Analogue Terrestrial Dependencies

The issue of analogue switch off constantly rears it's head, and certain people constantly claim that it should be switched off sooner rather than later. My main argument against this, is that even though 50% of the country now have access to some form of digital TV, very few households in the country would not be worse of if analogue was taken away from them at the present time, and that these dependencies are so high that it will be years before the market is able to support a high enough removal of analogue dependencies to make it conceivable that analogue terrestrial could be switched off.

I think it's got to be 2015 at the very earliest before analogue switch off seriously begins and 2020 as the very earliest date that cessation of analogue terrestrial service will be complete.

I do think it's all too easy to forget how much analogue terrestrial is still needed atm - and that having a Sky box in your front room doesn't take away need for it's existance.

So, in the time honoured tradition, lets list the equipment we have. Aswell as indicating what you have, indicate what is digital and what is not, how many digital tuners you have in your household, and how many you would need in order to do without analogue and still enjoy the same level of functionality from your equipment that you do today.

I'll start. Since I'm home for the summer break, might aswell go through my parents house:

Front Room
Sony 29" TV - analogue
Hitachi DVD/VCR
Panasonic Sky Digibox - digital

Analogue is still used on the TV for teletext, watching sub-regional Westcountry News. Also needed to watch terrestrial channels when someone else wants to use the Sky box (it's connected to other TVs in the house).

Analogue tuner still used on the VCR for watching one channel whilst recording another - something frequently used.

Parent's Room
Alba 14" TV - analogue.

Sky box is connected through from the front room but this can only display what is being watched in the front room - not really available for general use except late at night and early in the morning. Analogue still heavily used most of the time on this set in the absence of any dedicated digital equipment being connected to it.

My Room
A bit of a mish-mash of equipment in here, but the things of note for this thread are:

Samsung 21" TV - analogue
Sharp VCR - analogue
Pace On Digital box - digital

Having only one digital tuner means that analogue is still used on the TV when recording a digital channel. Similarly, analogue is still used on the VCR when watching a digital channel whilst wishing to record one of the existing terrestrials.

Sky box from the frontroom is connected through which does potentially resolve this problem - but only assuming that no one else wants to use it; definately cannot be guaranteed and I have no claim over it since I don't contribute towards the subscription.

Sister's Room
Extremely typical, very common setup here:

Tatung 14" portable TV - analogue
Bush VCR - analogue.

Analogue still required here since there are no digital tuners anywhere in this setup - nor even is the Sky box connected through to here (the poor thing is allready connected to 3 TV sets...). Taking away analogue would leave this equipment unable to view broadcast TV of any type.

Kitchen
Pye 14" portable TV - analogue

Same story here, an analogue portable set with nothing else connected to it. Taking analogue terrestrial away at present would take TV away from the kitchen.

Total number of analogue terrestrial tuners in my house - 8.
Total number of digital tuners in my house - 2.

Shortfall - 6 more digital tuners needed to remove analogue terrestrial dependency.

Result: despite being classed as a 'digital household' by the government, we only have 25% of the equipment necessary to remove our dependency on analogue terrestrial.

And this is a very superficial survey, it doesn't take into account the pocket TV I use in my car, it assumes that the inefficient cludge of having multiple digital STBs would be acceptable, it doesn't take into account other uses of analogue (I still heavily use analogue satellite), and we are at least in the priveledged position of both being able to get DTT and get it reliably through a set top aerial, meaning that it is at least technically possible to easily equip all of our equipment with digital - in all likelihood, a more scientific survey would reveal our household to be more than 75% dependent on analogue - certainly doesn't make us ready for switchover even though we are treated as such by government targets.

Is the market going to develop sufficiently for us to have removed all of these depedencies by 2010/2012? I can't see it, myself.

Anyone else?

Antenna feed to sitting room, into:-

Ondigital box one, into:-

Ondigital box two, into:-

Sky Digital box, into:-

VCR one, then VCR two, then VCR three (all mainly for recording), into:-

VCR four (mainly playback), into:-

RF distribution feed to rest of the house (sitting room, plus four further televisions).

