Teracom tar MUX 5 i bruk för Umeå och Skellefteå

Ikväll blev det för första gången möjligt att titta på TV7 och Axess i södra Norrland! Teracom bygger successivt ut sändarnät 5 (MUX 5) i Sverige fram till november 2009. Det innebär i klarspråk att ett flertal kanaler får fler tittare och i de flesta fall också en bättre ekonomi eftersom flertalet av kanalerna kostar pengar i form av tillägg på faktura eller kontantkort för Boxer. 

Kanske innebär denna utbyggnad med fler fria kanaler (t.ex. Axess) för fler invånare, att intresset för digital-tv gradvis ökar. Det är också bra att visa för analoga kabel-tv-tittare att digital-tv expanderar på en tillväxtmarknad, medan analog tv fortsatt kommer att ligga efter allt mer i utvecklingen. Det enda som återstår i kampen om tittarna och teknikframsteg är att digital kabel-tv blir mer attraktivt för Sveriges hushåll, samt att "tvillingabonnemang"-principen försvinner. Man bör inte betala för varje tv-apparat i hushållet, förutom för premiumkanaler UTAN reklam.

Fler slavsändare får utökat Boxerutbud

Uppdaterad (31 mars, 2008): 5 stycken slavsändare, det är inte mer än så som fattas på listan som Teracom just nu betar av i olika etapper. När deras uppgraderingar är klara så kommer fler människor än någonsin i Sverige ha möjlighet att ta emot de viktigaste tv-kanalerna marksänt. Förhoppningsvis blir det dags för mastersändarna efter detta, dvs ett tillskott på fler nyinstallationer av MUX 5 och MUX 6 runt om i landet. I Norrland är det endast Sundsvall och Luleå som har tillgång till MUX 5, medan ingen överhuvudtaget har tillgång till MUX 6. Den sistnämnda innehåller i dagsläget SVT HD och TV Finland, men kommer att få ett tillskott på fler kanaler innan årets slut och de kommer att kodas i formatet MPEG-4, dock med ett undantag för två av kanalerna som åtminstone under en övergångsperiod kommer att sändas i formatet MPEG-2.

SVT välkomnar öppna videoformat för Webb-TV!

Det är med stolthet som jag kan meddela vad jag läste att SVT just nu har på gång, nämligen att de håller på att avveckla RealMedia och Windows Media med avsikt att ersätta de proprietära (inlåsta) formaten med öppna alternativ. Frågan är vilka/vilket alternativ? Något beslut finns inte, när detta skrivs, men det kommer att träda i kraft under 2008.

Diskutera frågan och tipsa datortidningarna om planerna. Ge förslag till SVT på vad ni önskar se för format! Viktigt: glöm inte att läsa denna informationssida först, som står till grund för deras kommande beslut:
http://www.svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=80732&a=992358&lid=puff_997337&lpos=lasMer

Amerikansk analog kabel-tv skrotas 2012

I USA sker det mycket på tv-fronten just nu. 

De hade först planer på att göra en total övergång till digital-tv i februari 2009 - både marksändningar och kabeldistribution av tv skulle bli "digital-only". Men nu har de tydligen gett 3 års extra tid till de som har analog kabel-tv, vilket innebär att analoga kabel-tv-kunder får på sig tills år 2012 med att göra övergången till digital-tv. 

Så, det är alltså mer eller mindre tydligt att amerikanska bolag snart kommer att ha enbart digitala stationer och produktioner av material. Detta innebär att, om Sverige fortsätter att plocka in program från USA så får någon lov att göra jobbet med att konvertera samtliga digitala produktioner till analogt format, om jag förstår saken rätt. Vad innebär detta för digitala kunder i Sverige, dock: 

* Kommer vissa av tv-programmen att visas i 16:9 widescreen och HD-kvalitet på särskilda HD-kanaler eller blir det sändning av 16:9 widescreen för alla som vill se innehållet, nerskalat för enkel distribution som förmån till analoga kunder? 

