Digital TV migration on track

Haha, what a joke. There won't be any channels to watch expect for SABC 1, 2, 4 and ETV.
 
deweyzeph said:
Haha, what a joke. There won't be any channels to watch expect for SABC 1, 2, 4 and ETV.
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Actually, I have just received my MNET trial DVB-T decoder today, and there are about 9 public channels (1,2,3,e + more) to go with the 7 extra MNET channels (MNet + 7).

The quality of the picture is great. The only issue for me is that the "failure mode" in the event of a signal dropout is not just a fuzzy signal, it is a jerky signal. According to the STB signal stats, I have a 34% signal strength, which is not fantastic, so I guess I might just have to get used to that. That, or fix my aerial :D
 
The department's director general Mamodupi Mohlala said the government had allocated R5 million to subsidise decoders for around 44 million poor households.

This would be 70 percent of the approximate R700 a decoder would cost. Currently between six and seven percent of the population already used the digital technology.
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There aren't 44 million households in South Africa, are we subsidising the whole of Africa?

70% of R700 = R490. R490 * 44 million = R21,560,000,000.

Another fine article.
 
@ ink - I also picked that up.

btw. for us capetonians - Cape Town TV on ch38 sits on 610MHz which is supposed to be the 1 Matrix in CT ,other is 706MHz.

They have a 1 year licence - so how long do we wait? Very clever ICASA is.
 
Currently between six and seven percent of the population already used the digital technology.
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This I have enormous trouble believing. I count myself to be technically advanced, and prepared to buy a DVB-T card for my PC, etc, etc. Even I have only JUST got DVB-T to my TV.

How they come up with 6-7% DVB-T penetration already, I have no idea.

Unless they are counting DVB-S (DSTV) as well, perhaps.
 
Yeah I assumed they were including DSTV and Mnet subscribers.

Absolutely shocking maths in the article. Well, hopefully it's just the article and not the department of communications, because they're in for a bit of a shock.

The only thing that slightly makes sense would be if it were R5bn instead of R5mn, and 44million people (i.e. 11 million households?), in which case subsidised amount equals R454 per household. But that's a long shot.
 
RoganDawes said:
Actually, I have just received my MNET trial DVB-T decoder today, and there are about 9 public channels (1,2,3,e + more) to go with the 7 extra MNET channels (MNet + 7).
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Would be awesome if you could post some pics of the box and UI :)
 
The subsidy is for 10.2 Million STB's.

10 million.

Of which how many actually pay for a TV licence?
 
"These criteria included promoting black economic empowerment and enabling smaller companies to reap financial gains."

Lets hope they can pull it off (this time) :/
 
Toilet_Duck said:
Would be awesome if you could post some pics of the box and UI :)
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Pix are here.

The box is an MNet branded UEC DTD401. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find it on UEC's website.

The 401 decoder is quite an attractive slim box, quite small, with an external power brick. It has a smart card labeled IRDETO, which I assume means that they are using IRDETO2 encryption for the stream. It makes sense, since they are using the same for their DVB-S transmissions (DSTV).
 
joelus said:
How many households do you think there are, just out of interest?
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Well, if the total population of South Africa is in the order of 50 million people, and we assume that in the majority of households there are 2 or more individuals (husband and wife, single parent and child), then there are at most 25 million households.

Also consider that the poorer demographic tends to have extended families in a single household, and that figure probably drops to around 10 million households. Wild arse guesses, but with a modicum of logic behind them.
 
So, has anyone tried opening their DSTV decoders? Is there a tamper switch that triggers? I'm rather tempted to see what it has on the inside in terms of e.g. JTAG, serial console, etc
 
Good to hear things are getting on track. What about the proposed programme that Ellies said they were going to introduce as part of their deal with the government to oversee the rollout.

I am talking about the setting up of training academys to encourage smaller entrepreneurs in various communities to get involved, by providing training on installation and fixing of decoders. When I phoned Ellies to find out, not even someone in the workshop heard about it, yet Ellies mentioned it in their press release.
 
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