A small but significant change took place this week on Freeview. If no-one noticed, it could have a significant impact on Freeview’s medium term future.The big change this week on Freeview was the launch of ITV Quiz, which replaced ITVBe on Monday morning. But elsewhere, broadcast engineers were making a further configuration change.Down in the lower reaches of the Freeview channel list, a lesser known channel was about to make history.Channel 71 is the home of That’s TV 3. Like its sister channels, it screens a mix of music and vintage TV shows. During Monday, changes were made to how the channel is broadcast.If you have an older non-HD Freeview TV or box, it’s worth switching over to see what happens.The test…
- If you can watch Freeview channel 71, then your TV is compatible with the change
- If your TV refuses to display a picture, your TV is not compatible. You may see a black screen, or an error message. You will also not hear any sound.
What’s the problem with the change?
- That’s TV 3 is now broadcast using the MPEG-4 AVC video codec. The sound has changed to the HE-AAC audio codec.
Until now, MPEG-4 and AAC sound has only been used for services broadcast in the newer DVB-T2 standard. Older TVs simply ignore them as they don’t support DVB-T2, not even adding the channels to main channel list. For example, an old Freeview TV will not add BBC One HD on channel 101 or U&Eden on channel 57.That’s not the case with this latest change, which uses DVB-T1 for the first time. The channel will always appear in the channel list, regardless of device, even if the device can’t handle MPEG-4.The switch affects a small number of older TVs and set-top-boxes, generally purchased either before or during the UK’s switchover from analogue to digital terrestrial broadcasting. These devices will be more than a decade old, and perhaps more likely to have been moved to other rooms to be used as second or third TVs.Freeview has kept quiet about the change, which received prior written approval from broadcast regulator Ofcom. It’s not known if the change is permanent.However, broadcasters may hope the change does remain unnoticed. That would indicate that there are sufficiently small numbers of incompatible TVs and set-top-boxes around to warrant considering switching other services across.
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