At least in Brisbane, as the station I was streaming 4KQ aired a commercial for some shop selling converter boxes. Hopefully the DTV system you use works better than the 8VSB system we ended up with in the USA. Getting reception with our system is kinda touchy, ranging from perfect to pixelation breakups to nothing at all. Though I imagine COFDM (a system used in Europe IIRC) probably has its own issues.

Many of our DTV stations broadcast multiple programs at the same time, usually one Hi Def program, and one or two "standard" def programs (used to replay classic episodes of Lassie, Leave it to Beaver, Honeymooners, I love Lucy, Lone Ranger and such) (don't know if any of these ever were shown in Australia). I suppose Aussie DTV will do similar.

(used to replay classic episodes of Lassie, Leave it to Beaver, Honeymooners, I love Lucy, Lone Ranger and such) (don't know if any of these ever were shown in Australia).

All of those and many more US programs were shown here back in the day, some with endless repeats. You name it and we have probably seen it.

When I was a kid, just about every TV program shown here was made in the USA or the UK. It got to the point where our Federal government had to legislate quotas of locally produced programs as a form of industry protection. With the huge increase in channels available under digital free to air and pay to view cable, and the consequent huge demand for product to transmit, local quotas are in danger of being drowned.

As with the USA we now have a plethora of crap to watch.

I don't watch TV very much anymore. In fact if somebody stole my TV set I probably wouldn't bother replacing it.

Many of our DTV stations broadcast multiple programs at the same time, usually one Hi Def program, and one or two "standard" def programs

This is pretty much what we have here in the capital cities plus regional areas. In each area there's three commercial channels and two government-owned channels. Each has two SD channels and one HD channel plus two datacast channels which show infomercial shows only - buy this magic product with four easy card payments and get a free bin to throw it in when it breaks two weeks out of warranty, that sort of thing.

I don't know about Honeymooners, but I watched the rest as a kid along with Batman, Superman, Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, Porky Pig, Dukes of Hazzard, Gilligan's Island, Get Smart, Lone Ranger, Mickey Mouse Club and Happy Days - and that was just the American shows. Then there was Skippy the bush kangaroo, Wombat, Wonder World, The Curiosity Show (where I kindled my interest in electrical and electronics), Blanketty Blanks (notoriously filthy but in a way that kids didn't understand), Family Feud, Kingswood Country and It's a Knockout - they were the Aussie shows I watched. British shows include On the Buses, Love Thy Neighbour, Bless this House, The Bill, The Benny Hill Show, Heartbeat and Are You Being Served.

I don't see any of those shows on free to air telly anymore, despite there being around 18 channels now. Most of what is on is just garbage.

These days I try to watch things like the documentaries on Ch 73 - Mighty Ships and the like or Highway Patrol and The Force on Ch 7. I like it when I see footage of coppers banging up hardcore crims.

Back to the subject at hand, analogue television will be gone very soon though there are no immediate plans to phase out analogue radio but when that happens, both AM and FM will die at the same time, leaving us radio collectors with our mini transmitters to maintain the rage with.

I don't know about Honeymooners

"To the moon, Alice!"

I don't see any of those shows on free to air telly anymore

TVS (Digital 44) runs 'em as long as they cost them nothing. (TVS operates on the smell of an oily rag.)

In fact, they screen their old stuff from DVDs. I have seen them show old royalty free movies with the Mill Creek watermark coming up. I know they're from DVDs because I have the same 100 movies boxed set.

TVS usually runs stuff like I Love Lucy (which I can't stand), but they ran a season of the Phil Silvers Show (aka Sgt Bilko) which I still rate amongst the very best sitcoms ever made.

I have lost TVS since they went fully digital. I couldn't be bothered with a set top box, so as analogue is switched off so will I be. Right now I have no intention of getting a digital TV. I may change my mind later this year, but it's not a lay down misere.

I am much the same with telly these days. I'd be lucky to get in about eight or nine hours a week which is a shame because my telly is a 137cm monster and is way under-used.

"In fact, they screen their old stuff from DVDs. I have seen them show old royalty free movies with the Mill Creek watermark coming up. I know they're from DVDs because I have the same 100 movies boxed set."

At least in the USA, our DTV system uses MPEG 2, which is the same compression standard on DVD IIRC. If so, then that digital station could just grab off the DVD the compressed digital bitstream and pipe it directly to the DTV transmitter's digital RF modulator. No need to decode just to encode it again, besides the quality would get degraded.

Here only about 10% of viewers get their TV shows off terrestrial broadcast stations. The rest have cable or satellite and a few get it off the 'net.

COFDM is generally much better at dealing with multipath, since that is specifically what it was designed for in crowded European environments. I remember the first COFDM standard, (the Eureka 147 digital radio standard, late 70s) when the engineers were surprised to find that it also allowed for more efficient use of spectrum.

In reception, there is a very small margin between perfect and no signal, which is great for viewers with reasonable reception but leaves more black spots. Fortunately, COFDM is very amenable to putting in low-power translators that can re-use the same transmission spectrum without the ghosting you would get with analogue transmission.

The broadcasting industry does not actually welcome more efficient spectrum use, because it only means more competition for the incumbents, or more costs in providing extra programs to the same size audience.

There seems to be a golden rule that whatever technology path is taken in Europe, USA will go the other way (and vice versa). For example, the NAB engineering task force recommended that USA adopt the Eureka 147 standard for digital radio, but the station owners rejected it because they wanted to retain monopoly of their spectrum. Similarly, it took two generations of cellular telephony before we could converge toward a global transmission standard with WCDMA (3G).

Australia has generally benefited by waiting till the standards wars have subsided, then picking the winner.

When we didn't, there have been huge wastages, such as the building and then closing of CDMA cellular networks here.

Maven

If so, then that digital station could just grab off the DVD the compressed digital bitstream and pipe it directly to the DTV transmitter's digital RF modulator. No need to decode just to encode it again, besides the quality would get degraded.

TVS, a community station in Sydney, has never bothered much about quality. The quality of the movies on the boxed sets I mentioned (e.g. 50 Dark Crimes) is already very poor -- some are obvious transfers from worn out VHS tapes, yet TVS puts it to air.

Until recently, TVS used to be analogue Channel 31. Since it went digital I haven't been able to watch it.

"The broadcasting industry does not actually welcome more efficient spectrum use, because it only means more competition for the incumbents, or more costs in providing extra programs to the same size audience."

Up here in the USA, cell phone companies are looking to grab more of the upper end of the old UHF TV band. We used to have 83 channels, now we have 51 channels. We may end up ending at channel 36. Channel 37 is not used, as it's reserved for radio astronomy. Ch37 would make a good guard channel, to reduce intermod interference between DTV receivers and cell phones.

If anything, TV channels may get crowded off the air. They say only 10% of us use over the air signals anyway. Rest is cable or satellite.