BBC White Paper Claims HD Over Low Bandwidth Signal 88
Kelten Miynos writes "According to CNet, the BBC has written a white paper in which they claim it's possible to double the available Freeview TV bandwidth by using some clever technologies. 'Doubling the space would mean we could easily have HD channels on Freeview, although everyone would need to buy a new receiver and aerial to pick them up. The key to all this is something called MIMO, which stands for multiple-input multiple-output. MIMO works using two transmitters, and two receivers. The two transmitters mean the two sets of data — sent on the same frequency — will arrive at the receivers at different times. Different arrival times are what allow the receiver to differentiate between the two separate signals and subsequently decode them.' These procedures could then be transplanted abroad to other countries with similar services."
Usage (Score:2, Interesting)
MIMO isn't exactly news though, but it's of course interesting to see it being used in this context.
I wonder how long this new found bandwidth will be enough, as we tend to expand usage right along side available resources at a disturbingly linear rate.
Fascinating technology, but useless for Freeview (Score:5, Interesting)
As the article says, a far simpler solution to the badwidth issues of freeview would be to ditch the huge number of junk channels and use the bandwidth to provide a HD signal for the ones that people actually watch.
Re:The upgrade cost means it will never happen (Score:5, Interesting)
You aren't being forced to switch all frequencies to MIMO. You could just as well leave half the spectrum in-place for standard definition, and just broadcast MIMO on the other half.
The PDF mentioned this test was done using h.264.
Re:Complete Rubbish (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Fuck DVB-T (Score:1, Interesting)
DVB-T in Australia transmits the SD TV (non-HD) channels at a rate of about 3 Gbyte/hour, which should provide a picture at least as good as your average DVD.
Assuming the realtime MPEG-2 encoders at the TV stations aren't junk.
Just like The BS of BluRay or HDDVD (Score:5, Interesting)
You can get HD content on standard HD discs. a dual layer standard DVD can hold incredible 1080i content that looks fantastic on all HD displays available, but then it does not have DRM up the wazoo and is not making several companies morbidly rich with royalties.
Re:What is MIMO (Score:3, Interesting)