Digital TV Trial

[MonsieurBond]

RTE.ie

[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]GOVERNMENT PREPARES FOR DIGITAL TV TRIAL - The Irish Times reports [[/font][broken link removed] - requires registration][font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] that the Government is buying millions of euro worth of equipment to enable it to offer a trial of digital television to consumers in Meath, Louth and greater Dublin.[/font]

[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A tender for the equipment was published yesterday by the Department of Communications, which confirmed it would begin a trial of the service later this year.[/font]

[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The paper says the system, which is based on digital terrestrial television technology, will provide better picture and sound quality than the standard free to air analogue system owned by RTÉ Networks.[/font]

[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]It will have capacity to offer up to 20 channels initially, however this can be extended later, according to the Government tender documents.[/font]

 

[tonka]

its been trialling off 3 Rock since last year ..see the RTE website.

 

[podgerodge]

can you post a link?
if it is trialing does that mean anyone with a digital receiver can pick it up?

 

[MonsieurBond]

I wonder is now a good time to buy a DVD recorder or Hard Disk DVD Recorder, with this on the horizon...

Not to mention HDTV.

I wonder will RTE use the same digital terrestrial broadcast system as Freeview in the UK? This would make commercial sense as people could then buy IDTVs and HDD/DVDs with built in Freeview tuners as are becoming very popular in England.

It would be CRAZY to have a different system for a small backwater country - it would perpetuate the higher-cost market in the same way that the use of UHF+VHF frequencies requiring dual tuners makes TVs and DVD recorders more expensive in Ireland.

 

[legend99]

I wonder is now a good time to buy a DVD recorder or Hard Disk DVD Recorder, with this on the horizon...

Not to mention HDTV.

I wonder will RTE use the same digital terrestrial broadcast system as Freeview in the UK? This would make commercial sense as people could then buy IDTVs and HDD/DVDs with built in Freeview tuners as are becoming very popular in England.

It would be CRAZY to have a different system for a small backwater country - it would perpetuate the higher-cost market in the same way that the use of UHF+VHF frequencies requiring dual tuners makes TVs and DVD recorders more expensive in Ireland.

The biggest issue really that we face is the fact that RTE is not available free to air on Satellite. Especially as there are still people who cannot recieve current analogue trx. Its a disgrace that you must pay Sky to receive our publicy funded national broadcaster.
the obvious solution if cost was an issue was to have a card for say 20 euro that you could buy with the production of a valid TV licence. let it last for 2 years. You have to have irish address to get it. then let RTE have been free to air and at least we wouldn't be in bed with bloody Sky now.