[mythtv-users] Digital switchover channel confusion

[Simon Hobson]

Justin Hornsby wrote:
>  >Please be aware that I recently (~14 days) read that after the final 2012
>>switchover we will all have *eight* muxes available, not six. I 
>>don't know what
>>the mix of DVB-T/DVB-T2 is planned to be at that point.
>
>*Eight* muxes?  Sob!  Why does anybody think we need MORE Freeview 
>channels? :-(
>
>I'm assuming it'll be for more channels - based on what they've done
>so far it'd be foolish to assume
>they're aiming to make picture quality comparable to analogue TV by
>reducing the amount of channels per mux.

Well it did always seem stupid (IMO) to restrict the setup to the six 
muxes - thus negating the chance of extra channels without advances 
in coding efficiency (which of course couldn't be rolled out without 
having another "throw out all your electronics and buy new again" 
period).

It just means another couple of dozen shopping channels to delete 
after a rescan !

>Where did the information about the extra muxes come from?  As far as
>I knew, OFCOM were looking to sell off all the
>old analogue spectrum which pretty much ruled out the possibility of
>any extra DVB-T (or T2) muxes coming along unless
>somebody was to pay (through the nose) for them.  I'm not even sure
>the consultation for post-DSO spectrum use is
>done with yet - the consulting period might be but AFAIK no decision
>had been reached.

I don't think you understand the way OfCon works. The decisions to 
sell off the spectrum was made before the consultation - did you not 
notice that of the options offered, none included keeping some of it 
for more muxes ? The consultation was to make people think they had 
some input - and to decide *how* to sell it off.
-- 
Simon Hobson

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