Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: New Sky

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  • Grant McDougall,

    Russell, could you amend your post so my surname is spelt correctly, please? "Mc" not "Mac".

    Anyway...yes, there's gonna ba blend in Dunners! I'm keen to have it at the end of this month, or early July.

    If you're keen to have a few beers with your fellow Mainland PA-ers, get in touch, asap, so we can reach a consensus about which day at what time is best. (It'd be convenient for the bar that's offered us a good deal if it'd be early in the week, too).

    It'll be great to have a yarn and put names to faces. Get in touch!

    Dunedin • Since Dec 2006 • 760 posts Report Reply

  • Che Tibby,

    hmmmm... anyone know a good prediction market?

    i'd like to gauge how much money tvnz will have to spend on "photoshopping experts" to smooth the blemishes of its talent.

    big tv, hi-def, pimples. an evil combo.

    (and seriously... would like to know some local prediction markets)

    the back of an envelope • Since Nov 2006 • 2042 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Russell, could you amend your post so my surname is spelt correctly, please? "Mc" not "Mac".

    Duh. Done.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Grant McDougall,

    Cheers. I've just realised: will this make us "the Dunedinista" ? :)

    Dunedin • Since Dec 2006 • 760 posts Report Reply

  • Lucy Stewart,

    big tv, hi-def, pimples. an evil combo.

    Jack Coleman of "Heroes" commented in an interview that he was terrified of the show moving to HD because it meant his nose hair would be broadcast to the world.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report Reply

  • Ron Wilson,

    Mmmm As usual it sounds as if SKY have done their homework and will provide a superior product. I don't think Freeview will have a PVR with intelligence out till late this year or even next year. Rumours are that TV3 which are supposed to have two more channels on Freeview by end of this year may well consider walking away from Freeview and do a deal with SKY. If that happens where would that leave Government plans to try and force Freeview as the replacement of analogue TV.
    Freeview seem to me to have missed the bus by not having a MYSKY equivalent at launch date.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 16 posts Report Reply

  • Nicholas O'Flaherty,

    Running the HD box will cost an extra $10 a month, but that fee will be waived for customers to elect to keep their current box as an additional household decoder.

    What does that mean?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2007 • 2 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Mmmm As usual it sounds as if SKY have done their homework and will provide a superior product. I don't think Freeview will have a PVR with intelligence out till late this year or even next year.

    It should be late this year, and it won't be as friendly as the MySky because nothing is.

    Rumours are that TV3 which are supposed to have two more channels on Freeview by end of this year may well consider walking away from Freeview and do a deal with SKY. If that happens where would that leave Government plans to try and force Freeview as the replacement of analogue TV.

    I don't believe it. That TV3 wants to be on Sky and Freeview is obvious -- and why not? But to walk away from the Freeview consortium, where it has a real stake, and mortgage its future to Sky alone wouldn't make sense.

    As I said, from about now, TVs start shipping with integrated Freeview decoders -- in (hopefully) five years' time, Freeview will be TV. Most of the growth in Freeview in Britain now is in such integrated sets. The sooner we get to analog switch-off and all that spectrum being inefficiently used by analog broadcast can be freed up, the better.

    I actually don't think TVWorks' problem is Freeview transmission costs -- it's how to profitably run the new channels it is committed to launching (as their programmer has noted, porn would work in a commercial sense). They, perhaps rightly, resent the fact that the state broadcaster has tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to do so, and they don't.

    Freeview seem to me to have missed the bus by not having a MYSKY equivalent at launch date.

    I have one, but it doesn't have the official Freeview EPG and it's a satellite decoder. The boxes available later in the year will be Freeview HD ones.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Graeme Edgeler,

    __Running the HD box will cost an extra $10 a month, but that fee will be waived for customers to elect to keep their current box as an additional household decoder.__

    What does that mean?

    That the cost of having an HD box, plus a second non-HD box will be the same as having two non-HD boxes. I think.

    Wellington, New Zealand • Since Nov 2006 • 3215 posts Report Reply

  • Matthew Poole,

    He quoted a total of 3638 hours coverage of the London games, contrasting that with the 810 hours TVNZ provides from Beijing.

    I guess that's what happens when you can just add channels whenever you choose, and all they do is show some particular event. A luxury TVNZ doesn't have.

    What's it cost a broadcaster to be allowed to cover the Olympics? I'm guessing it's pretty exorbitant, given that the Games' prime purpose these days is as an advertising vehicle. Is TVNZ locked out of covering '12 because Sky will be there?

    Auckland • Since Mar 2007 • 4097 posts Report Reply

  • andrew llewellyn,

    Cheers. I've just realised: will this make us "the Dunedinista" ? :)

    Not until you complete the Official Initiation Ceremony de Gross Humiliation.

    But it's not so bad, I'll ask Jo to come & explain it.

    Since Nov 2006 • 2075 posts Report Reply

  • Matthew Poole,

    Jack Coleman of "Heroes" commented in an interview that he was terrified of the show moving to HD because it meant his nose hair would be broadcast to the worl

    I remember, back at the very beginning of the high-def DVD wars, seeing a comment from an adult entertainment star to the effect that razor rash and in-grown hairs become much bigger problems with HD porn.

    Auckland • Since Mar 2007 • 4097 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    I guess that's what happens when you can just add channels whenever you choose, and all they do is show some particular event. A luxury TVNZ doesn't have.

    Quite. Until we turn off analog TV, there's not a lot more spectrum to go around. Sky, on the other hand, has ye olde buttload of transponder space on the Optus satellite, with an option to buy more. No oneelse will be able to get any.

