26 replies to this topic

[ace2279]

Hi friends

Having recently noticed that Seven and 10 have launched their new HD channels (7HD & TenHD) in the major capital cities i was wondering if we can get those channels here in the ACT or if as usual we are getting screwed over coz we're seen as a 'regional centre' (we're just the nations capital city!! )

I've noticed on my HD set top box that i had 7HD listed but all i got was a copy of what was on Prime. Can anyone tell me if we can in fact get 7HD and TenHD in Canberra and if so how?? My set top box channel list shows all the usual canberra channels and also lists the HD channels for Prime, Win, and SC10 along with ABC2 and a few different SBS channels.

I'd really like to get a look at all these 'new' programs the stations are going to broadcast on their HD channels...

Thanks!

[Big Dan]

Prime does get 7HD, and is branded as such (with Prime HD watermark in the top right hand side of the screen). Check your program guide, as 7HD doesn't air 24/7.

Word going around is that SC10 viewers will get TenHD in March.

[ace2279]

Big Dan, on Jan 3 2008, 02:39 PM, said:

Prime does get 7HD, and is branded as such (with Prime HD watermark in the top right hand side of the screen). Check your program guide, as 7HD doesn't air 24/7.

Word going around is that SC10 viewers will get TenHD in March.

Thanks for that Big Dan... i'm wondering though why the other day i switched to what my STB listed as 7HD which was listing different shows should be currently on but was just a mirror of the SD Prime channel?

[Colin 2905]

ace2279, on Jan 3 2008, 02:32 PM, said:

I've noticed on my HD set top box that i had 7HD listed but all i got was a copy of what was on Prime.

Some DTV devices don't fully conform to the spec, so if the scan was done when Prime HD was simply redirecting to Prime SD, then you'll never see Prime HD when it actually is HD. So do a rescan when Prime HD is known to be HD (eg; "Sunrise"), or all guide indications are that it should be at the time.

EDIT: Prime SD and HD have different programming right now.

Edited by Colin 2905, 03 January 2008 - 02:16 PM.

[Big Dan]

ace2279, on Jan 3 2008, 03:12 PM, said:

Thanks for that Big Dan... i'm wondering though why the other day i switched to what my STB listed as 7HD which was listing different shows should be currently on but was just a mirror of the SD Prime channel?

No worries!

Doesn't Prime point their HD channel to their SD stream when 7HD or a HD program isn't going? Or does it upconvert?

[Colin 2905]

Big Dan, on Jan 3 2008, 04:30 PM, said:

Doesn't Prime point their HD channel to their SD stream when 7HD or a HD program isn't going?

Yep, that's what Prime does. But some DTV boxes get confused by the PID change, hence the need to scan the channel in when it's actually HD.

[digitalj]

Big Dan, on Jan 3 2008, 02:39 PM, said:

Prime does get 7HD, and is branded as such (with Prime HD watermark in the top right hand side of the screen). Check your program guide, as 7HD doesn't air 24/7.

Word going around is that SC10 viewers will get TenHD in March.

SC10 HD has been delayed to Mid 2008.

[Big Dan]

digitalj, on Jan 3 2008, 05:07 PM, said:

SC10 HD has been delayed to Mid 2008.

Oh. Well there you go.

[digitalj]

Big Dan, on Jan 3 2008, 05:46 PM, said:

Oh. Well there you go.

it's a mirage, you never seem to get closer

[dhromow]

SC10 HAS started to air a few select shows in the last few weeks, "Cane" immediately springs to mind...

[ace2279]

Just thought i'd post an update to say that once i rescanned my STB when i knew that 7HD was broadcasting it picked it up fine and all is well.  

cheers!!

[rain]

dhromow, on Jan 6 2008, 07:49 PM, said:

SC10 HAS started to air a few select shows in the last few weeks, "Cane" immediately springs to mind...

well that explains it - very annoying they dont mention this on their channel websites or on other Aussie-wide general public guides.
And it wouldn't have occurred to me to re-scan the digi channels....  

and guess which are the favourite programs I like to watch on any commercial FTA channel?
A small handful that are only now showing EXCLUSIVELY on Ten HD, which Canberra will never get reception for.

Figures.

10 burns me up with shows like Battlestar Galactica, the 4400, Jericho etc, they start a season later than advertised, then air episodes in the wrong order, change the time-slot from one inconvenient time to a different one, without notifying anyone,  or just drop them mid-season for no reason at all.
OK, I can understand that they are low-rating, not popular and in a very tiny niche market in Oz - so if there is such a poor market for them, not commercially viable for FTA, then why bother buying the FTA rights to them?   Then - I can't even "rent" the DVDs of the series, because they haven't completed FTA screening, or they aren't popular enough for Canberran chains to stock anyway, and they aren't re-run on Foxtel while FTA have rights to them.  

Then, this summer I see them advertised as being screened on TenHD,  and I think OKayyyy --

... Except ... not in Canberra

*sigh* - back to torrenting the bandwidth ..

[BJ083]

rain, on Jan 31 2008, 11:14 PM, said:

well that explains it - very annoying they dont mention this on their channel websites or on other Aussie-wide general public guides.
And it wouldn't have occurred to me to re-scan the digi channels....  

and guess which are the favourite programs I like to watch on any commercial FTA channel?
A small handful that are only now showing EXCLUSIVELY on Ten HD, which Canberra will never get reception for.

Figures.

