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The Future of Freeview ?

Freesat makes better sense for non-streaming TV I think. Not affected by power outages (as long as the house has backup power). Better bandwidth than terrestrial and generally less subject to interference. Exceptionally heavy rain is the only thing that has ever knocked out our Freesat, and then only for a minute or two at most.
 
I don't think satellite is more resilient to power issues than terrestrial - the feed has to get up to the satellite somehow for a start. Interference is possibly an issue but I am picking up Crystal Palace from 25 miles away, getting all the multiplexes, and the signal is perfect so this isn't something I've experienced.

It's probably a far-fetched situation but terrestrial broadcasts also only rely on infrastructure within the UK, so if you need some sort of last-ditch "get info out to the population" medium it has that going for it.
 
Most power outages are pretty localised though. When our power goes off it tends to only be the area for a few miles around that's affected. Also, I think the satellite uplink stations are most probably like our local mobile mast, in that they have backup power so keep going if their area gets an outage.
 
I 100% agree, get rid of it and free up the bandwidth for mobile services. We (as in those in rural areas) could really do with more UHF mobile bandwidth, as we're never going to be able to take advantage of the higher frequency mobile bands (because of the physical limitations).
For what sort of mobile service? Lower frequency spectrum doesn't provide capacity, and what they do have can provide coverage already. Fibre is already the future for home internet access.
 
I don't think satellite is more resilient to power issues than terrestrial - the feed has to get up to the satellite somehow for a start. Interference is possibly an issue but I am picking up Crystal Palace from 25 miles away, getting all the multiplexes, and the signal is perfect so this isn't something I've experienced.

It's probably a far-fetched situation but terrestrial broadcasts also only rely on infrastructure within the UK, so if you need some sort of last-ditch "get info out to the population" medium it has that going for it.
I wouldn't worry too much about the ground infrastructure for satellite, it'll be built to be resilient

The bigger issue is if the satellite itself suffers an outage, as has happened (though not so much in Europe). The satellite position used for Sky/Freesat has several satellites co-located together, so it won't be totally catastrophic, but it might hurt.

The important broadcasters will likely have agreements to take over capacity on other satellites (sometimes called "preemption") but there'll be disruption until the satellite is either brought back into service or junked and an in orbit replacement moved over.
 
For what sort of mobile service? Lower frequency spectrum doesn't provide capacity, and what they do have can provide coverage already. Fibre is already the future for home internet access.

Capacity only depends on bandwidth. If an operator has, say, 20MHz of bandwidth anywhere in the spectrum the performance will be the same (except for the obvious issues of poorer penetration and higher reflection levels at higher frequencies).
 
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Freesat makes better sense for non-streaming TV I think. Not affected by power outages (as long as the house has backup power). Better bandwidth than terrestrial and generally less subject to interference. Exceptionally heavy rain is the only thing that has ever knocked out our Freesat, and then only for a minute or two at most.
What would be other advantages vs freeview? Any extra good channels?
 
Smart TVs are a privacy nighmare and their main purpose has become to turn you into the product by means of ads, telemetry and data mining (which they then sell on).

I don't have any such TVs in the house, resorted to buying a second hand 65" digital signage monitor, but it was hard to find, not sure what I'll do when this breaks down.

I'll have to learn some electronics and disable the smartness myself from any new products I guess. I bet there's already some community of "weirdos" busy with such things, jyst need to find them. 😂
Not hard to solve. Buy whichever Smart TV you want, an Apple 4K TV and don't connect your Smart TV to any wifi or network. These days you don't even need to use the TV remove control since HDMI-CEC can control it using the Apple TV remote control.
 
Not hard to solve. Buy whichever Smart TV you want, an Apple 4K TV and don't connect your Smart TV to any wifi or network. These days you don't even need to use the TV remove control since HDMI-CEC can control it using the Apple TV remote control.
I don't trust this advice, some of these are known to connect automatically to any open wifi in the area and wait till 5G or amazon sidewalk or some other lora (helium? Lol) becomes ubiquitous...
 
