★★★★★ 0/5

Switch to Digital

TVs will soon be labelled as digital capable or digital ready as the government tries to lead us Moses-like through a digital abyss.

10
Leave a comment

charlton_hestonAre you ready to be guided through the waves of confusing information to a land of milk, honey and high resolution vision? Help is apparently at hand. The Federal Government has launched an awareness campaign for the switch to digital television.

The $6.7 million advertising campaign was launched at the Get Ready for Digital conference in Sydney and incorporates a labelling scheme to attach to retail hardware include HD TVs and set top boxes.

The labels will identify if equipment is either digital-capable, digital-ready for standard definition or digital-ready for high-definition.

The digital-ready labelling scheme was developed in consultation with industry is intended to help customers become aware of what they are purchasing. Retail staff are offered offer online training to ensure they are giving out correct information.

Digital Switchover Taskforce executive director Andy Townend said the campaign would point to the Government’s switchover information site and to a digital switchover hotline.

The labelling system has begun already at Mildura, the first area to have analogue-TV signals turned off.

More information is at www.digitalready.gov.au

Just remember to take off the label before you wear your new HD TV. It’s not a good look.

Source: The Australian

10 Responses

  1. That website does not even explain everything. There needs to be one central location either govt run or otherwise detailing everything inc what is available to regionals and when. I too have had to explain to people why they can’t get ONE. Some don’t have the right TV, others are in Newcastle and have seen advertising for it. No ONE in Newcastle yet. Sure – you can google to try and find your answers, but that can open up even more confusion especially when in top 10 results you can find forum and blog results months old with outdated information.

    Spend the money on:
    1. A website that has all the answers about the channels as well. Make it interactive with forums and posts so the confused can ask away. Man it with people who actually know what is going on, and if they don’t, will go out of the way to find answers.
    2. Legislate immediately to stop selling analogue TVs anywhere. Past a certain date, say July 2009, no analogue TV should be allowed to be sold without a digital set top box. No longer allow use of confusing terms like “digital ready”, “HD ready”, etc.
    3. Educate the retailers. Some know less than most of us here do.

  2. yep only today i was explaining to someone that the reason they cannot view ONE is that their “HD ready” television only has an analogue tuner and that they would need to buy a STB, i also told them to make sure the sales people don’t trick them out of a HD one.

  3. @Pete – that was exactly my reaction!!!!

    “Digital Ready” has always meant it was “ready” for digital but lacked the vital part, a digital tuner… while “Digital Capable” makes it sound like it is capable of digital TV all by itself.

    @Pete – that was exactly my reaction!!!!

    Let the confusion begin!

  4. The hilarious part is that they’re now using “HD Ready” to describe TVs that have an HD tuner. Up to last week, “HD Ready” against a TV in a catalog generally meant that it only had an analogue tuner but could display HD with an HD set top box.

    I foresee much confusion…

  5. Perhaps they should start educating the major-chain-store retailers. My elderly parents bought a “set top box that will give you all of the new channels on your old TV”. No it doesn’t. It is only SD. The HD channels are either black or a still-frame in a montage of colours”. At least twice a day they have to switch it off & on to restore lip sync. They don’t look forward to having to navigate the 52 buttons on the new TV’s remote. Fine for techno-freaks like Elvis, but most Australians have no idea what “digital”, “SD”, “HD”, “analogue” and all the mumbo-jumbo means. No one has explained why analogue TV has to be switched off anyway.

  7. What a complete waste on money, that will achieve nothing.

    The government should require all TVs sold after a certain date, to have support for digital TV (SD and HD at this stage). Australia is already the dumping ground for older analog TVs.

    At this rate, the turn off of analog TV will keep been pushed back, because there are still too many analog TVs around and still been sold.

  8. When did SD and HD broadcasts start again? 8 years ago? When was the original analog switchoff date? 06? 07?

    Digital labelling of set top boxes? What other types of boxes are there?

    The public have had plenty of chances. Switch off the analogue.

  9. same comment i made under the kerri-anne HD post. analogue equipment should not be for sale in any store any where in the country, throw them in the bin that is all they are good for, do not foist them on unsuspecting or gullible customers.

Leave a Reply