SABC and DTT

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bsntombela

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Joined
Feb 6, 2006
Messages
324
Hi all,

Not sure if someone has posted something of the sort, here goes.

A friend of mine works for the SABC. He recently got a Nashua (the size of an external hard drive) set top box to try out.

The picture quality is excellent, the potential for more channels is phenomenon. There is currently SABC Sport, News, SABC Tots (for kids), SABC Jnr (????) and all the SABC radio stations as well as Y-FM, 702... and others.

This has been long overdue, though we can't start comparing it to DSTV as yet!

However, there seems to be a problem with the signals. If he stand infront of the decoder, the picture on the screen pixilates, maybe this would have been fixed by the time it goes live.

I was quite impressed.
 
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dj_jyno

Expert Member
Joined
Sep 22, 2007
Messages
4,206
bsntombela said:
However, there seems to be a problem with the signals. If he stand infront of the decoder, the picture on the screen pixilates, maybe this would have been fixed by the time it goes live.

I was quite impressed.
Click to expand...
That's some interesting news. From the quoted bit I'm guessing the set top box is connected to an antenna inside the house. Would love to see how it works with an external grid antenna, as well as during rainstorms.
 
Quantum Theory

Quantum Theory

Executive Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2009
Messages
9,449
It sounds like there is no external UHF antenna. An external antenna will off course improve the signal a lot.

It should have been readily available by now, but SABC and ICASA made a bit of a mess of things. Multichoice is also ready with a DTT offering, but I don't think they are allowed to start before SABC. Also, you will never be able to compare SABC content to DSTV content...
 
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sn3rd

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Jan 18, 2008
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What encryption (if any) are we looking at when this goes live?
 
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ipodmusicman

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Joined
Aug 11, 2003
Messages
756
I think what people must not loose sight of with these STBs is that their purpose is to provide a TV signal to those who still have old TVs that receive an analogue signal. Although AC3 would be nice, I don't believe it is necessary for the STBs the government is planning to subsidise. I also hope that a STB with an HDMI output for future over-the-air HD should be made available as well. The quality of HD that is received over-the-air in the US, for example, is much better than satellite. But then again, content is king, which the SABC has none of.

I am hoping that more and more TV manufacturers would start bringing in more TVs to SA with built-in DVB-T tuners in them. I see the 2009 line of Samsung TVs have DVB-T tuners in them, I am still unsure whether they are MPEG-4 compliant though.
 
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