Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Manila Standard Today: How DTV works

ABS-CBN will be the first Philippine TV network to broadcast digitally when they receive the go signal from the National Telecommunications Commission. Other networks are expected to follow suit since analog television will be phased out in the country by 2015. Some countries, like Switzerland, Sweden, Netherlands and Finland, have terminated analog signals as early as 2006/07. Most territories in the world, like the Philippines, are currently in transition.
Digital television is the new frontier in broadcasting. Channels take up less bandwidth and a single broadcaster can provide more channels in the same space. An example would be ABS-CBN's five new digital channels that will launch when their digital broadcasting service launches. Digital format is stronger than analog, which means it can be received clearly even in the most remote locations. Reception is reported to have high-definition picture resolutions and sound fidelity similar to blu-ray home video. Visual and audio quality is easily superior than it has ever been. Long story short, DTV is more efficient and is now the international standard.
Analog switch-off, or the complete termination of analog signals, will render a regular non-digital TV set useless unless it's hooked up to an external digital tuner, like the Digibox, which will be available in retails stores by June. The price is said to be around P2,500 per unit. One unit is required for each TV set. So a household with three TVs will need three Digiboxes. The device will be able to pick up any DTV signal, not just the ones from ABS-CBN.
Channels that the network will be broadcasting in DTV include Channel 2, Studio 23, GEM TV and NBN, together with five new digital-only channels—two for kids and one each for the youth, adult males and adult females. (Cable TV service subscribers are not affected by the analog-to-digital transition.) - Ed Biado, dated 12 April 2011
Source: Manila Standard Today

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