Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Manila Standard Today: Digital TV shift reviewed

Here is a piece of news relayed by the Manila Standard on NTC's stand to review the chosen digital TV standard for the country. As far from now, the National Telecommunications Commission stands for what the unanimous decision has been decided, which is the Japanese Integrated Standard for Digital Broadcast or ISDB-T, and been working out for the rules and regulations that will be implemented throughout the start of the digital TV broadcast age in the next few months.

On the contrary, GMA Network still pushes through the newer generation of DVB-T, the T2 standard, which is mostly the best digital TV standard of the world.

Read the article in the following break.

The National Telecommunications Commission is reviewing the platform that will be used for the country’s transition into digital TV after Europe proposed a newer standard claiming to be better than the Japanese technology.
NTC deputy commissioner Carlo Juan Martinez told Manila Standard in a chance interview that Malacañang has ordered the regulator to consider the newer version of European’s digital video broadcasting technology.
“We are reviewing DVB-T2 simultaneously with the drafting of digital TV rules [under a Japanese platform],” he said.
The NTC in June last year issued a circular adopting Japan’s integrated services digital broadcasting technology as the Philippines’ official digital TV platform.
Martinez said it was likely that NTC would delay the rules because the team reviewing DVB-T2 was part of the technical working group drafting the digital TV regulations on the use of the Japanese platform.
“It is possible that both the issuance of rules and its implementation will be delayed. But we are hoping not since the review will not take a long time,” he said.
He added it was also possible that the chosen standards would be revised, depending on the outcome of the review.
“The DVB-T2 is still more expensive than the Japanese standard so there is a slim chance that the platform will be changed. It is still a possibility,” Martinez added.
The rules are scheduled for release next month while the transition is expected to start in January next year. However, NTC said it was extending the 2015 deadline to completely shut off analog TVs.
There was no formal agreement signed yet between the government of Japan and the Philippines officially designating the latter’s platform as the country’s digital TV technology.
The NTC said the government was still negotiating with the Japanese government to include soft loans for private broadcasters for the acquisition of necessary equipment for the analog TV shutoff.
The National Broadcasting Network, owned and operated by the government, received early this year a $4-million equipment grant from Japan, which will allow the TV network to easily shift from analog to Japanese digital TV technology. - Jeremiah F. de Guzman, dated 17 May, 2011.
Source: Manila Standard Today

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