A closer look at HD TV

i think the real confusion out there is, people don't understand, and are being mislead by the media , re. SABC's digital migration. the SABC is only going digital(like DSTV) , BUT Not necessary High Definition.
 
Panny_PV7 said:
i think the real confusion out there is, people don't understand, and are being mislead by the media , re. SABC's digital migration. the SABC is only going digital(like DSTV) , BUT Not necessary High Definition.
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Indeed Panny_PV7, any idea when though?
 
MR.C

I've got a TV card, it has a DVB-T tuner so i guess i'll be ok when digital TV is up and running but my question is,
Is HD broadcasts digital broadcasts?
If not then should we wait for the digital tuner equipped HD TV's to be launched?
 
Been writing about HD TV for ages now and still cant believe the rubbish that supposed industry experts spew.

Fact 1: SA is a PAL region so resolution is 576i
Fact 2: We've had digital Tv for ages (does Digital Satelite TV ring any bells).
Fact 3: Digital T does not = HDTV
Fact 4: Despite what the gov says you will not need a digital TV to receive digital TV broadcasts. All you'll need is a set top box and all set top boxes have an array of analogue outputs ( The new HD decoder from DSTV, yes its a set top box, has HDMI out for High Def, and component, and composite for Standard Def)
 
MR.C said:
I've got a TV card, it has a DVB-T tuner so i guess i'll be ok when digital TV is up and running but my question is,
Is HD broadcasts digital broadcasts?
If not then should we wait for the digital tuner equipped HD TV's to be launched?
Click to expand...

HD broadcasts are digital, but digital broadcasts are not necessarily HD.

Your DVB-T tuner might not be able to receive our signal, since out government plan on encrypting everything, and controlling who receives it. Hopefully I'm wrong though, and you'll be able to buy a cheap USB DVB-T tuner, instead of that overpriced set-top box of theirs.
 
Nod said:
HD broadcasts are digital, but digital broadcasts are not necessarily HD.

Your DVB-T tuner might not be able to receive our signal, since out government plan on encrypting everything, and controlling who receives it. Hopefully I'm wrong though, and you'll be able to buy a cheap USB DVB-T tuner, instead of that overpriced set-top box of theirs.
Click to expand...

They won't. It's gonna be encrypted so the people without tv licenses can't watch tv.
 
Would I need to change my antenna to receive the new digital signal from SABC? (Currently people are using UHF or VHf antennas)
 
The resolution numbers for standard TV are so obviously wrong that one wonders whether the rest of the article is worth worrying about.
 
jak said:
Been writing about HD TV for ages now and still cant believe the rubbish that supposed industry experts spew.
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I know, it's unbelievable! :eek:

I laughed so hard at this:

The standard television set at home has a resolution of about :D640x480:D, which means that there are
:D640 resolution lines:D by :D480 pixels:D (dots).
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I don't even know where to start with that sentence. :D
 
well to me this is just another way to get our faces glued to the everlasting entertainment BOX

This is just my opinion :D
 
Technically there are 625 lines, but only 576 are visible on consumer TVs (the rest are visible on broadcast monitors). IIRC terrestrial digital has more bandwidth available than satellite digital, so if the SABC doesn't broadcast HD there will be a lot of frequency available, maybe it will be licenced to deserving VANS and put to good use. :-) TIA, maybe not.
 
I just reread the 640 x 480 comment now. ROFL. Like when Homer says to Apu, "We need plenty of Indians to kill [in our civil war reconstruction]", Apu's reply was similar to Idmelsa's. Classic.
 
jak said:
Fact 2: We've had digital Tv for ages (does Digital Satelite TV ring any bells).
Click to expand...

That's not entirely true: altho we have had digital broadcast for a long time via DSTV,we never actaully experienced digital tv until the recently released HD PVR made this possible via it's HDMI output.

Hopefully the proposed SABC digital decoders will not just provide digital-to-analogue conversion for the majority of viewers who still have analogue TV's, but have digital outputs (HDMI or DVI) which will deliver actual digital TV to the benefit of those of us who already have digital TV's. We should then see improved picture quality in comparison with standard DSTV on our digital TV's, seeing as the entire path would be digital suffering potentially less interference, and minus the digital-to-analogue-to-digital conversion (quality of which can vary substantially depending on the quality of the D/A & A/D convertors inside the decoder & TV respectively. Something tells me the convertors inside the decoders will be of the cheap variety! )
 
benitok said:
Would I need to change my antenna to receive the new digital signal from SABC? (Currently people are using UHF or VHf antennas)
Click to expand...

I know everybody is lost regarding the amount of lines and pixels and digital or not, etc. But does anybody know the story with the antennas, would we need to change them?
 
benitok said:
I know everybody is lost regarding the amount of lines and pixels and digital or not, etc. But does anybody know the story with the antennas, would we need to change them?
Click to expand...

Terrestrial digital TV (like DVB-T) does not require the complex antenna's that UHF/VHF do to receive a good signal. The digital antenna I have is small (and cheap), much like those stubby little aerials (forget what the call them) that are popular on the roofs of current cars. In fact it's very similar in size & form to the antenna of your wireless router. I used mine which came with my USB DVB-T receiver inside the airport in Frankfurt last year and the reception on my laptop was interference-free & sharp both in HD & standard-def. So, yes, you can happily dump your bunny aerial as well as your old grid aerial and use it to hang your washing on.They were always ugly, primitive contraptions to my mind.
Thankfully the digital ones are compact, fairly inconspicuous and presumably cheap :)
 
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