TV, radio digital migration roadmap to be finalised

Pretty pointless excercise when we don't have broadband.
 
Its not about broadband alone... its about Digital Video Broadcasting to replace the analog transmissions. (DVB-T)
 
It will only improve the quality of the picture, but only if you have a HDTV. In simple terms it means digital signals instead of the current analog signals. Unfortunately it does not imply better programs, or more channels.

I stand corrected, but I think Namibia already started moving to digital broadcasts.
 
not necessarily...dvb-t broadcasts have been ongoing in the uk for around 4 years, and you can easily see the difference, even on a sdtv.
 
In addition to improved picture quality and the possibility of HDTV in the future, it also uses less radio spectrum, which means more channels are possible over less frequency.

For the SABC it also allows for them to ensure that TV licenses are paid, cos you will need a set top box, prob'ly with a smartcard :(. It also allows for terrestrial Pay TV...
 
arf9999 said:
For the SABC it also allows for them to ensure that TV licenses are paid, cos you will need a set top box, prob'ly with a smartcard . It also allows for terrestrial Pay TV...
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Maybe that will be a good thing if it is based on the user pays principle. At the moment we have to have TV licenses even if we never watch a single SABC channel but only other channels. It might also put an end to the selective enforcement of TV license where certain areas are never checked for licenses, due to "difficulties" with enforcement in those areas. This would at least be a fairer dispensation than the current one.
 
NOD - HDTV is different to DVB-T.
DVB-T is a digital signal equal to DVD and HDTV has twice the line resolution of DVD. DVB-T also carries radio channels, interactive TV and a program guide. In the UK you get a Set Top Box for about £30-£100 and a decent antenna to pick up a good quality sig. On terrestial we got 5 channels, pretty simmilar to SA, but with DVB-T I pick up 34 TV channels and 20 Radio Stations (CD Quality). You can also get a Box which takes a smart card. With additional subs you can open up more channels. In my opinion it works very well. Here's the channel list and a link for more info: http://www.freeview.co.uk/whatson/index.html .
 
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Tomasz-London said:
NOD - HDTV is completely different to DVB-T.
DVB-T is a digital signal equal to DVD and HDTV has twice the line resolution of DVD. DVB-T also carries radio channels, interactive TV and a program guide. In the UK you get a Set Top Box for about £30-£100 and a decent antenna to pick up a good quality sig. On terrestial we got 5 channels, pretty simmilar to SA, but with DVB-T I pick up 34 TV channels and 20 Radio Stations (CD Quality). You can also get a Box which takes a smart card. With additional subs you can open up more channels. In my opinion it works very well. Here's the channel list and a link for more info: http://www.freeview.co.uk/whatson/index.html .
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A slight correction - DVB-T is not the equivalent to DVD ... DVB-T is the encapsulation of a MPEG data stream being broadcasted.. the MPEG data stream dictates the resolution of the target picture. HDTV can either be MPEG2 or MPEG4, depending on what bandwidth the operator wishes to use.

DVB-T is the Terrestrial equivalent of Satellite TV(DVB-S) ..but without the Dishes... -T uses the normal UHF/VHF radio spectrum and the receiver side uses a standard YAGI antenna/equivalent connected to a STB capable of receiving the digital signal.
DVB does not dictate the picture resolution, its just the transport.

Richard
 
Nitty Gritty

Richard P - My comment made was to show an approximate picture quality, and not to go into the technical aspect of the discussion, your explainations are valid, but for one.

How can you say that DVB-T picture quality is not equal to DVD quality (have you taken encoding rate into consideration?) when you have no idea what quality stream signals we receive? Point is that tests were carried out to carry HDTV signal via DVB-T, apparently it worked but it used 3 times the band width.

The sooner the Gov implements it the better. Picture quality is fabulous and as mentioned before by fellow forumite DVB-T uses less transmission spectrum. :D
 
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Tomasz-London said:
Richard P - My comment made was to show an approximate picture quality, and not to go into the technical aspect of the discussion, your explainations are valid, but for one.

How can you say that DVB-T picture quality is not equal to DVD quality (have you taken encoding rate into consideration?) when you have no idea what quality stream signals we receive? Point is that tests were carried out to carry HDTV signal via DVB-T, apparently it worked but it used 3 times the band width.

The sooner the Gov implements it the better. Picture quality is fabulous and as mentioned before by fellow forumite and DVB-T uses less transmission spectrum. :D
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DVB-T picture quality is up to the broadcaster... Its a MPEG stream.
I have seen HDTV streams on DVB-T and DVB-S and I have seen below VCD quality too on those same streams... just 'cos its digital, doesnt mean its DVD quality.
I do get your point that DVB vs Analog is chalk and cheese... but encoding has nothing to do with DVB, that is a broacaster parameter.... DSTV isnt anything like DVD quality and yet its DVB-S.

But you are right... the sooner the better as its a fantastic enabler of content and saves the spectrum.
 
Ok then, since even DVD quality can vary 'cos of the encoding quality/size of mpeg stream, lets not slit hairs. However, I'll say this....The Picture quality of DSTV broadcasts is poorer than the UK DVB-T transmissions.

Did you see the HDTV streams on a HDTV plasma/tft, pc monitor or a basic tv?
 
I think Richard is correct here. The method of transmission should not be confused with the data stream. In the case of an MPEG-2 stream (all things being equal) an HDTV stream will produce 3 times the data of an SD stream. However, new compression codecs (mostly in the MPEG-4 space like H.264) are vastly more efficient than MPEG-2. With the advances in chip and software technology (for near real-time decoding, it is feasible to stream an MPEG-4 HD stream with almost the same data requirements as an SD MPEG-2 stream.... <edit: AFAIK:)>
 
Tomasz-London said:
Ok then, since even DVD quality can vary 'cos of the encoding quality/size of mpeg stream, lets not slit hairs. However, I'll say this....The Picture quality of DSTV broadcasts is poorer than the UK DVB-T transmissions.

Did you see the HDTV streams on a HDTV plasma/tft, pc monitor or a basic tv?
Click to expand...
Nothing to do with the transmission technology, everything to do with the compression technology. Multichoice are able to improve the quality, they just don't want to because it will impact on the number of channels that they are able to offer.
 
Richard is correct. It was he that mentioned the method of transmission vs. encoding quality of the data stream.

Nice subject to discuss though.
 
Basic specs of DVB-T

UHF Channel: Channel 21-69 -75 to -20 dBm

Bandwidth 8 MHz.

DVB compatible ETS 300 744.

Decoding MPEG2 compatible (DVB/Main profile@Main level).

Video 1.5~15Mb/s (720 x 576).

Audio MPEG2 - Musicam (layer 1&2) (32,44.1,48 kHz).

In bold you'll see that the encoded stream can offer DVD quality and better.:D
 
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