Analog Television Is Soon Dead; Long Live Digital TV!
27 August 2007 in Root | Comments enabled
Finland is about to take a final big step into the digital (TV) era, as only 4, yes 4, days of analog television broadcasting remains today. On the 1st of September 2007, Finland will only be broadcasting television in the digital DVB format. Some cable subscribers might have gotten an extension on getting a digital television or set-top box, since the cable providers are allowed to send some digital channels as analog for a short time into the future. However, the terrestrial TV viewers will have to have a digital TV or set-top box working this Saturday or they will be only watching “The War of the Ants” ad infinitum.
Getting a total of 30 channels (not counting some regional TV channels) of new terrestrial channels, is a big change to the 4 or 5 analog channels we had before. I’m looking forward to watching some new pay-TV channels like the Discovery Channel and MTV Finland using just a simple terrestrial reciever in the very near future.
Some people, however, are not as happy. Most antenna professionals are fully booked for this week and next as people have been late out with getting ready (as can be expected). Lots of digital set-top boxes are being sold like no tomorrow, and some more optimal antennas are also being ripped from the hands of electornics retailers. And some people are not getting any digital TV picture at all, or crappy such.
Fact is that too many people have 1) bought a cheap digibox which does a crappy job at recieving low signal strenghts and might not even support some of the Finnish Broadcasting Company’s subtitling (ironically as the subtitles used by FBC is standardized) 2) are using a cheap log-periodic antenna which can do a resonably good job at recieving analog TV (in the VHF region) but not the digital TV (in the UHF region). Futhermore, as digital TV broadcasts use channel-wise less bandwidth than the analog TV, the signal quality for the digital TV can rapidly worsen when using an unefficient antenna or when in a bad coverage area with an insufficient antenna.
Although people have been informed that they should get prepared for the digital era and what they can do if the picture quallity is bad, many have left this to the last seconds or just given up claiming that the “digital is crap”. I guess this is what everyone can expect of changes that require some little work from one’s own side; we Finns are wanting more efficiency that makes it more easy — not harder — for us to live our daily lives. Much like the current tax forms we get prefilled out and if everthings a-OK, we do not have to do anything. If there’s anything to correct, then one just has to correct the incorrect details and send it in before the deadline.
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