Additionally, SCART connections direct from Ondigital one, Ondigital two, Sky Digital, VCR three and VCR four, via switcher, to sitting room television.

Sitting room television is 16:9. All others are 4:3 tubes, but either switched to 16:9 aspect ratio or adjusted internally to underscan to 16:9.

I think it's more important that it's actually made available - what about people unable to get Sky?
E.g. The council estate below our house can't get Sky TV because of the angle of the hill - cable isn't anywhere near us and the local transmitter is only broadcasting 4 channels. However, a transmitter with between 150 and 250 houses dependent on it is hardly going to be high on the "To do" list at whoever is supposed to maintain it.

I can't see Digital Terrestial going 100% coverage - hopefully if a rival platform is established the satellite will be in the opposite direction. The reception seems an issue - although my grandmother can get 9/10 with an indoor aerial in the room facing away from the transmitter so obviously some areas are fine...

On the topic of tuners - they do seem to be selling VCRs with DTT on them now - albeit at a high price (QVC are selling them). However considering I saw a fully functional DTT Adapter for £42 in ASDA today - and it was about 3 times smaller than what my grandmother has. I'd love to have Sky Plus - sadly it's so pricy I'd have to get a job to pay for it - there's no way my parents would pay £10/month for what to them is just a fancy VHS.

No offence to anyone with 5 TVs - but it's hardly environmentaly friendly is it?

I think that one of the things that you have pointed out, that people have more than one TV hasn't been realised by the government. One other let down is that many people (including myself at one point, but don't now) usually use indoor aerials that are given with TV's, or they go out and buy your average 'One for All' aerial, which as we all know are a load of sh*te for picking up a digital reception on. They also haven't realised that not everybody will pay an extra few quid a month to get a second Sky box or a second cable box, which many people can't be bothered with the hastle of, or the fact that an additional roof top aerial may also be needed if they had to replace the indoor one.

If it was as simple as our living room TV's, that have good aerials, then it wouldn't take much time to switch the signal off, but it is difficult to convince people, especially the elderly who'll probably settle for what they have.

Well, if you've done a list I'll do one..

My Room
Sony 14" KV14VTSU (I think) Televideo
Pace 1000 box, NTL subscription. (Which my parents kindly pay for)

Living room
Toshiba 28" Widescreen TV
Pace 1000+ box, NTL subscription (The box for it is more naff compared to mine, but for some reason their box says NTL, mine says Cable and Wireless, as I had mine installed later!)

Back room
Schneider Televideo

Here my sister but a Sagem DTT box for her room, but before she used it I tried it on this TV and it worked, as it connected to an external aerial, the only thing crap was the BBC channels as they were constantly freezing, but it was p*ssing it down that day

I tried the box in her room with my old One for All aerial, the box for it did say that it was suitable for Digital use, on my TV it got my decent pictures of BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel 4, Channel 5 was poor. Anyway I tried it on the DTT box, all I got was the MUX with The Hits, TMF and UKTV Bright Ideas, even then the picture quality was p*ss poor, but we took the box back.

I'm afraid it will be a problem that many will face, especially those who have 'Second TV's' or indoor aerials.

Ok, just to buck the trend:

JVC 24" TV and Panasonic VHS recorder connected to Sky digibox.
No terrestrial reception, and that's my only set

TV wise I am totally digital, and have been for a few years. When I had the need for 2 TV sets one was run from an old Ondigital box, that's now making my parents second TV digital.

I also have 2 DAB recievers

I have NTL analogue cable that goes into my PC TV card that has an analogue tuner (saves space having an extra screen in the room). Analogue cable is expected to outlive analogue terrestrial, however it's highly likely I'm going to move house before either happens.

My parents only have analogue terrestrial TV that's going to require an aerial upgrade if they go the DTT route (and even then they'll only get 4 out of six multiplexes because they're on Wrekin East). Because they use the timer function on their VCR a hell of a lot and often tape one thing while watching another I expect them to end up with Sky Plus instead, with a DTT PVR in the upstairs bedroom.

We can't get digital terrestrial in Jersey and I'm not allowed to put up a sky dish but here is my set up.

