HDTV in New Zealand

[JonnyCam]

I see in the Dominion Post this morning that TVNZ will be delivering HDTV programming on Freeview after July.

This was just a tiny article in the Infotech part.
It said that half of TV1 primetime, and most of TV2 prime-time will be HD.

The entire Beijing Olympics will be broadcast in HD.

Unfortunately, the article also went on to say that this will only be available on the DVB-T platform, which is unfortunate for anyone outside of Auckland.

Does anyone know what the range is of the DVB-T transmissions for Freeview? Is there a time frame for rolling out more transmitters?

Thanks

[stustunz]

im pretty sure that most people will be able to get dvb-t soon well anybody that can get analog broadcast
i actually dont want hd yet as then i will run out of hard drive space even quicker than i do now and my computer will probably struggle to keep up aswell

[JonnyCam]

i actually dont want hd yet as then i will run out of hard drive space even quicker than i do now and my computer will probably struggle to keep up aswell

Yeah, same here - I was more going to try and use as an excuse to the missus to buy a new tv, even if I don't use HDTV.

[sub]

Its going to be MPEG4 based, so its not going to chew through too much more disk space than your existing MPEG2 recordings.

Kordia are already installing new equipment in the main centers for the Freeview DVB-T launch. At the very least, I'm sure it'll be available to most people in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin by the time the DVB-T service is launched.

[psycik]

Yeah, same here - I was more going to try and use as an excuse to the missus to buy a new tv, even if I don't use HDTV.

Always a toss up whether to buy now or later. Later there may be sets with integrated DVB-T....

[JonnyCam]

Always a toss up whether to buy now or later. Later there may be sets with integrated DVB-T....

Yeah, thought about that, there is also the problem of getting a DVB-T integrated which works with mpeg4, I was going to see about using a card, but checking if my PC supported HDTV first

What cards would work with DVB-T (mpeg4) - do most of the digital cards support it?

Thanks

[sub]

What cards would work with DVB-T (mpeg4) - do most of the digital cards support it?

All DVB-T cards can work with mpeg4. Its more of an issue of what software will work with mpeg4.

[Lindsay]

Good discussion, folks.

Seems to me to open up several cans of worms. So I put a dvb-t card in my server PC and record in HD. Then what? Can't get the HD playback through the mvp. Ditto LiveTV.

Add another STB under the TV alongside the skybox to further stuff the WAF, not to mention confusing me! Use another AV channel - hope we have plenty. How do we work out who's up who and who is paying??

Please tell me I haven't got a clue and it will all be easy.