Using the XC4929 in New Zealand.
Although the XC4929 was not specifically designed for New Zealand, we are aware
that people there have been ordering Set Top Boxes from Australia, as they are
considerably cheaper than “Freeview Compliant” boxes, and generally have better
instruction manuals and user interfaces than the cheaper non-compliant models
available in NZ.
The XC4929 can be made to work in NZ, with certain limitations:
1. Your box may not have a New Zealand “country” setting.
(A Software upgrade with an “NZ” setting is now available from the Jaycar website).
Otherwise, you need to select another country that uses the same TV channel
frequency spacings. Italy and Russia give the same spacings as NZ, but you won’t be
able to use the automated time setting feature because they are in the wrong time
zones. Thus, you will need to manually set the time zone to +12 GMT for winter time
and +13 GMT for summer time (You will only need to do this twice a year).
2. The New Zealand Digital TV transmissions (usually called “Freeview” in NZ) are
not exactly the same as Australian “Digital TV” (which is now generally just called
“TV”). This means the XC4929 has not been exhaustively tested with NZ transmissions.
WHAT EXACTLY IS “FREEVIEW”?
This is a bit of a can of worms. In Australia, “Freeview” is a privately-run consortium of
broadcasters and content providers, mostly known for their efforts to encourage the public to
change to Digital TV when Analog broadcasts were still available. Currently, their efforts are
directed toward promoting the benefits of “Free” TV programming, (vs Pay-TV and
Downloading). Freeview Australia does not have any authority to regulate TV broadcast
standards, which are independently controlled by the ACMA (Australian Communications and
Media Authority).
In New Zealand, Freeview is a similar organization except that it does have government input,
and has some legislative control of NZ broadcast standards.
Both organizations offer licensing for “Freeview Compliant” TVs and Set Top boxes. As far as
the user is concerned, the principal advantages are:
1. Access to a more advanced Electronic Program Guide (EPG) and
2. Guaranteed MPEG4 compatibility
What is not generally known is that “Freeview” also represents the interests of “Content
providers”, and in particular “Freeview Compliant” Set Top Boxes are specifically engineered to
defeat the copying of High Definition Copyrighted material as follows:
1. The HDMI outputs will not operate unless they are plugged into an HDCP (High-
bandwidth Digital Content Protection) compliant recording or display device.
2. The analog component outputs (Y, Cr, Cb) are deliberately downgraded to Standard
Definition resolution, to prevent full-quality copying by HD Component recorders (such as the
VHS-based D9).
Ironically, neither product ever really materialized in the marketplace! In any event, there
turned out to be much simpler and cheaper ways of copying digitally broadcast material, for
anyone so inclined.
However, this deliberate (and now largely pointless) “nobbling” of the component outputs means
that it is then not possible to use them to legitimately display HD images on older model
HDTVs or monitors, that lack a digital tuner or HDMI input.
In Australia, it is possible to buy an HD Set Top box and convert an old Flat Panel display to a
perfectly serviceable HDTV for well under $100; no such option is available with a much more
expensive Freeview-Compliant product.
Aside from that, virtually all Set Top Boxes manufactured since 2008 are fully MPEG4
compatible anyway, even sub-$30 units available in supermarkets…
EPG (Electronic Program Guide) issues.
Freeview-compliant Set Top Boxes use a system called MHEG-5 (Multimedia and Hypermedia
Experts Group) for their Electronic Program Guide, which offers a number of advanced
“interactive” programming features if an Internet connection is available.
The European Terrestrial Digital TV standard (DVB-T) allows MHEG-5 to be added to the Digital
TV signals as “Metadata”, but a properly compliant DVB-T transmission also includes a more
basic Electronic Program Guide, basically a “plain text” recitation of a transmitter’s entire
program schedule for the next 7 days, repeated every 30 seconds or so.
To reduce the appeal of Non-Freeview-Compliant equipment, the Freeview Consortia in
Australia and NZ sought to have this “basic” EPG removed from the transmissions.
The New Zealand regulators agreed to this, but the ACMA (Australian Communications and
Media Authority) did not, as they regarded it as an unnecessary impediment to the rapid
phasing out of Analog TV.
The Australian experience has been that few viewers require anything more complicated than
the standard DVB-T EPG, and a significant percentage never even use that. Thus “Freeview-
Certified” equipment has not sold particularly well here.
In New Zealand, if the user wants a fully operational EPG, they have no choice but to purchase
a “Freeview Compliant” TV or Set Top Box. A limited Electronic Program Guide is available for
non-compliant equipment, but it only guarantees the current and upcoming programs (so called
“Now-Next” data). At one point the NZ broadcasters were supplying the next couple of hours of
program information, but this practice has apparently now ceased.
(The XC4929 can however still be directly programmed with Channel, Date and Time, the same
way you would do it with a VCR or DVD recorder).
Unlike Freeview-Compliant devices, the recordings are simply a direct transcription of the MPEG
data stream, so there is no transcoding or other degradation of quality.
You can also plug the USB device into any other XC4929 and play back the recordings, much
the same way you can interchange VHS tapes or recordable DVD discs.
(Unlike VHS, you can’t usually do this with other brands of Set Top box, although it sometimes
works).
In this product the component and HDMI outputs are not restricted or “crippled” in any
way. (Component outputs are not regarded as suitable for output resolutions higher than 1080i
or 720p, but these can still give an excellent picture).
To Next Page
Loading...