    The risks of Sky being both the sole transmission provder and its own most favoured customer should be obvious. I don't buy TVNZ's call for a forced separation of those two roles -- Freeview itself is the correct intervention, because it's a rational move to a modern use of spectrum that can then be resold for the public benefit. It worked in Britain.

    It's also probably worth noting that the business commentators running down Freeview and implying a Sky monopoly is good by them are roughly the same people who spent the 90s sticking up for Telecom.

    What's it cost a broadcaster to be allowed to cover the Olympics?

    Heaps.

    I'm guessing it's pretty exorbitant, given that the Games' prime purpose these days is as an advertising vehicle. Is TVNZ locked out of covering '12 because Sky will be there?

    It'll get news, and have its own correspodent there, but that'll be it. But Sky has had to promise the IOC that there will be a reasonable free-to-air offering, and I don't think the IOC will regard Prime-on-a-Sky -box as real free-to-air. Freeview has an installed base of 100,000 already, and growth will continue to pick up. There are about 5000 people using FTA-only boxes they've bought from Sky. The fact is, Prime will be on Freeview by 2010. What else happens around that, I don't know.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    Not until you complete the Official Initiation Ceremony de Gross Humiliation.

    But it's not so bad, I'll ask Jo to come & explain it.

    Wouldn't want to risk any misunderstandings. Best to have Jo demonstrate, and cell-phone-cam it to youtube.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    e also outlined Sky's plans for the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2012 Olympics in London. They're huge. Sky will have eight dedicated Olympic channels

    Sweet. We might actually get decent coverage of winter sports for the first time. Actually watching games rather than 5 minute highlights.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    Wouldn't want to risk any misunderstandings. Best to have Jo demonstrate, and cell-phone-cam it to youtube.

    *pushes Grant forward*

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Hadyn Green,

    Cheers. I've just realised: will this make us "the Dunedinista" ? :)

    Not until you complete the Official Initiation Ceremony de Gross Humiliation.

    But it's not so bad, I'll ask Jo to come & explain it.

    And if not you'll be hearing from our lawyer... who also... technically, is Jo.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report Reply

  • Hadyn Green,

    What's an "OB truck"? (does the b stand for "broadcast"?)

    Also what are the rest of the 104 sports events in HD? (is there a list somewhere? he asks lazily)

    I've been watching stuff branded ESPNHD for years now thinking "I wonder what it really looks like". Which is quite a philosophical question if you think about it.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    What's an "OB truck"? (does the b stand for "broadcast"?)

    It's 'outside broadcast' isn't it? Puts a whole new spin on 'ob-gyn'.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Joanna,

    Cheers. I've just realised: will this make us "the Dunedinista" ? :)

    Not until you complete the Official Initiation Ceremony de Gross Humiliation.

    But it's not so bad, I'll ask Jo to come & explain it.

    And if not you'll be hearing from our lawyer... who also... technically, is Jo.

    Actually our lawyer is officially Jessie, but she's in the UK right now. I'm just the loudest. To qualify as a city-ista, you need to be able to handle a hundred+ emails a day, have an "eliteist" attitude, know how to differentiate between a blog and a journal, have at least one public figure come and be a dick on your blog, have the inside word at half the drinking establishments in town, and also have the liver of a cold-blooded elephant. Oh but before any of that, you have to pass the initiation. And believe me, that's no walk in the park.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 746 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Campbell,

    OB - out side broadcast (not a roving doctor)

    Gee - maybe it's time to roll a cheap OTA PVR - I keep threatening to make a DIY-with-your-old-PC-and-Myth standalone CD - most of the bits are readily available now.

    The big problem of course is that FV's choice of MPEG4 - while it's technically a good idea it means there's no cheap settop silicon around - it means our TVs will be different from anyone else's for quite a while and you can't just import a random digital TV and expect it to work in NZ - it also means that time to market for anything will be longer - if they'd chosen MPEG2 we'd probably all be awash in PVRs and TVs (and it's not like NZ is particularly short on TV broadcast space, especially after they reclaim the analog bands)

    Best thing that Freeview could do today would to be to throw all their specs up on their website - we know it's DVB-T - but any extensions? what's the EPG format? how do you use boquets? (same as Sky? as someone else? your own special way?) etc etc it's supposed to be free - open up the specs so anyone can build one

    Mind you the local newspaper here in Dunedin is more confused, last week they ran a 1/4 page article expousing the wonders of a particular digital TV solution for your PC - trouble was it only actually works on US cable systems (QAM based, Dunedin has non cable and if it did it would be DVB) or US broadcast (again ATSC, not DVB). Their subeditors went to the trouble to change the reference in the article to which night Desperate Housewives is on but missed the more general if someone actually does they'll be wasting their money part of the thing

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report Reply

  • FletcherB,

    outside broadcast truck = mobile TV studio control room + recording equipment + radio transmission back to TV station headquarters

    West Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 893 posts Report Reply

  • andrew llewellyn,

    Oh but before any of that, you have to pass the initiation. And believe me, that's no walk in the park

    I hope you're not scared of goats...

    Since Nov 2006 • 2075 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Campbell,

    I can provide goats, the badgers might be harder to find though ....

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report Reply

  • Hadyn Green,

    Hee hee

    Paul I don't know if you did this on purpose but here is a list of all your acronyms: OB (and thanks to everyone for the explanations), OTA PVR, DIY, PC, CD, FV, MPEG4, TV, NZ, DVB-T, EPG, US, QAM, DVB, ATSC.

    Wow...um, I'll just guess the ones I don't know this time. :)

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report Reply

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