Re: Public consultation

Silk wrote:
DAB is the Betamax of digital radio wrote:

Yes, I thought people would say this if I start linking DAB to
Betamax, but for the vast majority of people they simply look upon
Betamax as a technology that is obsolete because it lost a format
war, and the only people that know that it is technically superior
to VHS (although I think that's debatable in itself, isn't it?) are
mainly people that work in TV broadcasting and so on.

There is an analogy here in that it's the same majority that didn't
know or care that will not know or care about DAB. You have to
understand that most people don't care.


That's the broadcasters' view, and therefore you supporting that view makes
you a broadcaster apologist.

The reality is that the public don't understand digital radio technology,
the broadcasters and Ofcom are taking advantage of this, and the public is
being conned. End of story.

Any justification of the use of sub-FM audio quality is quite simply a
disgrace.


Alan Sugar was right when the
broadcasters wanted to introduce a new standard for satelite TV. He
said most people wouldn't notice the difference and so PAL got it's
extended life and the rest is history.


A new standard that does what, exactly? Was it meant to double the
resolution, triple it, reduce it, what??

Don't you see the irony in what you've just said considering that Sky got
about 150,000 (IIRC) subscribers for its HD service in this first few months
of it being available and people have to pay £400 (IIRC) for the set-top box
and they've got to pay an extra subscription and they've got to have an
HD-ready display to be able to actually display HD.

HDTV is going to be the technology that proves all the naysayers wrong about
the public not appreciating good quality - people love HDTV:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/info/policies/pdf/dtt_hdtrial.pdf

86% of people said that it is "very important" that HD be transmitted on
Freeview.
90% of people "strongly agree" that BBC, ITV and C4 should be at the
forefrunt of offering HD services.

And here's some quotes about their experiences:

"Although I was impressed with the
quality of the World Cup, I can honestly
say that last night's Planet Earth gave
me a complete case of jaw-drop for
the entire hour!!"

"...the World Cup quality just blows me
away, the depth of field that is created
and the sharpness and detail of the players
really adds to the experience."
"Extremely impressed with the picture
quality, it really adds something to the
spectacle of the World Cup.hopefully
England will make a more convincing job
of it on Thursday."

"Just wanted to say that my wife is
now an HD convert! Having no interest
in the World Cup (unlike myself of course),
she really didn't see what all the fuss was
about. Until yesterday when she saw the
Wimbledon HD broadcast for the first
time. Fantastic, vibrant colours and
wonderful detail."

"The clarity and sharpness of the
(Wimbledon) pictures was amazing.
This gave a new view of the competitors'
facial expressions to get an 'inclusive feel'
for the matches and a clearer view of line
calls greatly increased the enjoyment
factor. I cannot bear the thought of
having to go back to standard definition."

Bleak House: "The detail in the scenery
and household objects as well as the faces
of the characters was staggering. I tuned
in at about 9pm after returning from a
weekend away and only intended to watch
for a few minutes as I'd seen all but the last
episode before. However, I got hooked by
the quality of picture (and production of
course) and ended up watching all the
remaining episodes. Superb."

Space 1999: "Watched some and was pretty
gobsmacked at how such an old programme
could look so good."

"Watched part of the first night of the
Proms and thought that the close ups
of the orchestra and their instruments
was fabulous."

"Did anyone see the Isle of Wight
Music Festival on C4 HD? Absolutely
amazing. Broadcasts like this make the
HD experience very worthwhile. Apart from
sport and documentaries, this was clearly
what HD has been designed for."


The BBC is very good at making the case to be given more spectrum for HDTV
on Freeview (although I don't think they should be given this spectrum,
because they should be forced to use DVB-T2 instead which will double the
capacity, and which would mean that they don't need the extra spectrum), and
it's just a great shame that they couldn't have given a *** about the audio
quality on DAB, because they're supposed to set the standards, but they
screwed up by sleepwalking into adopting the DAB system which makes low
audio quality inevitable due to spectrum constraints and stupidly high
transmission costs. I'm afraid it's time for them to sort out their audio
quality on DAB by adopting DAB+ ASAP.


--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

Find the cheapest Freeview & DAB prices:
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/freeview/freeview_receivers.php
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/dab/dab_radios.php


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