It’s that time of year again - Tropfest. For those that don't know, Tropfest is a purely Australian beast, born out of Sydney, and is the world’s largest short form film festival. This year, there were over 600 entries according to a press release from Sony, the major sponsor.

This has been narrowed down to 16 finalists, of which 50% were shot in high definition format (HDV) according to Sony. Over 200 of the total number were shot on HDV and Sony says this represents a 72% increase over the number of HDV entries last year.

Hi-def got another jolt too this week, with the ABC doing an awareness campaign on its new branding of ABC1 and ABC2 (already the talk back shows have been inundated by haters of the new on screen logo).
Plus of course, Channel 10 just launched its hi-def channel, and Foxtel is about to.

But despite all this hoopla, and big screen TVs walking out of shops, I personally do not know anyone that watches hi-def beyond my immediate circle of fellow IT journos. I know people who have bought hi-def cameras, but shoot in standard def; I know people who have Sony PS3s but watch SD DVDs on it and I even know people with a gazillion dollars worth of home theatre that watch either analogue TV or via their Foxtel box.
Why is this?

I live in an area that is supposed to have a brilliant digital signal; installers have told me so, resellers of TV screens have told me so (accepting they have a vested interest to sell me something) and I have even spoken to head engineers at the TV stations, who also tell me so.

So why is the signal rubbish? The ABC is the worst with it fizzing and popping around regularly on ABC 1 and ABC 2, Channel 10 follows – not as bad but still not reliable. 7 and 9 are neck and neck i the quality stakes but at least stable. SBS seems to be the best of them (thank goodness for that as I can still watch and record Top Gear). Other stations I dare not record by timer, as more often than not, I come back downstairs in the morning to find the signal had dropped, a frozen image on screen and nothing recorded.

So my watching patterns are to watch SBS, 7, 9 and hopefully 10 on digital, and ABC via the Foxtel box. Why? Here’s the rub.

I am watching digital via a DVICO TVix, a natty and brilliant little digital device that also records, plays back and stores HDTV (and plays back) music, images and photos. It will also in the future allow integration with the IceTV EPG. I have a cable running from the antennae point (and it is a proper digital antennae) to the TVix and from there, via component into the TV. All well and good. But if I have a splitter and run the analogue signal to my receiver and thence to the TV via coax, then the digital signal goes altogether. ZIP, nothing. Just a jumble of interference.

I have swapped in and out all components and it makes no difference. Basically I have given up. I don't watch Channel 10 enough to worry about it (nor 9 and 7 for that matter) and can live with a switch box to go from Digital, to Foxtel to PS3 for gaming.

I say bring on HDV television – the faster the better (although why watching Kim and David in hi-def is somehow “better” is beyond me). But seriously, there have been major blues made in the implementation of it from the Government, the broadcasters and the equipment vendors. Until we have concerted effort to get “it” all together, people are going to remain confused.

By the way, despite popular belief, “digital” and “high definition” are not interchangeable despite a local reseller telling me they were one and the same.... sigh.