RTE DTT Broadcasting pilot Phase 2

G

Gulliver

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Anybody participating in the above pilot? Or in Phase 1?
See [broken link removed]

How do you get on the panel?
If not on the panel, can you receive DTT broadcasts using own equipment? What equipment required?
 
im using a dvb-t pci card in my pc and receive RTE1, RTE2, TV3, and TG4 using a simple rabbits ears plugged into the aerial socket. There is also encrypted Sky News, CBeebies and a couple of others - are these "phase 2"?
 
getting the 4 'Irish' tv stations in dtv. have to change the input from tv to dtv to get them though. when the remote/telly is on the dtv input no other tv channels available. picture is brilliant though and worth the 2 seconds wait changeover.
 
I see the following channels will arrive soon during this phase:

"Additional content on the trial will include the following channels: Channel 6, BBC3, BBC4, CBBC, CBeebies, BBC News 24, Sky News, Sky Sports 1, Extreme Sports and UKTV History."
 
According to the Department of Communications.. website the participants were picked by a market reserarch company

This is form the FAQ section
[broken link removed]

8. Who can participate in the trial?
Under the terms of the Departments trial licence from the Communications Regulator, ComReg, the number of participants in the trial is restricted. To recruit members of the public to participate the Trial, the Department has engaged a market research company. This company has been tasked to find a total of 500 households from the Dublin area and the North East of the country to participate in the trial.

There's more info on http://www.dcmnr.gov.ie/Broadcasting/Digital+Television/
 
Unless the signal is encrypted and needs some sort of viewing/decoder card then surely anybody with the right equipment can pick it up? How is cuchulainn getting it assuming he's not on the trial panel?
 
Cuchulainn must have dvb-t tuner in his TV, as would most UK TV at this stage. The RTE trials are using a MPEG4 capable tuner. Which is interesting as the current UK system is MPEG2, except in London where they are also testing MPEG4. The current tests here are in MPEG3, but rumored to be moving to MPEG4 soon. It they have any cop on when ‘released’ we will jump straight to MPEG4, bypassing the old MPEG2 standard.

BTW. The signals are not encrypted at the moment, but I am sure they will be testing the encryption at some stage during the test.

Towger
 
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RTE1, RTE2, TV3 and TG4 are unencrypted. The other channels that you tune into are encrypted with “Conax encryption” which are unencrypted by the official trial boxes.
 
CM: New LG telly I purchased about a month ago. I just pressed auto set up and it picked up those 4 plus about 10 radio signals on the dtv setting. I couldn't undersand where all the other ( bbc 1 etc ) channels were and discovered that you have to set the 'signal' to tv to pick them up. ( same as av1 , av2 etc). The signal strength indicator on the telly shows that I am receiving them at 75% strength, whatever that means. There is no teletext on them and the 'nicam stereo - mono' indicator which usually appears on the top right hand side does not show but the sound is fine. the picture reception is clearer than on the 'normal ' tv input (which is good anyway) and clearer than sky FTA which I also receive. to read teletext on say rte I have to revert to the 'tv' input signal and this also applies to tbe bbc as they dont appear to have full teletext on the sky FTA.

minor point but maybe worth considering if someone is purchasing a new tv. I purchased this telly in pc world in dundalk. its a 37'' lg with analogue and digital tuners integrated. harvey norman, in the same retail block, sell a different model (same brand) and it doesn't have the digital tuner incorporated. (they informed me theirs was the only 37'' model for sale in Ireland but if you check the lg website it only gives the model sold by pc world, no mention of the model sold by harvey norman). also in a different post there was an item which stated that lg have to visit every household in australia with this particular model and modify the tuner. so maybe trouble there in the future,but we'll cross that bridge.........
 
cuchulainn said:
minor point but maybe worth considering if someone is purchasing a new tv. I purchased this telly in pc world in dundalk. its a 37'' lg with analogue and digital tuners integrated. harvey norman, in the same retail block, sell a different model (same brand) and it doesn't have the digital tuner incorporated.
Click to expand...
What was the price differential between the two?
 
CM: the lg with the analogue and digital tuner is currently selling in pc world/currys for €1149.99. ( I paid €1199.99 :mad: a month ago but such is life)
the lg with analogue tuner only is selling in harvey normans for around €1379.

It was a staff member in HN's who informed me that it as analogue only.
as it turned out it the model with the side speakers was too 'wide' for me so I was on the lookout for the one with bottom speakers which I had previously seen in currys in newry but they had sold out of that model and didn't know when they would get a new supply.

notice that I am the only one switching to the dtv signal when I am watching one of the '4', rest of household cant be bothered. they just switch channel. so obviously the better reception doesn't hold any sway with them.
 
cuchulainn said:
CM: the lg with the analogue and digital tuner is currently selling in pc world/currys for €1149.99. ( I paid €1199.99 :mad: a month ago but such is life)
the lg with analogue tuner only is selling in harvey normans for around €1379.
Click to expand...
Thanks. Cheaper for the dual tuner version!? I guess HN are just not competitive or something?
 
Presumably then, even leaving price aside, it would be better to buy dual-tuner rather than analogue only if getting a TV this year?
 
Think all the Sony's are dual. I was looking at those as they have a great choice of 40'' with speakers to the bottom. as do Samsung. but in the end the LG looked like the model for me. HN I suspect are fairly competitive but maybe currys have greater purchasing power also the models are different so maybe comparisons are not straightforward ie speakers to side/underneath. in the end I decided that sonys are just too expensive. If I get 5/7 years then I can have a look around again. ( ps in the information handbook a section states - Russia only. 'The working life of this set is 7 years since the date of delivery to consumer'. which I found odd. not the 7 years bit. the fact that it was in English. almost as if we are all being given a yellow card, but not directly so to speak)
 
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