KEY POINTS:
Steve Ellis knows he's a geek. A highlight of his day is the arrival of the latest issue of the Linux Journal. But he doesn't mind the label because he has something most of us don't - a PVR.
That's personal video recorder aka digital video recorder. Why? To watch TV - but not as we know it. Ellis is living convergence. That's when TV, computer, phone and other media meld and morph into something new.
His purpose-built PVR is a powerful computer connected to a TV screen. It's also connected to a small satellite dish on his roof - a dish which can see seven satellites over New Zealand and deliver about 50 TV and 20 radio channels to his Titirangi home.
Ellis hardly ever watches live TV and hasn't for years. That's because the OpenMedia myPVR he's designed and sells, is constantly recording an array of programmes Ellis has selected, at touch of his remote, from the onscreen electronic programming guide. All his favourite programmes are automatically there, stored on his PVR for viewing when it suits. He can also watch what he wants while recording several programmes showing at the same time. Best of all he has a skip-forward button on his remote so he doesn't have to watch obtrusive ads.
"I'm not tied to the time of broadcast or where I watch," says Ellis. "I know I'm a geek, but myPVR is easier to programme than a VCR and I can copy a programme to my laptop to watch sitting on the deck or stream it to another room in the house."
This is the new way of watching TV - watching what you want, when you want, where you want, and without the ads. It's similar to what some 16,000 Sky subscribers are doing with their My Sky boxes and what will eventually be available for Freeview, the new digital TV transmissions that begin blasting off a satellite to New Zealand homes in early May.
But don't adjust your set just yet. You've got six to eight years to decide whether this brave new world is for you. By then you will have made some choices, because there will be a day in this near future when your current free-to-air TV signal will be turned off.
If you're one of the 600,000 or so Sky Digital subscribers don't worry. You're already part of the digital TV revolution. But if you're not, you're receiving an analogue signal and that's the one that will be turned off. The start of this transition from analogue to digital begins in early May when the first Freeview digital signals - from TV One, 2, 3, C4, Maori TV, plus Radio New Zealand National and Concert - start broadcasting alongside the existing analogue transmissions, a simulcast that will go on until the big turn-off day comes.
When that happens one could, of course, go back to reading. But as time and technology wait for no one, sooner or later you are going to have to do something. Here are some things to consider.
Box with a view
One good reason to switch to Freeview in May is if your current reception of TV One, 2, 3, C4 or Maori TV is lousy. The new transmissions come from the new Optus Satellite and will deliver a much better picture. "Digital quality is better than analogue quality, there's is no doubt about it," says Steve Browning the general manager of Freeview, the consortium of broadcasters comprising TVNZ, CanWest MediaWorks, Maori TV and Radio New Zealand.
Of course he's going to say that. But there are differences and come May, the most striking will be for TV3 and C4 digital viewers who will receive pictures broadcast in widescreen format. That's as long as they have a widescreen TV - TVs that are wider than they are high, more like a movie screen. TVNZ and Maori TV will follow with widescreen broadcasts later in the year.
But if you want state-of-the-art picture quality, wait until March 2008 when terrestrial digital TV comes on stream. That's TV broadcast from highish hilltops to conventional roof aerials, rather than from satellite to dishes. Terrestrial broadcasts will be high-definition (HD) signals with much more detailed pictures which, as long as you have a high definition TV, let you see the wrinkles on actors' faces.
Sky has plans to start HD broadcasts for its subscribers early next year too, and for the free-to-air Prime TV which will be available as a digital terrestrial broadcast. Waiting until March 2008 is also a good idea because while you may be getting lousy reception on some channels now, it may be fixed with the new digital terrestrial broadcasts. But terrestrial broadcasts will reach only about 75 per cent, so for the rest, satellite will be the only option. When, or if, Freeview broadcasters transmit from the satellite in high-definition rather than standard-definition remains unclear.
How free is free?
The big advantage of Freeview is that unlike Sky, it's not pay TV, it is free-to-air. But the downside is your existing TV needs a new receiver to get it. Enter the Freeview set top box. At the May digital satellite launch these will retail for about $300. Adding about $150 for the satellite dish and an hour or so for installation means the total cost will be between $500 and $550. That's more than initially thought, but while early adopters will be stung, prices will fall - especially with the arrival of "grey market" boxes on the market. Those are boxes that aren't Freeview certified. Some will work better than others. Buyer beware.