*Hur förändras kanalernas utbud och programplanering i tablån framöver när en växande skara blir digital och en fortfarande stor skara är analoga kunder? Comhem gjorde redan en omformulering i deras beskrivning av analoga kanalplanen vid den marksända digitala övergången som tyder på att de förväntar sig en förändring i tv-landskapet redan inom en snar framtid (vad som kan räknas till "snar framtid" går endast att spekulera kring just nu).

Det är två saker jag i dagsläget funderar över om framtidens tv.

Konvertering till analog tv populärt i stadsnät

Efter att nyss ha läst en nyhetsbulletin på Degerfors Energis hemsida så står det klart att det fortfarande finns en stor tillväxt i analog kabel-tv. Detta förvånar mig en hel del, samtidigt som jag borde ha förstått att det skulle inträffa. Argumenten och skälen till varför satsningen görs runt om i Sverige på nytillverkning av analoga kabelnät i stadsnät står i nyhetsbulletinen:

1. "... möjlighet att se på TV på samtliga TV-apparater du har hemma till en fast månadsavgift"

2. "Och du behöver inga digitalboxar!"

Formuleringen som Degerfors Energi har valt tyder på att upphovsmän och ansvariga för film- och tv-produktion har misslyckats med att komma fram till lösningar tillsammans med kabel-tv-bolagen som kunderna efterfrågar. Det framgår tydligt i ovanstående argument att de ser den analoga tekniken som överlägsen pga att det är en teknik som tv-konsumenter i Sverige är vana vid och har kört med historiskt i över 50 års tid. Att använda en box till en tv som saknar digital kabelmottagare med CAM-plats är alltså ett besvärligt moment för "gemene man". Detta bekräftas i kommentarer från artiklar jag läst tidigare. 

Vidare är argumentet "... på samtliga TV-apparater du har hemma till en fast månadsavgift" en banbrytande fråga som är ett väldigt känsligt område för de allra flesta svenskar. Vi har vant oss vid en modell där det med enkelhet och framförallt frihet går att koppla in hur många tv-apparater vi vill i hushållet utan att betala något extra. Jag erkänner att jag själv också tycker detta borde vara en självklarhet i kabelnät, men jag förstår dock problemet med att skippa såna restriktioner för parabolmottagning och antennmottagning eftersom man faktiskt i båda de fallen kan ta med sig digitalboxar till en stuga eller med enkelhet bara låta andra i ens bekantskapskrets åka snålskjuts på ens egna abonnemang, litegrann som hur trådlösa nätverksutdelningar har skapat en sorts diskret piratmarknad i väldigt liten omfattning för billig internetuppkoppling delat mellan flera hushåll pga snålhet. 

Men, med kabelhushåll borde det inte finnas några problem: kabelbolagen bör se till att det finns ett digitalt grundutbud som alla kan titta på, där priset ingår i hyran eller separat, något som bör vara upp till varje hyres-/bostadsrättsförening/villaförening/samfällighet att välja mellan. Sen, för de som vill se premiumkanaler digitalt, är det bara att skaffa ett sådant betal-tv-abonnemang separat. Dock är detta ingen utopi; det är faktiskt redan genomfört hos ett bostadsbolag som heter Bostaden AB och förhåller sig i Umeå. De erbjuder också analogt grundutbud för de som hellre föredrar det. Bättre än så kan det väl inte bli, eller? 

Jo, det kan faktiskt bli bättre än så: premiumpaketen hos leverantören Canal Digital är faktiskt i dagsläget svindyra pga lömska kortavgifter! 169 kr/kvartal, dvs 338 kr/halvår eller 676 kr/år är mycket olustig summa att betala. Det är faktiskt fjantigt att använda sig utav kortavgifter. Det är en högst påhittad grej. Om de inte kan klara sig utan kortavgifter får de väl baka in det i deras abonnemangskostnader istället, så att man får utmärkt överblick på sina fakturor och slipper betala återkommande dubbelfakturor på höga belopp.

Inte konstigt att analog konvertering är så populärt ...

