[mythtvnz] Help with terrestrial channels (non-MythTV)

[Richard]

A lot of the blame is with the TV manufacturers. NZ tvs really should have 
the numbers on them called presets or favorites. That and the trend back 
from the old days in nz and the UK of the channels choosing arbitary numbers 
starting at 1 rather then their broadcast channel. At least in Australia 
they started off on the right foot with their channel numberings, but 
repeaters etc soon put an end to it, and now its going digital all that work 
establishing the brand of a number is proving a liability.

Most TVs are also lazy and just scan the whole bands MHz by MHz and save 
whatever they find. A few let you set up a preset to channel number mapping 
by typing the numbers in, but then you get problems in that loads are really 
aussie, which have different numbering of the VHF spectrum with it starting 
a 0, not 2 like here.

Anyway, once tuned, there is no easy way to swap them around, so if you want 
what is in 1 to go to 3 and vice versa, then you have to actually retune 
them and all sorts of carry on, then theres the painfully slow speed that 
they inch their way Mhz by Mhz thru the band. Multiple channels that look 
like crap will most likly be repeaters or else aliasing being made by a 
crappy antenna system in the place you are living in ending up in the unused 
cable channles.

If you think the pal flicker is bad, try using an ntsc camera under 50hz 
lighting, then you will appreciate why they make the tv standard match the 
powerline frequancy (says he with several 60hz cctv cameras around the house 
making motion detection software useless)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bryan Ischo" <bji-mythtvnz@ischo.com>
To: <mythtvnz@lists.linuxnut.co.nz>
Sent: Monday, February 26, 2007 9:33 PM
Subject: [mythtvnz] Help with terrestrial channels (non-MythTV)



Hi all.  First my apologies because I am not actually a MythTv user (yet),
I am just trying to figure out how terrestrial television in New Zealand
works, because I can't understand what my TV is doing, and I expect that
if anyone knows this stuff, it's the MythTv guys.

(for what it's worth, I was a software developer at TiVo until December
last year when I quit to move to NZ - so I know something about PVRs (or
DVRs as we call them :) and look forward to enjoying MythTv once I get
some free time to set it up)



Much thanks to anyone who can clue me in.  By the way, I may be crazy but
I prefer NTSC.  PAL flicker is driving me crazy :)