Living Room
28" Phillips TV - Analogue
Cable decoder - Analogue
VCR - Analogue
DVD Player

Main Bedroom
21" TV - Analogue

I do actually have a Sky digibox but can't do anything with it.

My parents house is slightly different as they CAN get digital terrestrial and I have set them up like this:

Living Room
28" Widescreen Samsung TV - Analogue
Pace Freeview reciever - Digital
DVD Player
VCR - Analogue (but could just get a second cheap freeview box and attach it to this - they don't really record anything)

Brothers room
14" Bush tv - analogue
Pace freeview box - Digital
DVD Player

Parents Room
21" Philips TV - Analogue
Freeview Box
DVD Player

We can't get digital terrestrial in Jersey and I'm not allowed to put up a sky dish but here is my set up.

Living Room
28" Phillips TV - Analogue
Cable decoder - Analogue
VCR - Analogue
DVD Player

Main Bedroom
21" TV - Analogue

I do actually have a Sky digibox but can't do anything with it.

My parents house is slightly different as they CAN get digital terrestrial and I have set them up like this:

Living Room
28" Widescreen Samsung TV - Analogue
Pace Freeview reciever - Digital
DVD Player
VCR - Analogue (but could just get a second cheap freeview box and attach it to this - they don't really record anything)

Brothers room
14" Bush tv - analogue
Pace freeview box - Digital
DVD Player

Parents Room
21" Philips TV - Analogue
Freeview Box
DVD Player

Nice and easy:

6 analogue TVs (one of which is surplus), the biggest one in front room has a Sky Digbox. None of the others have any form of digital signal, its not piped around the house.

4 VCRs, all using the analogue signal.

Also include most PC TV capture cards as well, they are mostly tied to the analogue signal as well although you can probably plug a digibox into it as well. Down the list of priorities though, this one.

Therefore, a shortfall of 4 digital signal sources (although in theory I reckon the kitchen TV can be piped from the digibox in the front room and the upstairs TVs can all be sorted by piping another freeview signal from a shared box to them).

I think this issue of "more than one TV" will hold back the transition to digital. Its been clear for a while now that the government has assumed that one digibox in the front room will serve a family of five and hasn't given any thought to those of us with more than one VCR or more than one TV.

Living Room 1
Widescreen TV
VCR
Sky Digibox
DVD Player

Living Room 2
Analogue TV
VCR

Kitchen
Analogue TV

Parents' Room
Analogue TV

My Room
Analogue TV/VCR Combo
DVD Player
DVB Box (unused - no signal in N.Wales , ready for move to uni)

Guest Room
Analogue TV
VCR

So that's 5 Analogue TVs in my house vs 1 Digital.

Mochdre (village I live in) is supposed to be getting a new transmitter in the next year or so that'll be DTT enabled, so that would make us digital ready if we got 4 more DVB boxes.

Lounge:
Pace DCab tuner, into:
Toshiba VTR, and:
48" Sony LCD RPTV (16:9).

Lounge 2:
Humax DSat (to 80cm dish @ 13°E), into:
Goodmans 13" CRT TV (4:3).

Kitchen:
Analogue Goodmans 13" CRT TV.

My room:
Pace Twin; 1st output, into:
13" Goodmans CRT TV (used as monitor, 4:3 FHA), and:
Hauppage TV card in PC (16:9).
Pace Twin; 2nd output, into:
Toshiba VTR, and:
24" Toshiba CRT TV (4:3).

Sister's room:
Pace half-moon DTT box (can't remember model), into:
Goodmans 13" CRT TV (4:3).

So that's just 1 analogue TV (that's hardly ever watched anyway); and can easily be connected to a spare DTT box.

Living room:
TV and VCR (partly broken so can no longer do timer recordings) with Pace DTR735 ITV Digital box

My bedroom:
Portable integrated TV/DVD with Pace Twin digital TV recorder (twin tuner Freeview PVR)

Sister's room:
Portable TV with VCR/DVD and Nokia Mediamaster 9850T ITV Digital box

I think that makes this house just about ready for analogue switch-off as nearly all VCR recording is done while the TV is not being used and we would expect at least one of the VCRs to be replaced with one that has DTT tuners.