Sveriges marksända nät helt digitaliserat

Enligt frekvenstabellen på Teracoms hemsida är nu Sveriges marksända tv-nät digitaliserat, även samtliga mindre slavsändare och de tidigare 2-veckors extrasändningarna av analog SVT1, som alltså var till för att framförallt informera långtidsvistande semesterresenärer och dylikt, som kan ha missat att övergången ägt rum i deras område.

Besked från Comhem under 2008?

Senast 1 februari förväntar jag mig att ComHem kommer att presentera någon plan för deras nästa generations digital-tv med EuroDOCSIS 3.0-tekniken. Jag kan förstås ha fel, men något säger mig att deras propaganda i digital-tv-övergången har sina skäl. Kan det isåfall vara den nya DOCSIS-tekniken som är den riktiga bakomliggande orsaken? Något lurt är det iaf och 2008 väntar jag mig att det blir ett särskilt spännande år för TV-branschen. Men, någon LCD-tv som årets julklapp blir det nog inte en repris av i Sverige på ett par år till.. eller?

The digital television no show: How the media affected the market opportunity

As have been earlier reported, the digital television growth in Sweden hasn't seen any exponential growth from cable subscribers, despite the fact that some estimated 30 % of the market who were forced to go digital during our transition campaign made lots of headlines in the press during the two years it took to complete the transition. Rather, the growth is showing as being slow-paced and linear, increasing numbers of digital viewers coming both indirectly from new triple play customers and genuinely interested tech people like myself. One really starts to wonder how such a big transition in television broadcasting haven't sparked more interest with the people. Not even much curiosity. 

I believe there must be a good reason behind this disinterest from the mainstream. What is it, though: is it a cultural thing or a lack of innovation and passion from Swedish cable companies? Are standardization issues with DVB to blame, the fact that there isn't a uniformed one-size-fits-all broadcasting technology instead of one for each connection type? (DVB-T, C and S). It might be as simple as the digital transition not focusing on HD channel availability, an area which intrigues far more people than a discreet digitalisation of already running analog channels. After all, on stage in front of the tv viewers there is nothing new going on: they are still watching the same content as they used to do before, more or less, except there is more to choose from at a given moment than it used to be before the transition. There is more content.

Kinks to sort out before digital adoption will grow expontentially

First of all, the television the consumers goes out to buy in their local tv shop (or online) needs to have two integrated slots for digital reception: one for terrestrial and one for cable. Second of all, it needs to "just work" right out of the box and both of them should always allow a basic channel package to be carried out unencrypted for everyone to watch and demo with new boxes or televisions.

Trusting the brand and their hardware-software bundle

After a quick look on price matching websites, I conclude that there are 340 so called STBs (Set-Top Boxes) available for the digital-only alternatives terrestrial and satellite, while there's 23 alternatives for watching analog/digital cable. Obviously there is going to be a problem here, trying to figure out which brand and model to buy among the digital-only alternatives. However, the price competition is unmatched. With digital cable, there aren't many models to choose from because of the fact that there aren't enough customer demand as of yet. Prices are high and the competition is more or less a factor "none to five". Let's think for a second what it means to buy a digital set-top box today: you go to your local tv shop or look online, to try determine which box you want to buy. After 20 minutes you end up buying brand A along with a subscription and bring it home. You install it and plug the cables in. You start to watch some tv as soon as your subscription goes active. But here's the problem: after watching for an hour, the box hangs! The picture freezes and the only solution to get back to watching tv again is to pull the power plug and then put it back in, initializing the box again. You go back to browsing channels for an additional 5 minutes.. and you discover that there's something wrong, but this time it's the channel you're watching having no sound for no obvious reason. Flipping channels and flipping back again fixes it. This is pretty typical and considered "normal behaviour" while it actually never should happen. It doesn't matter much which box you buy into, they all have some little bug that might drive you nuts one way or another. 

This is of course a matter of maturity and hardware vendor responsibility. Some vendors you can trust more than others. Which one to trust is best found on established forums here and there on the web.

