As a frequent visitor to Canberra i have yet to stay in a motel that has good tv reception or quality screens. Does anyone know of a motel that has digital tv so i can see ABC 2 on 22 ? A bonus would be a tv screen thats clear & adjusted properly .

"Sydney"
Your problems will be solved in the first half of 2012 when Canberra will have analog TV switched off! I cannot answer your question other than to say it may be worth buying a set top box which can be quite small. Read Get the Best Reception, ACT and read the links. I would get one of the antennas recommended in the Indoor antenna link.
Note the antenna will need to be on its side for all but SBS from the Black Mountain site. All other digital transmissions it will be its normal, horizontal.

You will need a yellow, white, red AV cable to connect the STB to the TV. You will need to select AV on the TV's Remote control.

AlanH

I can look after myself with my 17"inch laptop with tuner but i think it is pathetic that in our Capital i can not find a motel with modern up to date tv on a clear screen!! You would think the ABC at least would educate motel owners about ABC2 etc. The few Foxtel channels on motel tvs are useless . I have 5 STBs & laptops with inbuilt tuners & usb tuners but i think it would be better if i did not have to regig the motel tv or carry a stb /antenna etc.

There are a few motels here that are currently replacing their crt’s with lcd’s.
It’s not a straight forward process to upgrade a motel system for digital. Many have foxtel, movielink, magicnet, videojock etc redistributed via analogue and to have a digital / analogue system can be confusing to those clients that are not techno savvy.
If it’s a digital only system upgrade (rare) then it’s reasonably straight forward, but many motels will wait till they have to make the change and then spend the money as it ain’t cheap.

Gadget

There are a few motels here that are currently replacing their crt’s with lcd’s.
It’s not a straight forward process to upgrade a motel system for digital. Many have foxtel, movielink, magicnet, videojock etc redistributed via analogue and to have a digital / analogue system can be confusing to those clients that are not techno savvy.
If it’s a digital only system upgrade (rare) then it’s reasonably straight forward, but many motels will wait till they have to make the change and then spend the money as it ain’t cheap.

Gadget

Thanks for your interest. Lcd screens are not my favourite screen type .I find them harder to calibrate than Plasmas.In public places & shops i often think they are oversaturated .Back to motels .The movie on demand service is now a bit out of date .Great in the 70s but now a fuzzy movie for $14 on a 21 inch screen crt & 4 inch speaker is a bit old hat ! Trying to mix digital tv/Foxtel & on demand movies is a big ask, as you point out. I think i will set up a laptop & use the motels antenna outlet to feed the tuner or use a small portable table antenna,uhf. That works ok at home & has PVR functions.Or a selection of xvids.

As mentioned, most places redistribute Foxtel, etc via analogue, so you're not necessarily going to get any UHF/VHF reception on your tuner. I've discovered this at a few places I've been to. You're probably best looking for a place which doesn't have Foxtel/movies on demand. Try Queanbeyan

I can't say that in the thirty or so years since I began infrequently frequenting motels, I have ever stayed in one that had brilliant reception or well adjusted televisions. And that covers motels right across the country. I think they have more to deal with than providing an excellent television service. As for providing quality screens, why would they when Joe public is going to be using and abusing them? And I doubt very much they would provide a plasma over a cheaper to buy and run LCD.
I think it's a matter of take it or leave it.
The primary object is accommodation and a meal or two is it not?

I'd second that. Have just finished an installation for a small 12 room motel where 80cm LCD screens are wall mounted and DVD players are provided in each room for those that require alternative entertainment. The only reception provided is FTA digital, and all looks good.

Funnily enough, I've stayed in many different hotels this year around the country. At least 3 decent hotels in sydney, a couple in Brisbane and only a small B&B in Fremantle had good DTV reception. the rest offered average analogue reception with various forms of foxtel/movies on demand. At the Fremantle B&B each room had a STB and TV. From memory the antenna was external with a socket in each room. In the next few years i think you'll find more hotels go to just free to air digital because they will have to.

I remember having digital through analogue, it went:

1 ABC
2 SBS
3 SC10
4 Prime
5 WIN
6 ABC2
7 Nick
8 Sky News
9 FOX8
10 Movie One
11 Movie Extra
12 MTV
13 Discovery

so what i'd think would be a cost effective solution is having 6 STB's at the main control and rebroadcating it onto Analogue and cutting out the FTA Analogue Signals. If that makes sense

msheldrick,
This is not the solution.
The reason is that there is or soon will be 3 programs per network thus requiring 15 STBs to give all programs. There will be no sharp pictures and there will be no widescreen pictures.
The better option is to use digital distribution amplifiers for the FTA TV. STBs will be required in each room which can be supersceded when TVs are eventually replaced.