10 burns me up with shows like Battlestar Galactica, the 4400, Jericho etc, they start a season later than advertised, then air episodes in the wrong order, change the time-slot from one inconvenient time to a different one, without notifying anyone,  or just drop them mid-season for no reason at all.
OK, I can understand that they are low-rating, not popular and in a very tiny niche market in Oz - so if there is such a poor market for them, not commercially viable for FTA, then why bother buying the FTA rights to them?   Then - I can't even "rent" the DVDs of the series, because they haven't completed FTA screening, or they aren't popular enough for Canberran chains to stock anyway, and they aren't re-run on Foxtel while FTA have rights to them.  

Then, this summer I see them advertised as being screened on TenHD,  and I think OKayyyy --

... Except ... not in Canberra

*sigh* - back to torrenting the bandwidth ..

They say Canberra will (hopefully) have TenHD by mid 2008.

[digitalj]

BJ083, on Feb 2 2008, 02:00 AM, said:

They say Canberra will (hopefully) have TenHD by mid 2008.

+1

[sk1]

BJ083, on Feb 2 2008, 02:00 AM, said:

They say Canberra will (hopefully) have TenHD by mid 2008.

I've got my fingers crossed for that one  

[darockk]

i was in melbourne over the weekend and watching the tv down there, they get so many more HD programs compared to what we get in canberra.

how annoying!

[Justin23]

What annoys me lately with TenHD in Canberra is we get shows simulcast in HD when its on TenHD, like last night 3 shows in a row on HD. I think Tues and Wednesdays are similar.
Yet then when SC10 goes to a non HD program, we don't get anything on HD. So the technical ability to rebroadcast TenHD must be there, so why not do it.

Same with Rugby World cup last year. not on HD in Canberra, yet later in the week I'd get all the reality show crap in HD.

[durham70]

Not happy with SC10

I turn the tv on this morning to watch the Nascar on HD.
Looking ok - Totally wild is being broadcast and the TenHD logo is shown in the corner of the screen.
Totally wild finishes - and we drop back to the demo loop

Not good enough SC10 !!!!!!!!! (and i think the Nascar is even broadcast in HD!)

David

[digitalj]

durham70, on Mar 2 2008, 08:35 AM, said:

Not happy with SC10

I turn the tv on this morning to watch the Nascar on HD.
Looking ok - Totally wild is being broadcast and the TenHD logo is shown in the corner of the screen.
Totally wild finishes - and we drop back to the demo loop

Not good enough SC10 !!!!!!!!! (and i think the Nascar is even broadcast in HD!)

David

the Nascar is an HD exclusive Broadcast, SC10 don't have the ability yet to insert ads onto HD and SD simultaneously, they aren't going to broadcast HD exclusive programming when they are unable to make $ from it, they can broadcast simulcast HD, because the Ads on SD are paying for the 1 program, not 2 different programs.

[durham70]

digitalj, on Mar 2 2008, 09:48 PM, said:

the Nascar is an HD exclusive Broadcast, SC10 don't have the ability yet to insert ads onto HD and SD simultaneously, they aren't going to broadcast HD exclusive programming when they are unable to make $ from it, they can broadcast simulcast HD, because the Ads on SD are paying for the 1 program, not 2 different programs.

i emailed them and got a reply that said they are doing the minimum they have to so as to comply with the HD legislation - "to date our HD broadcasts have been limited to approximately 1040 hours per annum of native HD content, which is the level of HD broadcasting we are required to undertake by law"

sucks.  Same when the f1 is only live on 10HD - those of us on SC10 won't get it - confirmed by SC10 in an email today

[bacco|007]

Quote

those of us on SC10 won't get it

For the last few weeks, Motorsport News has run letters in their eNews about regional viewers complaining that they cant watch NASCAR.   I will be mightly annoyed if we miss out on the F1 as well

[durham70]

bacco|007, on Mar 3 2008, 08:40 PM, said:

For the last few weeks, Motorsport News has run letters in their eNews about regional viewers complaining that they cant watch NASCAR.   I will be mightly annoyed if we miss out on the F1 as well

Confirmed today in an email i got from SC10:

"The Formula one is held in March. If the broadcast is simulcast on both the SD and HD services, Southern Cross Ten will broadcast in HD. However Southern Cross Ten is unable to transmit any coverage solely broadcast on the TENHD (Multi channel) as mentioned above."



Feel free to join me in expressing disappointment at this:  programcomments@scbnetwork.com.au

[Justin23]

I think letters to SC10, whoever is the joke of a minister in charges of communications adn your local member.

Seems to me if the whole issue is, TV stations only show what they have to, when they can show more. Kudos for Ten to do this. Of course then they wonder why people don't buy set top boxes. Several people i've mentioned to that 10 has a HD channel with separate programming said they'd buy a set top box if it was showing things like live sport.

Of course in Canberra we don't receive 10HD or SC10's equivalent. Doesn't Prime HD show a seperate show occasionally or late at night? I know its mostly crap on prime HD though.

[Colin 2905]

It would seem that, in Canberra at least, WIN has beaten SC10 when it comes to HD multi-channeling. There's not much of it, but anything is more than what we get from SC10.

Watching Terminator: TSCC tonight, WIN seems to have got its act together with regards to sync on the HD channel, although there was a total loss of audio for a little while towards the end (so I quickly switched over to SD, where it was OK).

[Justin23]

What annoys me is that shows that SC10 simulcast come straight from 10HD with 10HD logos.
So its obvious they can broadcast the 10HD feed but don't want to for some reason.

I'm guessing it is something to do with having SC10HD logos on it or something stupid like that. The TV stations would rather deprive us completely just because of something like this.