. Sat4Free, which is based on the FreeSat service provides access to 76 digital television channels, including BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4, CBeebies, Film4 and BBC News, as well as a selection of British and Irish radio stations. Critically, however, it does not give access to the Irish channels although it will carry RTÉ International, the highlights channel which will include content from RTÉ's international channel, possibly by the end of the year.

Speaking at a ComReg forum in Dublin last month, European Commission information society commissioner Viviane Reding described the switchover to digital television as a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" and said it was essential the additional spectrum was made available for new services and not reserved for broadcasters. It remains to be seen if her wishes are heeded.

© 2008 The Irish Times

Monday, November 10, 2008

Digital television: the next episode

SOUNDING OFF : Ripped off? Stunned by good service? Write, blog or text your experience to us

A number of readers were prompted to get in touch about last week's piece on digital terrestrial television. First up was Donal Hannigan who says he found it hard to accept RTÉ's argument that it could not broadcast imported programmes such as Desperate Housewives on freeview satellite systems because it did not have the broadcast rights. He pointed out that other broadcasters also have to buy these programmes from the USA "and I'm still able to watch their offerings on my freeview system". He cites Channel 4 as a case in point and asks "who is RTÉ kidding?" We did put that point to an RTÉ spokeswoman when researching the piece but were told that as a small broadcaster in a relatively small market, it was more exposed to the threat of legal action.

Incidentally, our suggestion that RTÉ might have to scale back its DTT plans in light of current economic difficulties was denied, so we were surprised a week later when the national broadcaster announced it was scrapping its plans for an international channel to allow it broadcast at least some of its programming on freesat services.

We were also contacted by Stuart Lawn, a director of one of the companies involved in the recent Irish HD Trial. "I would like to say that Ireland's apparent late entry into the DTT market will serve us for the better rather than the worse," he wrote. "The UK DTT system uses the now-inferior MPEG2 system and will have to be replaced by the MPEG4 system when the freeview systems go to high-definition broadcast. This will mean that consumers in the UK will have to dump their existing freeview set-top boxes for a new 'HD Ready' box."

For his part, however, David O'Higgins remains to be convinced of the merits of the digital television. He says it will increase cost to the consumer significantly "while delivering very little real benefit".

He points out that, at present, it is possible to feed multiple TVs in a house from a single analogue cable feed "if you live in the right place", with each user able to select what channel to watch; however, the "digital world will require a set-top box (or boxes) for each TV in order to achieve the same result", so he is afraid that will create the "potential for a large variety of installation and rental charges in the process. Life is about to get a whole lot more complicated!"
...

© 2008 The Irish Times

bk

Stuart Lawn clearly doesn't know what he is talking about, RTE's DTT service is already broadcasting in MPEG4 in the test sites, as required by the DTT specs for Ireland.

I have to agree with David O'Higgins,the extra cost for the STB was justifiable in the UK where people went from 4 or 5 free channels to about 30 free channels.

The extra cost of the STB's will be much harder to justify here in Ireland where at best we will be going from 4 free channels to just 8, with most of the new channels being just crappy +1 channels.

Zonda999

"dual boxes that take signal from DTT and satellite service will also be available at a cost."

Is this suggesting set top boxes that will be able to pick up DTT, and say freesat??. If so, that sounds a great idea. I'd buy one right now if i had the guarantee i could pick up freesat hd right now, and Irish DTT as soon as its available next summer. If i understand it correctly too, the stb, provided its connected to the tv by hdmi, will upscale the dtt signal. Great!:D

I really do hope one of these things is available soon, even if theres a sat4free logo on it:rolleyes:. I now longer need to search for a tv with an mpeg4 tuner already built in:). Anyone like to hazard a guess as to what one of these hybrid freesat-DTT boxes will cost next year??

Thanks for the help...

Fat_Fingers

you can guess the cost , look at the cost of Techomate 6900

reslfj

bk wrote: »

Monday, November 10, 2008

Digital television: the next episode

We were also contacted by Stuart Lawn, a director of one of the companies involved in the recent Irish HD Trial. "I would like to say that Ireland's apparent late entry into the DTT market will serve us for the better rather than the worse," he wrote. "The UK DTT system uses the now-inferior MPEG2 system and will have to be replaced by the MPEG4 system when the freeview systems go to high-definition broadcast. This will mean that consumers in the UK will have to dump their existing freeview set-top boxes for a new 'HD Ready' box."

© 2008 The Irish Times

Stuart Lawn clearly doesn't know what he is talking about, RTE's DTT service is already broadcasting in MPEG4 in the test sites, as required by the DTT specs for Ireland.

But Ireland will introduce the now-inferior DVB-T system and will have to be replaced by the DVB-T2 system when the Boxer systems go to high-definition.

This is the very calamity that Ofcom is working so very hard to avoid - and I think, they will.

Lars

watty

Even with MPEG4 there is a shortage of spectrum for HD (never mind lack of content) till Analogue Switch off.

Ofcom want to make sure there is a shortage after switch off too, by selling of too much of existing TV spectrum.


