This is why DStv stopped making 4-tuner decoders
DStv no longer makes 4-tuner decoders like its old HD PVRs because the chips needed to make them aren’t produced at scale anymore.
That’s the word from Nyiko Shiburi, group general manager for broadcast technology at MultiChoice.
“What actually drives the decoder roadmap is the chipsets that become available,” said Shiburi.
“Remember, for us it is about finding a balance between creating a decoder that satisfies most of our customers and getting the right price.”
Shiburi said there are currently two main chipset blocks: 3-tuner chips and 8-tuner chips.
If they decided to go with an 8-tuner decoder instead of the 3-tuner chip inside the DStv Explora, that could have made the decoder quite expensive, he said.
Tracking international trends
Shiburi said that when designing a decoder, they also track international trends closely.
“You don’t want to find yourself running a very bespoke product.”
Since South Africa is a relatively small market, MultiChoice must try to benefit from others’ economies of scale, said Shiburi.
If South Africa was to become the only place in the world using a particular chip, the product based on it would become very expensive.
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