By March 2008 we should also be seeing new Freeview-ready TVs - sets with the digital terrestrial tuner built-in. By then, as well as terrestrial set top boxes, digital recorders or PVRs will also be available for both the satellite and terrestrial service. These not only replace videotape, they also allow you to record via the electronic programme guide that comes with the digital revolution. No more looking in the Herald or the Listener for listings when you have one of these. All programmes for the next eight days are there on screen with a synopsis of each programme. Click on the programme you want with your remote and it will be recorded. Click again and your choice will automatically be recorded every week.
For free-to-air broadcasters, PVRs are a bit of nightmare. What happens when they become the norm? "We don't believe it will mean the end of the traditional ad break," says TVNZ spokesperson Megan Richards. "There is research to suggest that viewers absorb the substance of ads even while fast forwarding, but we have for some time been broadening our approach to the whole question of advertising revenue."
Surf's down
One of the main reasons for moving from analogue to digital TV is freeing the airways for lots more channel surfing. But at the May launch and for some time to come, the digital show will be less rather than more. Notably absent is Prime (owned by Sky) which will not be available on Freeview satellite. That's because some of the satellite signal bleeds into Australia allowing some Australian viewers to receive it, breaching contracts for delayed broadcasts of Australasian sports. "I don't own the right to show them in Australia," says Sky chief executive John Fellet.
Also missing in May are new digital channels. TVNZ is expected to launch a new Family channel in October, with a 24-hour news and sports channel to follow next year. At the May launch CanWest will make C4 a 24-hour channel and is also in discussions with other parties to launch a new channel some time in 2008.
Absent too from Freeview satellite are any regional or niche broadcasting channels such as Triangle or AltTV. What's holding them back is money. While the current Freeview broadcasters have been given $25 million by the Government to help with the costs of their digital simulcasts, the rest got nothing.
Adding to the not-happening list is the lack of a return path or back channel on Freeview. That's the bit - usually via a phone line, but also possible wirelessly - that lets viewers buy movies on demand, place bets on horse-races with a click of the remote, and connects you to the internet. Whether Freeview will get a back-channel or whether, given the poor state of broadband here, it would work, remains to be seen. But the lack of new channels and the absence of Prime are a good reason to wait until March before diving into digital TV.
Turf wars
Today if you wanted to run both a Sky box and a Freeview box in your home, you can't. It's a problem to do with something called horizontal and vertical polarity and a mistake made with the new Optus satellite used by both Sky and Freeview. According to both Sky and Freeview the problem will be fixed by the May launch date. "One of our goals is to teach our box to look at both polarities," says Fellet.
It's also not going to be a problem if you want to use a disused Sky dish to access Freeview. Strictly speaking the dish is Sky's property, but Fellet says the company is not going to make an issue out of it - except perhaps where there are dual installations in home and through a Freeview installer's mistake the Sky box stops working.
There's also little chance that TVNZ or CanWest would prevent their channels - One, 2, 3 and C4 - from showing, as they currently do, to Sky subscribers. From a free-to-air broadcaster's point of view, the more viewers you have the better it is for advertising sales - so making it difficult for Sky subscribers to view those channels makes little sense.
The situation is a little different with regard to TVNZ's two new digital channels for which the Government has given $79 million over the next five years to create. TVNZ seems to be saying it will not allow its new channels to be received by Sky's subscribers. "Sky's box would potentially have the technical ability to pick up our channels," says TVNZ's Megan Richards. "But carriage as part of their service will require a licence, protected by the Copyright Act."
Fellet doesn't agree. "If they are free-to-air and not encrypted any satellite receiver can pick then up."
There's a sense of jockeying for position in the broadcasters' dialogue, especially in the way Sky intends to make Prime available to viewers - without joining the Freeview consortium. "The bottom line is we'll make Prime available as digital terrestrial and feed them [Freeview] all the information they want for their programme guide," says Fellet. "Whether or not we join Freeview, I don't know we'll necessarily do that."
CanWest's chief operating officer Rick Friesen says the TV3 and C4 broadcasters' broad philosophy is that they want as many viewers as possible, regardless of the way the channels are received.
From a viewer's point of view one hopes court battles about who can view, or copy, what don't eventuate. Free-to-air channels should be just that. But in the brave new digital world, copyright battles are never far away.
And PVRs like OpenMedia's myPVR which can burn programmes to DVD and also edit out the ads are going to cause headaches. Then there's the issue of whether it's legal to copy the latest episode of Desperate Housewives to your iPod, so you can watch it on the bus going to work.
Welcome to convergence.