The Digital Logical Channel Numbers are only showing the first digit
1 TEN metro 1, 10, 11
2 ABC eg 2, 20, 21, 22, 23
3 SBS eg 3, 30
4 Miscellaneous
5 SC10 Regional
6 Prime/GWN
7 Seven Metro eg 7, 70 and soon 71
8 WIN/NBN regional
9 Nine Metro. eg 9, 90, 91

What happens to HD Foxtel? The way to do this is to use a cable bandwidth upto satellite Intermediate Frequency. The digital FTA can easily be fed through this cabling. The distribution amplifier processor needs to be retuned or replaced. The system is also capable of return signals to control billing.

Australian Building Codes Board Digital TV Antenna Systems. This document is voluntary at the moment but may be come compulsory through an act of parliament. So new establishments will have to have digital signals.
AlanH

Maybe not, but the fact is that most larger hotels offer an in-house movie facility, in effect a small scale pay-tv environment with 'bonus' free to air channels. These systems are all analogue. TV sets in those hotels do not use their built-in tuners at all, instead they use a 'terminal' that is usually stowed away somewhere in the TV cabinet. The remote control operates this terminal, not the TV set.

It is not in the interest of the hotel to offer any of the additional channels as it will take more revenue away from the movie channels.....

D to A conversion for hotels etc. and for other MATV systems with local insertion e.g. retirement villages will be the option of choice for a long time to come, whether you like it or not.

Small hotels / motels on the other hand can move to digital pretty easily.

Finally, in relation to the O/T, as a regular traveller both here and overseas, this issue is not limited to Canberra or Australia...

Cheers
Rusty

Rusty & others,
I suggest you Australian Standard 1367-2007. It shows the return signal i mentioned operating switches from the Satellite receivers. These signals are the IF signal which is about 1.9 GHz. They are not demodulated. These switches can also switch to the FTA signals as a single input.

AlanH

Thanks for your comments.

This system was more than likely using COFDM to Pal converters, this equipment is incorporated as part of the MATV headend, the Foxtel services would have a bank of Foxtel STU's located at the headend, they will have the AV output modulated to analog, married to the converted FTA channels and distributed throughout the complex.

I most cases this type of system works well, it is often the distribution system throughout that will cause the poor quality picture you see in the room.

I have been in Melbourne for the last 4 days, staying in a serviced apartment complex in the CBD, it was using the Movielink system which had the standard analog FTA channels ghosting and low input signal for SBS and Ch 31 community channel, 4 Foxtel channels all with noise across the picture. Unfortunately it can happen anywhere.

Gadget

Here's a satellite to COFDM converter.

According to specs it's 2k COFDM.

M'bozo,
What a useful MATV device! The 2k carrier mode is not a problem because it is part of the Australian receiver standard. Also the signals will be going down a cable and not into an over the air Single Frequency Network.

So with this device all analog can be removed from MATV installations except the Modulator for internal information systems.
All outputs will be able to use HD signals whether they are terrestrial (COFDM to COFDM processor) with all satellite TV including Foxtel HD with the a2b DVB-S/S2 to COFDM converter

AlanH

Providing it is compatible with the Foxtel NDS encryption and Foxtel approve the product.
I was made aware of the product by one of our Melbourne sales managers who met with the Australian distributor last week, hopefully I will catch up with them myself this week.
Gadget

$$$$$$$$

I have worked on this for several hotels who would just love to distribute CFODM only signals to all their shiney new LCD TV's..... but at about $10k per modulated cofdm channel it's not something they find cost effective.... even many larger hotels scoff at this kind of $$ I know of several very wealthy hotels that are testing this at the moment..
Part of the issue is the MPEG DVB-ASI encoders then the cofdm modulators.

Many vendors have talked about this but the few that can actually delivery are hideously expensive.

If you can get the distribution system right then you can now get TV' that allow you to mix analogue and digital channels to provide a seemless interface for the enduser/hotel guest... and they can also get good quality pictures (if the system is setup properly)..

The price for the ESX-200 is significantly less than $10k and of course the ESX-200 outputs at least 6 COFDM channels per unit which brings the cost down to $600 per channel.


Talk to Laceys - they have the latest prices..

Just wondering if anyone has used the scion cat 5 systems before?

The Statesman Hotel in Curtin has LCD TVs in room with built-in digital TV tuners in use ie. SCTEN on LCN 5, PRIME on 6, WIN on 8 etc with widescreen pictures.
There's no FOXTEL or any other MOVIELINK type system either.