Your last line makes no sense. Ofcom /UK have TWO DTT calamities already. Some 250,000 or more DTT receivers (all with 1st gen SetPal chipset) don't work anymore and none of the existing receivers do T2 or MPEG4.

STB

reslfj wrote: »

But Ireland will introduce the now-inferior DVB-T system and will have to be replaced by the DVB-T2 system when the Boxer systems go to high-definition.

This is the very calamity that Ofcom is working so very hard to avoid - and I think, they will.

Lars

Complete and utter rubbish. Do not even attempt to try and confuse the UK situation with Irish DTT. There are no plans yet for ANY HD channels on Boxer. AND the platform will not be DVB-T 2.

Enough of this scare mongering. Lars this is not the first thread where your dvb-t2 mantra has appeared.

reslfj

watty wrote: »

reslfj wrote: »

But Ireland will introduce the now-inferior DVB-T system and will have to be replaced by the DVB-T2 system when the Boxer systems go to high-definition.
This is the very calamity that Ofcom is working so very hard to avoid - and I think, they will.
Lars

Your last line makes no sense. Ofcom /UK have TWO DTT calamities already. Some 250,000 or more DTT receivers (all with 1st gen SetPal chipset) don't work anymore and none of the existing receivers do T2 or MPEG4.

I did not initiate this thread - but only pointed out that MPEG-4 as such did not enable any HD in Ireland - and was at most 'half way' to HD on DTT.

Implied is of course, that the use of DVB-T/ MPEG-4 receivers will likely not provide significant longer useful lifetime to new IDTV's and STB's, than a current generation UK Freeview box will, once HD takes off.

In the newspaper quote "Stuart Lawn, a director of one of the companies involved in the recent Irish HD Trial.", the link to HDTV is very direct and clear.
He is then quoted of saying "...will serve us for the better rather than the worse" (because RoI - unlike the UK - will not need a later change to MPEG-4) -
I cannot but think that this is a very one-sided view with few facts to support it.

Sweden ( the government) has postponed any new HDTV DTT licenses until DVB-T2 is ready to be used in a new VHF mux. Norway had to close almost one entire multiplex to show a few hours of HD from this summers Olympics. France have had large problems with compression rate ( http://www.dvb.org/news_events/dvbscene_magazine/DVB-SCENE25.pdf page 9).

HD is not part of the current Irish DTT decision and I have never written nor implied that it was. Boxer do not have the capacity for HD - not with DVB-T and until ASO there would only be limited capacity even with DVB-T2.

But HD is much debated here and in many other places, as a larger part of all new TV's sold are at least HD-Ready. Very many new TV's are also larger than 32'. HD seems to be a very important issue with viewers in many countries.

As for the Setpal/NIT problem, it is not an Ofcom problem. There is a coding error in the Setpal firmware, but the Setpal company is out of business and the needed firmware correction cannot be made.
This is a problem of type: 'going out of business vs. support vs. reseller obligations'. Do the Irish laws protect consumers any better ?

The fact that there are not any DVB-T2/MPEG-4 receivers on the market before next year - that is not a calamity. If would have been very problematic if Ofcom had allowed the UK to be polluted with DVB-T/MPEG-4 receivers, but this is what Ofcom has not done.

STB wrote: »

Complete and utter rubbish. Do not even attempt to try and confuse the UK situation with Irish DTT. There are no plans yet for ANY HD channels on Boxer. AND the platform will not be DVB-T 2.
Enough of this scare mongering.

I am not confusing any situations and I am not scaring anybody. Nor did i say that Ireland would use DVB-T2 - I said "Ireland will introduce the now-inferior DVB-T system" and that this may later create the very same replacement problem if Ireland were to introduce HD via DTT.

Any democracy is based upon informed citizens, different views and debate.

When persons like Mr. Stuart Lawn (mis)use there position to get very questionable statements into newspapers - they should have been screened and questioned by any good journalist long before I wrote anything here.

But are you not yourself the one that do 'scare mongering' when you write: '...no plan yet for any HD' in the post following Watty's "Even with MPEG4 there is a shortage of spectrum for HD".

If HD is not possible with the proposed RoI standards and 'no plan yet for any HD' - many persons will think '...if it be not now, yet it will come' and it will likely require new hardware.

That could easily scare any person with an interest in HD into satellite or cable.

Lars

The Cush

reslfj wrote: »

If HD is not possible with the proposed RoI standards and 'no plan yet for any HD' - many persons will think '...if it be not now, yet it will come' and it will likely require new hardware.

That could easily scare any person with an interest in HD into satellite or cable.
Lars

HD is part of the current Irish DTT spec DVB-T/MPEG4 High Profile @ L4.0 (HD Video Frame rate 25 or 50Hz, HD Aspect Ratio 4:3, 14.9or 16:9, HD Resolution 1920 x 1080, Audio Sampling Frequency 48kHz, Emphasis None), no new equipment will be required, only if the spec changes to DVB-T2. The French are broadcasting in HD with this spec and the minimum standard for Irish DTT receivers will meet the current HD spec.

