DELAY BUYING NEW TV until mid 2008.

a bientot

Last week articles appeared on French websites informing readers that Philips were making tv sets with built in MPEG4 tuners and that these would be in the shops before the launch of HD in France in July.

All new tv sets offered for sale in France have to include MPEG4 tuners (incorporating MPEG2, also of course) by December 2008.

NOTA=These sets will also be welcomed by the 400,000 homes in Ireland who will avail of Irish DTT when it is launched........ (those households who do NOT have cable or satellite tv).

(TV sets on sale today will continue to serve those who receive their tv channels through cable (UPC etc.) or by home satellite (BskyB etc.).)

Kali

Or just buy your TV now and an approved set-top box if and when the Irish Digital rollout ever happens. There's always something else on the horizon, in any industry.

Interesting regulation though that they're forcing manufacturers to include the relevant decoders... have you a link to this?

ongarite

I can't see Irish DTT rollout happening ever to be honest. It'll be 2010 at the earliest at a push.
I would imagine all the new HDTV with UK DVB tuners will work here when the service launches.

alastair

ongarite wrote: »

I can't see Irish DTT rollout happening ever to be honest. It'll be 2010 at the earliest at a push.
I would imagine all the new HDTV with UK DVB tuners will work here when the service launches.

Nope. Currently UK Freeview tuners do work in Dublin - or at least anyone within range of the Three Rock test transmissions going for the past year or so. There's a Sony telly and an Elgato Mac encoder box happily receiving RTE in digital here, but when the trial ends (could be any time now) the common understanding is that they will opt for an MPG4 service, which won't work with UK/Freeview boxes, but will include some HDTV tranmissions.

a bientot

Kali wrote: »

Or just buy your TV now and an approved set-top box if and when the Irish Digital rollout ever happens. There's always something else on the horizon, in any industry.

Interesting regulation though that they're forcing manufacturers to include the relevant decoders... have you a link to this?

Most people would prefer to buy one unit (everything included) and not be obliged to attach more apparatus via cables etc. Only those 400,000 homes who have no intention ever of availing of satellite or cable services are in the happy position of being able to buy one tv set with digital tuner included. I am unable to follow what the U.K. is doing but the French situation is very clear.
The French adopted MPEG2 -despite a major debate against- because the tuners had been ordered before technology moved forward commercially to MPEG4. Now their pay tv service (HD) is being launched on July and it will be in MPEG4 forcing those interested to purchase an add-on to decipher pictures in MPEG4 or for those who waited an MPEG4 -with MPEG2 incorporated for the 19 free channels- tuner. For those prepared to wait a little longer their new tv set will have an integrated MPEG4 tuner.

Ireland is well aware of this and best practise would suggest that we go to MPEG4 when DTT launches here.....and yes it will launch because it is obligatory. Belgium has launched for only a potential 5% of their population. Those who live near the E.U. border here will still be able to watch MPEG2 using an MPEG4 tuner.

Links for more info in French via google.fr tnt and MPEG4
and those interested in more detail should go to
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=56

a bientot

Wait until midsummer until Mpeg 4 tv sets go on sale here particularly if you are one of the 400,000 homes who do not have cable or satellite. Therre are also tv set owners whose second/third tv is not connected to satellite or cable..

The article below refers to the ban (yes, by law) on the sale of exclusively analogue tv sets from last Tuesday, 4 March 08 in France. All tv sets must henceforth have intergrated Mpeg-2 decoders.......
AND
from 1 December these 'new' sets will also become obsolete as all tv sets claiming to be HD ready must have integrated Mpeg-4 decoders.......

Recently our own Minister Ryan said he expected our add-on DTT decoders would cost around 100 euros so it would seem that Ireland is adopting Mpeg-4....(one can buy MPEg-2 decoders for around 40 euros)
Further info by 'googling' in French or English tnt / dtt Mpeg4

Les téléviseurs sans récepteur TNT intégré interdits à la vente.......
www.01net.com

big_moe

the proper irish dtt service is going to happen in august/september.

there will be tvs coming soon that support these mpeg4 tuners, but as Kali said, there will always be something else the horizon. like panasonic have a new tv coming soon that will have a freesat tuner built in. there are loads of different types of tuners out there, it is impossible to have a tv that supports the one everybody needs. thats why i prefer buy a tv and then buy the certain type of decoder you want (MPEG2, MPEG4, Sky, Free to air satellite, Freesat etc)

a bientot

Yes you are right and very few would disagree with you.....
My only reason to post previous info was to let you and other posters know what is going on outside the U.K...... There would appear to be a belief that there is no world beyond that entity.

There is an interest among the public in buying all-n-one units particularly if placing a screen on wall.....so who wants an extra decoder when it can be included within the unit.

But if you want to buy your new tv with an analogue tuner then you must be a cable/satellite tv subscriber.....one of the majority.

D/C

DTT is set to be launched in Ireland in September, with one HD channel included along with the rest in mpeg 2!

Sonys W 3000 range already supports Mpeg 4 broadcasts and the V and W 4000 range will also when released in June 08

stevenmu

God, I just ordered a TV tonight and that title scared the hell out of me

I might be wrong in saying this, but the trend seems to have been to produce slightly different models for different countries incorporating the differences in broadcast technologies (freeview on UK models, vhf on Irish etc). I'd imagine this would continue and whatever changes happen to French models will not be seen here until digital broadcasts are launched, and possibly until legislation is brought in like in France.

mathias

Ultimately , when you think about it , there is nothing to worry about in this story as there really is no such thing as an all in one box ,

Even for those wall mounting , there is seldom a setup where the screen is all there is to it. there is invariably at least another couple of boxes attached to the set , whether that be a DVD player/recorder , satellite or cable box , or whatever , very few just use the TV with standard tuner , especially in this country as , number 1 , the analog reception with a flat screen TV is next to useless in terms of picture quality and number 2 , we only have a limited range Digital trial at the moment and this is unlikely to change for a number of years.

An add on Mpeg 4 tuner , as a result , would be absolutely no harm whatsoever.

For myself , I have a HTPC hooked up , so number one concern to me is picture quality of the set , not whatever useless ( in this country ) tuners it has built in , whatever standard gets adopted can be bought for a pittance and added later !

So my advice to potential TV buyers , concentrate on the picture quality , the tuner is neither here not there and certainly shouldnt be a major factor in buying decisions.