[bkman1990]

All of the remaining SD channels broadcasting on Spain's Terrestrial TV service will complete their HD switchover from later today.

advanced-television.com 

Spain finalises HD DTT migration | Advanced Television
Spain is readying for the migration to HD for all its DTT TV channels on Februar…
  Source: advanced-television.com

Here is the official website explaining the switchover to Spanish viewers.

If you are using Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. You can click translate to your local language in the browser's address bar.

televisiondigital.mineco.gob.es 

Televisión digital - Llega la alta definición a todos los canales
Ir al contenido Televisión digital Teléfonos 901 20 10 04 910 30 54 21 Opciones …
  Source: televisiondigital.mineco.gob.es

There are also 2 UHD channels testing on this service for the past while. They run at an average bitrate of between 10 to 15Mbps.

www.digitalbitrate.com 

TV channels and Radio bitrates DAB+ DTT FIBER Satellite Cable OTT
CH36 content of DTT Spain Sevilla
  Source: www.digitalbitrate.com

[Keith]

Meanwhile here in the UK we're still stuck with just one multiplex supporting DVB-T2 containing HD channels, whilst the rest of the multiplexes use DVB-T and only show SD channels.

Am I correct in thinking that technically DVB-T can support HD channels, even if it's not as efficient as DVB-T2?

[i.h]

Am I correct in thinking that technically DVB-T can support HD channels, even if it's not as efficient as DVB-T2?

Sure, some countries did just that - MPEG4 and HD. There are perhaps advantages to the UK's approach in being a very early adopter of T2 however - people probably had to buy new TVs anyway and linking it to HD was a big driver to do so

(as DVB-T HD TVs for the UK market might not have supported it, similar to how UK spec digital radios did not necessarily support DAB+)

A friend of mine had reasonably reliable reception of French TV despite being on the wrong end of the south coast, and he was surprised to see DVB-T HD come in perfectly well on an LG monitor that also had a TV tuner

[Brekkie]

Not even a plan in the UK. From previous discussions here switching muxes to DVB-T2 is something that could be done relatively quickly - it wouldn't be the months long process introducing the previous HD muxes was.

[Kunst]

While many might attack me for saying this, I think the UK should do "something"

I realize that it's easily said than done, but, even my local channel in my hidden corner of southeastern Italy is in HD

[Brekkie]

It's pretty easy to switch the two PSB channels, especially if the BBC shut down their HD mux which could then effectively give ITV and C4 their own mux each. It's not an issue if +1 and smaller channels remain in SD.

Without losing any Freeview channels if they converted all muxes to DVB-T2 with a mix of HD and SD on both they could easily switch around 30 channels to HD only.

[i.h]

Presumably the real barrier is not so much in the logistics of reconfiguring the transmitters to put out a different signal, but in figuring out how many people still use TVs or receivers not capable of T2 and what needs to be done about that.

Even Sky is taking forever to jettison DVB-S & SD and that's with knowledge of exactly how many subscribers (nb not users) still use SD boxes.

Then it's a matter of the business case, what's to be gained by doing this? Does Freeview need more capacity? Do channels want to go HD? Is efficiency important, and could that be delivered in other ways (eg going to SFNs for the national multiplexes)

[gottago]

Then it's a matter of the business case, what's to be gained by doing this? Does Freeview need more capacity? Do channels want to go HD? Is efficiency important, and could that be delivered in other ways (eg going to SFNs for the national multiplexes)

Certainly for the commercial muxes I can't see the business case. It's charge channels a premium for limited space on DTT versus charge much less for significantly more space in an age where the demand for DTT carriage is far lower than it used to be. SDN already makes ITV significantly less than it did 10 years ago - why significantly (I assume) invest in an HD switch when it will ultimately make them even less money?