DVB -T In Dublin ?

iMax

Been reasing a lot about DVB & was thinking of getting this stick from ebay (or something similar).

Is DVB available here (north Dublin city) ?
What channels can I expect ?
What sort of quality ?
My PC (nedion) already has a TV card, would I be better off just getting a set of "rabbit ears" or another NTL connection in the room it's in ?

TNX

SPDUB

iMax wrote:

Been reasing a lot about DVB & was thinking of getting this stick from ebay (or something similar).

Is DVB available here (north Dublin city) ?
What channels can I expect ?
What sort of quality ?
My PC (nedion) already has a TV card, would I be better off just getting a set of "rabbit ears" or another NTL connection in the room it's in ?

TNX

Well I have that model and it receives a good quality picture here in the city

At the moment you will only be able to watch RTE1,RTE2,TV3 AND TG4 and some radio services

It will show the channel labels for the trial channels BBC3,BBC4,NEWS24 etc but will not allow you to watch those channels

iMax

Thanks for that SPDUB. Is there any reason that the other channels will not display ?

flogen

iMax wrote:

Thanks for that SPDUB. Is there any reason that the other channels will not display ?

They're scrambled as part of the Government's DTT trial - only people with the official box/card can unscramble them.

The reason for them being scrambled is probably a rights thing - had they made them freely accessible to anyone with a DVB-T tuner then there'd be issues over broadcasting rights in Ireland etc. - they'll have to cross that bridge when the full service is set up, but they're probably happy to put it off until then.

SPDUB

iMax wrote:

Thanks for that SPDUB. Is there any reason that the other channels will not display ?

They have them encrypted so that only people taking part in their trial can watch them

SPDUB

flogen wrote:

The reason for them being scrambled is probably a rights thing - had they made them freely accessible to anyone with a DVB-T tuner then there'd be issues over broadcasting rights in Ireland etc. - they'll have to cross that bridge when the full service is set up, but they're probably happy to put it off until then.

How does rights affect C6 since it's an Irish channel and for that matter News24 and Sky News since they are freely available off satellite

Round Cable

There's no problems with the channels, the DTT trial only has a license to be viewed by the 1000 participants.

flogen

SPDUB wrote:

How does rights affect C6 since it's an Irish channel and for that matter News24 and Sky News since they are freely available off satellite

Well it has a limited broadcasting contract and I'd assume it's programming contracts are quite limited too - ie it's limited to non-terrestrial platforms.

Limiting the access of stations that don't already have terrestrial broadcasting licences in Ireland means that the BCI don't have to issue new licences. Putting it on a limited trial basis means they don't have to do that.

I might be wrong in that but that's what I figure one of the reasons is, anyway. I don't think the trial is only licenced for 1,000 participants as there are likely more than 1,000 people with access to the whole thing - that's just the figure that the DCMNR gave for the public trial and the first 1000 will probably be the only ones to have their opinions gauged etc.

Round Cable

There's something about it on the DTT FAQ page.

From point 8:

Under the terms of the Departments trial licence from the Communications Regulator, ComReg, the number of participants in the trial is restricted.

http://www.dcmnr.gov.ie/Broadcasting/Digital+Television/DTT+Pilot+FAQ.htm