Hi Geoff,
First off, I note that you are on the Freesat platform, not Freeview. Confusingly that has a different set of requirements from Freeview - the audio is either MPEG-1 layer 2 (stereo) or AC-3 (not EAC-3 IIRC) for multi-channel. This is for compatibility with the Sky platform. So none of the conversation about AAC or the blog from BBC is involved in this case (this was FreeviewHD only).
1. What are the implications (in general terms only) to existing TV sound reception equipment in terms of hardware/firmware/software update requirements,
For Freesat, nothing. For FreeviewHD, early devices had transcoding/routing problems but this should no longer be the case. There are still isolated problems with handling of Audio Description if that is a problem for you. The problem with level control between stereo and multi-channel may still be an issue for some.
2. Is it feasible or even necessary for owners of existing equipment to make attempts at reconfiguration to achieve compatibility with the, about to be released, decoders and
Not really, just set the output of the STB/TV to be compatible with your audio system - pushing as much of the decoding work outside the TV.
3. What in general terms can the owners of existing equipment do to reconfigure the equipment for compatibility with the new combined AAC and EAC3 decoder.
Again, the best thing is to do the work outside the TV and be ready to adjust the volume going into and out of multi-channel programmes just in case!
Ian
PS you'll also be glad to know that having negotiated the requirement for both decoder families the number of channels on Freeview using EAC3 can be counted on the fingers of no hands...
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