Things still needed to be done

* An eye-opener for vendors to provide well-working, high-quality and production stable firmware

* No sneaky subscription contracts (hidden card fees with recurring, annual payments)

* The ability to watch the same content on more than one tv WITHOUT paying extreme extra fees for it (potential soon to be-customers simply aren't tolerating that)

Well, that's pretty much it for now.

Feel free to comment!

Digital television switch: next month

I would call it a historic moment and the beginning of a new era for competition in the television market. There's about one month until Sweden takes down the analog towers. However, it's not the beginning of a new digital era at all. As long as the majority of viewers watch their channels in analog format over analog cable, the content and offers will remain the same for an undetermined period of time. TV channels are going to continue broadcast and market their analog Teletext services, channels are going to continue mix entertainment content with sports content despite dedicated sports channels existing today. Digital cable box companies are going to continue a slow pace in manufacturing and constructing high-quality boxes until the demand is high enough, at least that's my current prediction of our market here.

It's really too bad that nothing will change for years to come, just because one single company dominates the market here and happens to decide they aren't going to go completely digital and worst of all, they don't leave a final date to switch off analog broadcasts either, since they are probably afraid of their customers swarming customer phone service immediately if they do. 

Right now, they are trying to sell voluntary subscriptions to their household customers and it's going pretty slow so far. About 10 % out of their 1.7 million households have made the switch. Their strategy is probably to wait many years, until their numbers show more than 51 % have switched to digital. But how long exactly will that take, with the current growth being so low? Also, what can be done today to make people realize it's better to view digital than analog? Personally I think the company has got to open up so that a couple of unencrypted channels will be seen and experienced by people who buy a television with a DVB-C tuner equipped. Maybe at that point, those people will think: "Oh wow! That's nice! Is that how every channel will look like if I switch to digital? I think I will do that now!"

I wait for the day they do exactly that, to push digital to more households. Let's hope they do!

How the Swedish analog cable television methodology lead to a stalemate

Commentary and analysis of the slow progress in digital cable

I remember how as a kid we soon got this new thing called cable television at home. It was something relatively new in the area I lived in and not everyone I knew had it ... yet. The idea was that your neighbourhood board of members met with cable companies to hear about their offers for cable television. Which company seemed like the most appropriate for our neighbourhood's needs and was the price deal reasonable or not? Once a deal was struck, every resident in the neighbourhood had to choose which cable tv package they wanted: either the basic or the extended package. Over time, however, the price dropped for households and it became more reasonable to move over in favor for the extended package. More time passed on, and eventually all that was left, was the extended package which at this point had changed to become the standard cable offering (analog only). At the same time, they had a small optional try-out for digital cable too. It was a set-top box with a couple of premium channels for those who felt like trying that out. I think the cable company wanted to see if there was any interest in the technology or not.

Meanwhile, a competing cable company started offering digital cable as an option back in the mid-1990s or so, more or less. Not many customers opted for it, but there was no demand yet, as the basic cable channels covered 99.9 % of peoples' television needs, AFAIK. If you wanted more you could always opt-in for analog premium channels. Digital was something exotic and experimental you could say.

Along the way, the premium channel companies decided to turn off analog signals and only offer the premium content with digital signals. This was alright, except of course for analog pirates who were a bit sad over not being able to receive free premium content for any longer. 

In 2005, terrestrial television towers began switching off the analog signals to go digital-only, in a transition period of approximately 2 years time. It was a political decision and they concluded that the switch-off was to be completed before February 2008. In the end, it was settled that they should be successful in completing it with good marginals before that date, namely October 2007. At the time of writing, in August 2007 they are yet to switch off the last couple of analog transmissions, but they are getting very close to their goal.

  Meanwhile, the biggest cable provider has consistently made press releases about the fact that their customers don't need to do anything in order to continue watching television. They are not affected by the analog switch-off, they have said. At the same time, they are also pushing more and more for their customers to consider switching to digital cable, where they can choose between Small, Medium and Large packages depending on household needs.

