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Digital switch -one year and counting…

There is now just one year remaining before analogue TV is permanently given the flick.

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There is now just one year remaining before analogue TV is permanently given the flick.

The final areas in the digital rollout will switch to digital on December 10 2013: including Melbourne, Alice Springs, Mt. Isa and Bourke.

Sydney, Gosford and Penrith make the switch a week earlier on December 3.

In 2013 Adelaide will be the next to make the switch on April 2, with Tasmania, Perth, Brisbane, regional WA and Darwin to follow.

This means if you haven’t switched to a digital TV or digital set top box time is running out (put it on your xmas list?). Most TV Tonight readers being astute and serious about their entertainment have already made the switch.

There’s more info at digitalready.gov.au including details about government assistance for eligible households.

At least when the switch is complete we can look at making out Primary Channels in HD!

17 Responses

  3. Again, thanks to government ineptness, we have MPEG2, which is inferior to MPEG4 as used in NZ.
    SD boxes were allowed to be imported, so Harvey Normal & co. were telling customers “this is all you need”.
    SD boxes should have been prohibited imports.
    Already switched off in Wollongong/south coast NSW. VHS recorders now major landfill items.

  6. ha,ha what a joke,every time there is a clean up in my area people are throwing away 28″,32″ LCD & Plasmas for new 60″HD displays [how do I know I see the empty cartons] until a few years ago they were throwing out their crt’s, this has been a lie by the government and others on the take up rate of digital I say closer to 90% jmho

  7. @dark angel: That is exactly what the Government are doing and has been on the agenda for a few years now, when Analogue goes, they are moving the frequencies of the current Digital and selling off a fair chunk of the UHF band (690-820 Mhz).

    Google search Lacey’s Digital Restack or ACMA – Restack of digital television services and it will give all the info (the Lacey’s one has more than the ACMA one without downloading PDF’s).

  9. I think that the freed up analog spectrum will be used for 4G wireless internet and for the NBN to reach 93% of the Australian population.

    The federal government can sell the newly available spectum for billions to the private sector so we can have super fast 4G wireless on the go internet.

  10. @Travis No there is not Leaded at Pumps, however when Unleaded was introduced there was Leaded at the pumps for a number years before it was completely phased out (which is why they made the Unleaded pump a smaller nozzle, so people couldn’t accidentally put leaded in unleaded cars).

    Thing I think should happen is the stations should be allowed to put HD content Sport on the other channels when analogue is switched off. Also for shows that are HD, in the interim they should put it on simulcast (like hour shows like Downton Abbey etc), or encore them the next day in HD, give people an incentive to upgrade there TV’s or Set-Top-Boxes.

    However as pointed out below until 2015 the stations will have there hands full Restacking (changing the output frequencies) all the channels all over Australia and advertising to us to retune our TV’s, before they even consider swapping channels for HD.

  11. So it can’t change because a few people have SD only TV’s or set-top boxes? Is there still leaded fuel pump’s at each servo for people with older cars? People need to move with the damn times, a HD set-top box is less than $50.

  12. Be a while before any switch to HD on the Main Channels, one for the reason Secret Squirrel mentions and two because Digital restacking will begin in 2014 (ie: just after as analogue is switched off).

    In some areas that will mean there may be a short simulcast of some channels so the transponders can be changed (for instance SBS is moving to use Channel 7 on the Digital scale).

    The Digital Dividend Band 690-820 Mhz is being freed up to be sold off to the telecos for LTE (4G).

  13. My understanding is that the primary channels will not be immediately upped to HD after the analogue switchoff. This is because networks will be concerned that people who only have SD-capable equipment will not be able to watch.

    There certainly won’t be any simulcasting of the main channel in HD or any additional channels. The commercial networks each have 7MHz of spectrum for digital terrestrial TV which equates to a bit-rate of around 23Mbps. This is pretty much taken up by the 1 HD, 2 SD, and 1 datacasting channel that they all now have.

    Even then, the picture quality can be crappy with noticeable macro-blocking during fast motion or changes in brightness. This is partly due to them using the outdated MPEG-2 compression protocol (blame the govt).

  14. they are all ready broadcasting in HD. (new content anyway)

    the whole digital tv failed so they had to re-market it, they were able to once HD came along.

    and yes I also predict more bull poop on tv. more poop channels and a continuing fall in the quality of aussie programming.

    Aurora will probably be the next channel to switch from access via only foxtel to freeview.

    It wouldn’t surprise me if Sky news also makes a switch to freeview or if foxtel/fox launch there own freeview channel.

    I also think we will be seeing a lot more NZ programming.

  16. “At least when the switch is complete we can look at making out Primary Channels in HD!” – Yeah right.

    I predict more shopping and nonsense channels before HD quality broadcasts.

  17. Out of curiosity, is it known whether primary channels will simulcast or migrate to HD after analogue shutdown?

    The networks are not going to get any additional spectrum after analogue shutdown but I suppose they may gain some flexibility with the spectrum they have… but need to be mindful that a lot of people will have digital tuners (particularly earlier models) that aren’t HD compatible.

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