The government extends DTT broadcasts in low definition until 2024

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In the original plan, these emissions disappeared on January 1, 2023

The government approved a royal decree on Tuesday that extends the period laid down in the National Plan by one year, so that channels can continue to broadcast their content in low definition via DTT. Initially, the Board had set 1 January 2023 as the end date for SD broadcasts, but the Royal Decree now sets the deadline at 14 February 2024.

The decision was taken by the Council of Ministers, on the proposal of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, and follows “an exceptional situation resulting from the pandemic, which has delayed the renewal of the fleet of adapted television sets”. for DTT broadcasts in high definition,” said the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation in a press release. With this extra period, the government hopes that all television channels that need it will move their broadcasts to high definition (HD) and stop broadcasting in standard format (SD) and at the same time that the fleet of televisions and receivers will be renewed .

Speaking at the press conference after the Council of Ministers, First Vice President and Head of Portfolio, Nadia Calviño, explained that the measure prevents “certain citizens from being deprived of the digital terrestrial television (DTT) service or the cost of a new high-definition buy a television set.” “We give an extra period to adjust the equipment,” he stressed.

It should be remembered that the fact that all channels continue to broadcast low and high definition versions of their channels is detrimental to their picture quality as bandwidth is limited. This is why when a high-definition channel broadcasts a sporting event that ends with a shower of confetti, the whole picture often becomes grainy. The same happens when the water of a swimming pool or the sea are the protagonists of the images. The key is in the bandwidth and the way the video is compressed so that it goes over the airwaves.

Roughly speaking, video compression works by emphasizing what does and doesn’t change from frame to frame. Imagine having ten seconds of video with a man sitting in a chair talking to the camera. The chair hardly moves, perhaps the light reflected on it changes; the man’s mouth instead, yes. Now think of all the compression that goes into it when the confetti rains down.

It’s inevitable? Not really. In addition to the excellent quality of platforms such as Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ or Apple TV+, there are 4k channels in tests via DTT that also look beautiful. However, the fact that at the moment all generalist channels keep their version in SD and the communication groups have quite a few channels in DTT in addition to the six generalists limits the bandwidth and makes the channels in high definition look very bad. We’ll have to wait another year to see if eliminating the chains in SD improves image quality. Of course, the CNMC has suggested that the chains are the ones choosing the moment to move to HD, with no restrictions.

Source: La Verdad

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