Goodbye analogue TV

Yesterday morning Sydney had its old analogue TV station broadcasts permanently switched off. From now on, you need a new digital TV, or a digital set-top box on your old set, to watch TV (the original channels in digital plus all the new ones).

Sydney was one of the last Australian regions to shut off the old system. Mildura was first in June 2010. Melbourne will be the last, next week. Australia will then be like Europe, which has already been fully digital for several years. By 2016 the whole TV world will be digital, except for North Korea and Laos.

Sydney was switched off mid-morning yesterday. Three of the four channels just suddenly went to snow within a few seconds of each other, but ATN Channel 7 played a proper 3-minute goodbye. They used a slightly changed version of their nightly station shutdown that they used in the 1970s (in the days before 24-hour broadcast). This was the 'My City Of Sydney' film with Tommy Leonetti (1929-79), and the cute animated cartoon of the kangaroo putting its baby to bed.



A nice tribute, and the end of an era.

Good riddance I say. 🙂.

Bizarre wrote:Good riddance I say. 🙂.

We lost it over a year ago....

Some people will Need New antenna [UHF only} and new quad shielded coaxial cable, otherwise You will have a weak signal.. and problems when its raining etc...
UHF Signals don't go thru wet trees etc... !!!
UHF antennas need to be pointed exactly right too...

Many people will have problems...

picture breaks up , freezes or NO SIGNAL comes up on the screen depending on whether you are using a set top box or not..
If using an old set top box... [and You cannot see the EXTRA channels] it will need to be replaced with a new set top box.. FREEVIEW,,,

The picture quality is now excellent... error free...
Set Top Boxes with BLU-RAY players are available too..

LEE

cOAXIAL CABLE IS QUAD SHIELDED PLUS SCREW ON FITTINGS .. ALL EXCELLENT.. WEAK PART IS THE OLD PUSH IN PLUG ON THE BACK OF THE TV... SHOULD BE A SCREW ON CONNECTOR.. LIKE FOXTEL BOX.. ANTENNA ETC.. Lee

The main Sydney channels 2/7/9/10 are not UHF but still VHF so we need a dual band aerial. I think that they are broadcast on 12/6/8/11

Some of us don't give up so easily. I still intend to use my trusty B&W analogue set. (I expect the quality of the content might improve too.)

Analogue was great in that you could still see a channel even if the reception wasn't perfect.

Digital has a sook when the reception isn't perfect.

Bizarre wrote:Good riddance I say. 🙂.

Barry I'm not sure whether you are critical of the old analogue picture quality - which was always pretty good on my old 48cm General colour TV but admittedly not as good on modern flat screen TVs - or the content!

More channels today, but definitely more crap programs. This is the Sydney TV schedule for Wednesday 11 July 1962. Much better stuff on TV in those days!

Phil

Guess i am critical of the old sets, the picture reception and the number of channels

Got to admit I dont watch a lot of TV but to say it was better back then is fantasy
Regular resetting of vertical and horizontal drifting, terrible sound, tiny screens and debatable if the shows were better
Certainly nature and documentary shows are light years ahead.

I dont pay extra for Foxtel and the like - but really happy they now have a free to air A League game on Friday nights 👍

I agree with you. But persoanlly I would much rather watch Alfred Hitccock Presents - Superman - Courageous Cat - Biggles - Three Stooges than any number of the talent / reality rubbish we get nowadays.

I grew up watching Thunderbirds on Channel 9 at 6am, followed by Super Flying Fun Show. Those were the days.

bajachris88 wrote:Analogue was great in that you could still see a channel even if the reception wasn't perfect.

Digital has a sook when the reception isn't perfect.

that is a major problem for a lot of people.

Bizarre wrote:Phil

Guess i am critical of the old sets, the picture reception and the number of channels

Got to admit I dont watch a lot of TV but to say it was better back then is fantasy
Regular resetting of vertical and horizontal drifting, terrible sound, tiny screens and debatable if the shows were better
Certainly nature and documentary shows are light years ahead.

I dont pay extra for Foxtel and the like - but really happy they now have a free to air A League game on Friday nights 👍

I don't watch TV at all, haven't for few years now.

Its sooo f***ing boring!!!!! and the down your throat ads makes me really angry.