The Swedish populations' reactions to the transition from analog to digital television have consistently been either negative or ignorant, depending on whether they themselves are directly affected or if they are just hearing and reading about the process - in the media. Everywhere that I have seen people comment about this matter, no person at all have said that they are in favor of the move and neither have they said that they are anticipating it with excitement. When analog cable households have been asked questions about their awareness of the analog switch-off, response always comes out the same it seems: 

"I have cable television. I am not affected by the switch-off. I can continue viewing tv 'business as usual'".

So, while both satellite providers in Sweden have been digital-only since the analog switch-off for satellite broadcast in 2001, and the analog switch-off for terrestrial viewing soon is completed, the cable households are left with choosing themselves when they want to make the switch to digital viewing. This far, estimates show that somewhere around 90 % of them have voted to stay with analog without intent of switching. They want to continue watching tv as usual, the same way they have watched it all their lives. No matter the age groups, they all say the same thing.

The reason behind the reasoning is what I find most interesting, and I think that cable providers should consider investigating not *what* their customers want, but *why* they want it. Only then can they get more people to sign up for digital cable. That's what I think at least.

SVT Väst kör hårt med HDTV

För en stund sedan läste jag ett pressmeddelande. I Göteborg går SVT Väst över till en ny studio som är helt digitalt kapabel. Det kommer att bli fler produktioner i höst, cirka september, för SVT HD-kanalen. Citat:

"Bland annat kommer På spåret, Filmkrönikan, Carin 21:30, filmatiseringen av Camilla Läckbergs deckare Isprinsessan och Predikanten och SVT:s nya följetong Andra Avenyn att produceras och visas i HDTV."

Det tycker jag låter bra. Personligen är jag inte peppad för SVT HD så här långt eftersom jag inte har rimlig möjlighet att se kanalen än. Det är däremot mycket möjligt att jag kommer kunna se den under 2008 om de marksända sändningarna i Västerbotten får en 5:e och 6:e MUX installerad. Både ComHem och Canal Digital erbjuder kanalen i dagsläget, men jag har bara stöd att ta emot marksända HD-signaler i dagsläget. Är inte intresserad av att lägga ut pengar på MPEG4-mottagning för andra DVB-standarder än DVB-T, tills marknaden ser annorlunda ut (läs: att det finns ett moget utbud av kanaler redo).

23 analog towers yet to be turned offline

In roughly three weeks from now some areas up north in Sweden will turn their analog-transmitting terrestrial towers offline and turn over to digital-only transmissions. At this point in the project of turning off all the analog towers, a majority of them have completed the transition to digital-only. Approximately 64 % of Sweden's terrestrial viewers will by then have left the analog tv world behind.

In the meantime, my own survey made at an online forum showed that there are still a strong opposition against digital tv broadcasting over cable for those who now only view it in analog form. A company called ComHem is the dominant leader on the Swedish cable tv market and they insist via Press Releases that their customers do not have to do a single thing with their decision making for their future tv viewing. They can continue to watch analog tv via cable, not being bothered with any forced transitions. While such a thing normally is good, I am very displeased with the behaviour ComHem shows towards adoption of digital television in Sweden. The fact is, they dominate the market in this country and as such the broadcasting companies stand in the middle trying to figure out how they should proceed to make money off customers. Will it be either via analog or digital, will they focus solely on the old market that stands still or will they instead have their focus on the exciting growth in the digital television market? It can't be easy today for broadcasting companies to make bets.

Chicken and egg is not the biggest problem here, because the chicken already decided that digital television is the future. No .. the problem is whether the cable tv industry here will act for the better of the consumers and broadcasters. They hold the last piece of the puzzle and so far they have resisted from helping the rest to solve the puzzle. Why is that? With going 100 % digital in cable transmissions, the legacy that still remains can finally be a thing of the past and the circle will be complete once and for all.

But I'll just continue to dream and monitor the growth for digital cable among Swedes, see how it progresses. No records I've seen show any real signs of interest in households for future's television, but once the analog terrestrial network goes entirely offline (100 %) late this year, the market outside the analog cable world will eventually show people how to do things right:

Electronic Program Guide (EPG), Scheduling of recordings for tv shows and movies, Widescreen support and anamorphic capabilities, DVD quality with standard definition signals and HD quality now and in the future, nisched channels popping up to serve certain audiences, etc.

