Why are they switching analogue off?

Saturlight

Saturlight

Regular Member
My Satellite Setup
Motorised dish, dvd players and recorders; a freeview box, broadband, VCRs, four TVs, mobiles, pcs, a mac, Ipod, digital cameras...the lot!
My Location
North Tyneside
Fair enough, digital is good and all that. Clear picture, more channels. But why are they switching the analogue signal off? :confused:

Surely we need the aerial to work to get the digital signal? :D
 
1) much of the capacity used by the analogue signals will be sold off for other purposes - The government has its beady eyes on the oodles of squids that may come their way in the "digital dividend"

2) the bits not sold off are needed for the new improved clearer digital services - which will soon be ruined by mulitiplex owners squashing more and more channels in to make a few more squid from their muxes..
 
Saturlight said:
Surely we need the aerial to work to get the digital signal? :D
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Now that bit confuses me. :confused:
 
rolfw said:
Now that bit confuses me. :confused:
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If that confuses you, then I know something's not right.
 
They're not switching the carriers off, just the analogue signal .
(think that's what you meant).


L.:)
 
I was more confused with what that question meant. ;)
 
Seeing as most of the transmitters are being replaced the carriers will be going off as well at some point :D
 
And we come back to TV through the mains again. ;)
 
I think what saturlight meant, is how the heck are we to align our aerials without an analogue signal to go off??? :D
 
The same way we do with digital satellite. :)

With a £2,000 spectrum analyser. :-lmao :-rofl2
 
What I meant, without ANY ANALOGUE signal, how can you get a digital signal.

It's like milking a cow for milk, and you're pulling the farmer's udders instead.
 
Saturlight said:
What I meant, without ANY ANALOGUE signal, how can you get a digital signal.

It's like milking a cow for milk, and you're pulling the farmer's udders instead.
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Whoa, shaky analogy.

Both digital and analogue signals are radio signals and both are transmitted from a big mast , usually on a mountain. Radio waves are collected by the aerial and sent down the coaxial lead where they are then processed by your receiver - be it analogue or digital.
 
Saturlight said:
What I meant, without ANY ANALOGUE signal, how can you get a digital signal.
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With a digital receiver :-DOH2

They have a brilliant invention - a menu for finding your muxes :-rofl2

Llew
 
Llew said:
With a digital receiver :-DOH2
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:confused: Yes, and...LOL. Are we speaking the same language here? LOL. :D :D
 
Ah I get it now, it was a hair splitting question. :-deadhorse
 
No it wasn't. It was a genuine question... :(
 
OK sorry, but it was beginning to sound that way. :)

The digital signals are modulated onto a carrier wave. Whether the neighbouring analogue channels are there or not, makes no difference to being able to find the digital multiplexes, they are transmitted on their own carrier waves, what is received at the user end is a digital datastream.

As far as I know and I'm not theoretically knowledgable, a carrier wave is neither analogue nor digital until it is modulated. I'd be interested to hear whether that is actually the case. :)
 
It's analogue - that's why I can see the digital muxes on my analogue spectrum analyser display :)

Llew
 
rolfw said:
As far as I know and I'm not theoretically knowledgable, a carrier wave is neither analogue nor digital until it is modulated. I'd be interested to hear whether that is actually the case. :)
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There are suppressed carrier systems in analogue transmissions, requiring a receiver based beat oscillator, and (as far as I got before leaving the learning curve) digital radio communication - spectrum and ultra wide band - as there is no conventional carrier wave.
COFDM will also be a reduced or null carrier system for HDTV if it isnt already.

As to the original question - beats me, though I am under the suspicion that digital TV by its integration with the receiving box (and how it understands the protocol in the signal), is the beginning of regionalising content, what you are not supposed to have, you wont get, regardless of the array you have on the roof.
The government will happily sell to the highest bidder, so your box may be set up only to get content from one provider (not that it would ever happen in this day and age with monopolies commmissions and all that).

Think yourself lucky this country has a multitude of satellite companies all competing for the space that is up there. :eek:
 
why dont they use vertical and horizontal polirisations on the same transmiters . or is this the plan when analouge is turned off.
 
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