2. General Requirements
2.1 The Receiver shall receive and output all Irish free-to-air video and audio channels (“the Channels”) broadcast on the DTT Service. This shall include the capability to:
• Receive and output SD and HD Channels

In any case we will not see any HD channels until post ASO.

reslfj

watty wrote: »

Even with MPEG4 there is a shortage of spectrum for HD ... till Analogue Switch off.

reslfj wrote: »

If HD is not possible with the proposed RoI standards and 'no plan yet for any HD' - many persons will think '...if it be not now, yet it will come' and it will likely require new hardware.

The Cush wrote: »

HD is part of the current Irish DTT spec DVB-T/MPEG4 High Profile @ L4.0

Sorry - I should have written "If HD is not possible due to 'a shortage of spectrum' with the proposed RoI standards and ...."

I knew that HP @ L4 should be part of the specifications. I hope all imports will meet the spec's.

Spectrum is not just unused frequencies. I Ireland it is just as much the cost of buying equipment and operating 50% more transmitters than needed - be it for HD and for SD.

Lars

STB

Lars,

Just in case it escaped your atttention HD was tested in Ireland during the Departments trial. And on DVB-T, and I watched with several MPEG4 profile STBs.

At present there is 1 multiplex. Tthe PSB is not going to see HD as immediate priority.

It is only the UK that have signalled that they will use DVB-T2 for their HD channels.

1 HD Channel = 3 SD Channels by the way.

reslfj

STB wrote: »

Lars,

Just in case it escaped your atttention HD was tested in Ireland during the Departments trial. And on DVB-T, and I watched with several MPEG4 profile STBs.

At present there is 1 multiplex. The PSB is not going to see HD as immediate priority.

It is only the UK that have signalled that they will use DVB-T2 for their HD channels.

1 HD Channel = 3 SD Channels by the way.

I did - at least here - comment on the misinformation that, I think, Mr Stuart Lawn used his title and position to get into the newspaper. He also used his relation to some HD tests - to indicate that Ireland was much closer to practical DTT HDTV broadcast because of MPEG-4. :mad:

I later quoted several cases of severe problems with HD broadcast via DVB-T/MPEG-4 and wrote that Sweden had plans for DVB-T2.
This text is from "The Swedish Radio and TV Authority" 2008-03-27. (translated by google and translation corrected a little by me)
http://www.rtvv.se/_upload/infomatrial/25-249947819344728383093906.pdf (page 2)

"It is not possible to take the network planned in the VHF band in(to) actual operation until at the earliest (after) one and a half years*.
The Swedish Radio and TV Authority therefore considers that it is not appropriate in the current situation to authorize broadcasting using this network, but this may be in a new licensing process when conditions for operation of this network has been established.
Additional technical Development can also at this time be taken into account, such as ongoing work with the new broadcast standard DVB-T2. This could create the conditions for carry HDTV broadcasts on a large scale."
* 1.5 years from April 1 2008 is Q4 2009 'at the earliest'.

This text was published by the Swedish government three months before DVB-T2 was approved by DVB.ORG - is as close you will get to a decision in Stockholm.

But DVB-T2 can just as well be used for SD - In the UK it is just most practical to start with HDTV to preserve the very many MPEG-2 SD Freeview boxes. In Denmark Boxer will start with 10 channels in each of three 19.91 Mbps DVB-T/MPEG-4 multiplexes. The same 30 SD channels could be transmitted in just two 33.3 MHz DVB-T2 multiplexes and there would even be 11% spare capacity.
It would result in 2/3 the number of transmitters, 2/3 the electricity consumption (or a little less) and a licensed but unused multiplex for Boxer.

But Denmark fixed the parameters in October 2007 - and did not dare to use DVB-T2 as the first country.

Ireland was 9 month later and as Watty pointed out this summer - "Boxer will start in January 2009 - We (ROI) cannot wait another year for DVB-T2".

Then Boxer could NOT, as claimed, start in January but is delayed 9 months to September 2009 ? - that is a delay 2.5 times longer than the orignal about 6 months.

Time to think - or rethink - IMHO.

MPEG-4 compression is, it appears, progressing rapidly at the moment. The BBC was pleased with the MPEG-4 quality they used for the DVB-T2 demo at IBC08. To me the three HD videostreams looked very good - very good, indeed.
Ofcom now expects that 'Five' can join as the forth HD channel maybe as early as during 2010. This is because of the better DVB-T2 bit rates (36 Mbps vs 32 Mbps) now demonstrated and the fast improving equipment for MPEG-4 realtime encoding.

Boxer-Denmark will transmit MPEG-4 SDTV at 2 Mbps/channel next autum, while Ofcom hope to get 4 HD channels into 36 Mbps during 2010.
That is to me more like
1 HD Channel = 4.5 to 5 SD Channels

Lars

PS!
There are some interesting info on MPEG-4 on video here , e.g. that MPEG2-only chips are no longer developed.