More to come as things progress! :-)

Update, 2007/05/29: There are now 16 towers left instead of 23 and less than 100 days until the "digitalization".

Which digital TV solution did you choose?

As digital tv adoption keeps growing for every year and quarter, the question popping up is:
Which one did you choose and what is your experience from using it so far?

Technical standards (and the lack thereof)
There are currently three ways to receive digital television by the means of common standards: Terrestrial, Cable and Satellite. Here in Europe they have technology definitions for each one of them: Terrestrial is dubbed as DVB-T, digital cable uses DVB-C and finally Satellite which uses DVB-S. Apart from this you can also receive it through what is called IPTV (nicknamed 'Broadband TV' sometimes, for consumer clarity).

IPTV aka Broadband TV - Why no standards yet?
I don't consider the fourth alternative (IPTV) even close to being mature yet, though, because of the inconsistency broadband internet suffers from. Today you cannot compare ADSL2+, fiberoptics and cable internet with each other in terms of IPTV experience since the technologies and flexibilities differ from each other.
So, when someone wants to sell you IPTV, there may be a disappointment if you choose to subscribe and expect a certain quality .. and then you don't get the quality you anticipated.

What will it mean to the future of IPTV if the consumers get different experiences from it depending on what broadband connection they have got, AND they do not understand why their experience is bad when someone living in another part of the city sitting on another connection type is more than pleased over the excellency? Just as "broadband internet" means that the bandwidth (frequency) is broad and not autonomously "ADSL2+ connection", IPTV or Broadband TV shouldn't immediately translate to one way of receiving TV over fastlane internet infrastructure. In my view, on contrary, IPTV should get a set of standards itself to allow consumers to tell a distinct difference between the offerings.

Let's examplify this ...

IPTV over ADSL2+ could be dubbed "Copperlane TV"
IPTV over cable could define itself "IP over cable"
IPTV over fiberoptics could have it's name be "Neighbourhood super-highway TV"

Now follows a translation to consumer language (expected to show up in advertisement):

IPTV with ADSL2+
IPTV Light

IPTV with Cable
IPTV Cable

IPTV with Fiberoptics
IPTV Wideband


Feedback, please! :)

Installation of OTA Freeview digital TV

So .. yesterday the unexpected happened: I was able to plug my set-top box for digital television reception, right into the wall plug where you normally connect to analog cable. Instead of connecting up the analog TV to analog cable, I did this:

------- represents coaxial cable
===== represents European SCART cable

[analog cable wall plug] ------- [digital TV set-top box] ===== [Television set]

The very simple accomplishment of mine allowed me to instantly access terrestrial free-to-air digital television channels. Because of the fact that cable companies normally block access to their terrestrial antennas, I had not expected this to work. However, since I had been informed by this cable provider that they do offer this digital tv option I just had to give it a serious try. It just worked, much the same way I am used to Apple products just working right out of the box. Now I'm just pondering about when the right time will be to purchase a prepaid subscription to the full channel plan.

As it turned out I not only need the prepaid subscription but also either an investment in a so called "CI module" or a complete set-top box with built-in support for terrestrial non-free reception.
The latter seems to be a much better choice because of the small difference in price between the two options:

* Buy set-top box that out of the box provides built-in support for commercial content
* Buy extension card to my current digital set-top box (CI module for DVB-T)

Price for choice 1, a new set-top box purchase bundled with prepaid subscription: 1695 SEK
Price* for choice 2, an extension card: approx. 525 SEK


*= Obligatory prepaid subscription plan (starter kit): 795 SEK + the extension card á 525 SEK equals about 1320 SEK in total.
Not much different from 1695 SEK is it ..?



All in all, I believe the complete package with set-top box, CI module integration and prepaid subscription is worth the extra hundreds. Why? Because it's a complete package ready to plug in and run! Simplicity wins me over, just as MacOS X did for me.