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With the gradual switching off of analogue terrestrial TV signals in Europe, will there be no need to distinguish any more between Pal and Secam tuners - ie will the DVB-T standard render them obsolescent? I ask because I am contemplating buying either a new digital TV or a compact USB digital TV tuner for my PC, and it must work all over Europe.
The DVB-T standard is used throughout Europe, in fact throughout the world. However there are some parts that are country specific such as the red button interactive services. In the UK we use MHEG for interactive services, but these are not used in some other European countries.
It is possible that your receiver will work and it will definitely receive the channels without theextra services.
Gerry
I've been reading up on this a bit and have found out that a new standard, DVB-T2, is in the pipeline for Freeview HD transmissions in the UK. (DVB-T2 allows more HD channels to be squeezed into the available bandwidth than does DVB-T.) Indeed, DVB-T2 transmissions are already available in a few regions of the UK, but there is very little receiving equipment on the market yet. It seems that many manufacturers are hoping to sell suitable kit in time for the World Cup, some games of which will be available on Freeview in HD.
I have the impression that with the screen sizes that many of us use (ie 15 or 17 inch), HD will not provide a huge increase in picture quality, but I could be wrong.
The arrival of DVB-T2 will not obligate you to buy a new set-top-box/USB stick or TV. Only if you want to watch HDTV via Freeview in the UK will you have to do this. Also, DVB-T2 tuners will be backwards-compatible with DVB-T.
In some other European countries, HD transmissions will be made via the existing DVB-T standard and use MPEG4 encoding. All the decoding is done in software, so you may be able to watch HDTV in France (for example) with your existing DVB-T USB stick if you install the appropriate codecs on your PC.
Those that know much more than me about all this will no doubt correct any errors in the above.
Doc,
You are absolutely correct, DVB-T2 is the new global standard for terrestrial digital transmissions and will enable compression with MPEG4 for HD services. It has currently only been adopted in the UK and will be used in Mainland Europe later.
HD will give better picture quality and sound quality, but independent tests have confirmed that the enhanced picture is hardly noticeable in screens of 26" and below. Also the speakers in a small Tv are not likely to show any improvement.
Currently, there are no DVB-T2 boxes on the market although the first unit from Humax is starting to ship and there will be more boxes and recorders in time for the World Cup.
DVB-T2 will be available to 50% of UK homes in time for the World Cup and will have 98.5% UK coverage by the end of 2012.
Gerry
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Switzerland