I don't trust this advice, some of these are known to connect automatically to any open wifi in the area and wait till 5G or amazon sidewalk or some other lora (helium? Lol) becomes ubiquitous...
I think you are overestimating the value of your data. One thing is to send that data back to the mothership for “free“ the other is to pay for a 5G connection no matter now cheap they become it will still be worth more than your data. Also buying from reputable brands helps too. I would only recommend LG and Samsung TVs. And while they are not saints they have a lot more to loose in terms of reputation if some data infiltration scheme is discovered.
 
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I think you are overestimating the value of your data. One thing is to send that data back to the mothership for “free“ the other is to pay for a 5G connection no matter now cheap they become it will still be worth more than your data. Also buying from reputable brands helps too. I would only recommend LG and Samsung TVs. And while they are not saints they have a lot more to loose in terms of reputation if some data infiltration scheme is discovered.
Lg and Samsung are some of the worst offenders, known to aggressively push ads in menus and all over the place, also they employ ACR to sample periodically what you are watching (regardless of input source).
 
I’m running Freesat with a Humax receiver. I am wondering if the cost of Satellite services will make them unviable in future.
 
Lg and Samsung are some of the worst offenders, known to aggressively push ads in menus and all over the place, also they employ ACR to sample periodically what you are watching (regardless of input source).

Plus some TVs will regularly show a nag screen if they can't connect. It's not as easy as just not enabling a WiFi connection or not plugging an Ethernet cable in it seems.

TBH this isn't surprising, given the revenue the TV manufacturers are getting from Google, Meta etc. The data and targeted ad revenue to TV companies is now worth more to them than the profit on the hardware, which is why smart TVs are so much cheaper than dumb ones.

Edited to add:
Ofcom published a paper in 2020 looking at advertising and smart TVs (CTVs in Ofcom-speak): https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/ass.../connected-tv-advertising-market-dynamics.pdf

Samsung make the reach of their TV user data acquisition pretty clear: https://www.samsung.com/uk/business/samsungads/
 
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TBH this isn't surprising, given the revenue the TV manufacturers are getting from Google, Meta etc. The data and targeted ad revenue to TV companies is now worth more to them than the profit on the hardware, which is why smart TVs are so much cheaper than dumb ones.
"dumb ones" are no longer available at all, it's not like there are options.
Somewhat compromises are really large monitors or digital signage displays, both which are quite expensive.

That's why I am very interested in modding services to remove the smarts from a TV, just leave the display basically, but I would reckon it's easier said than done.
 
"dumb ones" are no longer available at all, it's not like there are options.
Somewhat compromises are really large monitors or digital signage displays, both which are quite expensive.

That's why I am very interested in modding services to remove the smarts from a TV, just leave the display basically, but I would reckon it's easier said than done.


There are still dumb ones around, as long as you don't want too big a screen. Ferguson/Cello do a few (but none larger than 50" AFAICS): https://fergusontv.com/shop-televis...reen-size=32-to-50&query_type_screen-size=and
 
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Professional displays are just dumb monitors, what little software they do have is for integration, management and monitoring. But they do come at a cost, but equally are built to higher standards with duty cycles to withstand being used most/all the time.

Example could be NEC E series (E = Entry), a 32" IPS would typically be between £400-500.

It you have the knowhow, connecting a consumer smart TV onto a network or WiFi segment with very tight network rules would probably cheaper but would have the overhead of maintenance of the custom network setup.
 
Professional displays are just dumb monitors, what little software they do have is for integration, management and monitoring. But they do come at a cost, but equally are built to higher standards with duty cycles to withstand being used most/all the time.

Example could be NEC E series (E = Entry), a 32" IPS would typically be between £400-500.

It you have the knowhow, connecting a consumer smart TV onto a network or WiFi segment with very tight network rules would probably cheaper but would have the overhead of maintenance of the custom network setup.

Thanks for that tip about the NEC E series, they look pretty much ideal for our next screen.

One potential problem with just filtering or blocking connectivity with a smart TV is that one or two makes may object if a user tries this. Samsung and LG are two makes that have been mentioned elsewhere as objecting to not being able to communicate with their own ad servers, and which do things like regularly prompt to be connected with a nag screen. Could be a bit tiresome if this is the case.
 
I know that on my sony google tv you can turn off the google smarts stuff and only have apps/inputs and just not connect it to the internet after that.
 
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