Questions about DTT

rogue-entity

What, if any DTT services can be received in Ireland. I know that you can get Freeview if you are close enough to the border, but are there any Irish services being transmitted?

Where can I get a DTT receiver that would work with Irish DTT (assuming that Ireland would use VHF)?

Will a DTT receiver work through a distribution amp i.e. could you out a seperate DTT receiver in different rooms of the house feed from the one antenna?

byte

There are no DTT services in ROI yet, though trials are to begin shortly apparently.

As for compatible receiver, it'll be best to wait until trials begin

Yes, a DTT receiver should work through a distribution amp, provided signals are good to begin with, so that you may indeed have DTT boxes in various rooms.

Now, all we have to do is wait....

watty

Irish DTT will be UHF only, though RTE did do a VHF trial.

When or if Irish DTT starts a new UK receiver might work partially, but may not implement the RF interactive that does not phone line. Older UK DTT receivers will not work.

If it is decided to start with all MPEG4 services then existing DTT receivers won't work. Some new models released in next month or so in Europe will.

Good quality distribution amps will work. but poor quality ones might not.

rogue-entity

Thanks, sounds good, although I wonder what channels would be provided on an Irish DTT system. I have a few more questions.

How does the EPG on a FreeView/DTT box work? Is it like Sky where the box receives the EPG and listings OTA?

What would you need to setup a mini DTT system for a small apartment block or hotel. For example, if you wanted to take in the digital feed for BBC1-4, ITV1-4 and other FTA sattelite channels, RTE1/2 from analogue and perhaps an internal channel (for hotels). What would you need to encode the channels in DVB-C (or even DVB-T if it is cheaper to do) and what would you need to generate the EPG. What would be the best way to do this at the least cost.

watty

Yes. The EPG concept is similar. But different Software.

For cable DVBc is better. There is not much price difference.

It would cost about $5000 per channel using cheap "bench test sets" rather than broadcast gear. There are some PCI cards too, but I still trying to get price.

Even if the PCI card was cheap, this can only do 2 to 4 channels and needs high end PC.

For 12 channels it is hard to see how it can be less than €20,000

A Satellite distribution system that can drive any number of satellite recievers from one dish is less than €1,000 on top of cost of Dish, Quattro or QUAD LNB and receivers. Digiboxes can be used FTA with no sub or else 80 Euro FTA only receivers with more limited EPG.

rogue-entity

Thanks a mill watty, this sounds good so far. I hope the DTT trials (if they ever happen) will be transmitted from a transmitter nearby. I am able to get RTE1/2 and TG4 perfectly clear, TV3 is snowey but if I tweak the ariel I get it clear at the expense of losing RTE 2. But I was using a cheap indoor ariel and this was on my PCTV card. I wonder if they will provide the receivers to "testers" or will we have to go out and buy one.

Mossy Monk

rogue-entity wrote:

I hope the DTT trials (if they ever happen) will be transmitted from a transmitter nearby

not near Waterford sadly

rogue-entity

I thought as much, typical Ireland. It seems the prevailing attitude is "if it isnt in dublin it does not matter".

[begin-rant]I cant help but feel irked by how RTE will gage the potential takeup of DTT on people in the Dublin area, correct me if I am wrong, but doesnt Dublin have fairly decent coverage of the 4 Irish channels by analogue, decent digital (and semi-decent analogue) cable, and of course $ky. Wouldnt it make more sence to trial the DTT service from all the main transmitters to gage how well the system will work and to see how many people could pick it up from the main transmitters. [end-rant]

On another note, I heard that the DTT service will be transmitting from Three Rock and Carmont Carn, but will there be any transmissions from Kippure as there is a slim chance that it will be receivable at my grans in south kilkenny. I suppose when the trial starts I will get my aunt in Dublin to sign up for the trial.

watty

Three Rock covers more population per Watt than any Irish Transmitter but the majority have cable instead.

They've done lots of trails for years. the current one is NOT technical, but politics. They're trying to find someone other than Goverment/RTE to pay for DTT.

Richard

rogue-entity wrote:

What would you need to setup a mini DTT system for a small apartment block or hotel.

This would be expensive to do. In apartment blocks, they just have an aerial distribution system so you can get everything. Some older systems don't work well with DTT however.

If such a system were created, they'd probably redistribute various UK/ROI muxes as they are without doing any actual encoding.