Why are the Irish DVB-T channels encrypted?

esmonde

Does anyone know why the four Irish channels on the DVB-T trial are apparently encrypted? I''m one of those who failed to get some UK Freeview boxes to receive them until the 'scan encrypted' option was selected.

The Humax trial box seems to get them fine, and a cheapo USB DVB-T tuner worked out of the box once 'Ireland' was selected as the country.

I tried to receive the Irish channels on a recent Aldi LCD 'Digital' set, but, as with many of the stand-alone boxes, although it shows strong signal strength and quality, it won't display the Irish channels.

I can't get a definitive answer on whether or why the Irish channels in the trial are encrypted. Aldi support continue to say the DVB-T tuner is OK for Ireland, and I need a clear technical explanation of what the difference is that makes this 'scan encryted' option necessary for reception.

Unfortunately the Aldi DVB-T tuner has neither a 'scan encrypted' or 'country' option so it looks like these were shipped with bog-standard UK Freeview tuners.

Is this 'encrypted' setting on the Irish DVB-T channel transmissions necessary in some way, or is it just a mistake by the engineers?

Thanks.

My guess is that because it's a trial the channels aren't officially available.

watty

Because Three Rock & Claremont Cairn are nothing to do with RTE, but a CLOSED trial by DMCNR run for them by BT.

You aren't supposed to be wasting money on obsolete HW. The agreed Irish spec is for MPEG4. It simply to use up old TX gear that any of the trial has been in MPEG2. The actual transmission network and transmitters can be changed to MPEG4 when they get new real time encoders.

SPDUB

watty wrote: »

Because Three Rock & Claremont Cairn are nothing to do with RTE, but a CLOSED trial by DMCNR run for them by BT.

You aren't supposed to be wasting money on obsolete HW. The agreed Irish spec is for MPEG4. It simply to use up old TX gear that any of the trial has been in MPEG2. The actual transmission network and transmitters can be changed to MPEG4 when they get new real time encoders.

That doesn't work as an explanation as they could have , from day 1 , actually encrypted them so that nobody could receive them but people in the trial

Instead like everything else about DTT and DAB for that matter everything has been done half-cocked

More Music

They are still only trials, nothing half-cocked about that. The fact that the DCMNR trial wasn't encrypted at the beginning is surely a bonus for the anoraks. How can you take a negative from that?

As for DAB, that is also in trial phase and will be officially until the end of 2008. There are plans to roll out some other areas later on this year, but nothing definite yet.

I suppose we are behind the UK, but as with most things we just wait and see what happens there first.

SPDUB

More Music wrote: »

They are still only trials, nothing half-cocked about that. The fact that the DCMNR trial wasn't encrypted at the beginning is surely a bonus for the anoraks. How can you take a negative from that?

It's nice that anoraks could see it but they have no special right to be able to see it .And it still isn't encrypted but says it is encrypted

More Music wrote: »

As for DAB, that is also in trial phase and will be officially until the end of 2008. There are plans to roll out some other areas later on this year, but nothing definite yet.

And at least twice it was announced that the DAB trial was over and the service was on air .Then a press release came along saying it was a trial again.

They are making it up as they go along comes strongly to mind

Radio|Man

SPDUB wrote: »

And at least twice it was announced that the DAB trial was over and the service was on air .Then a press release came along saying it was a trial again.

They are making it up as they go along comes strongly to mind

Nonsense ! It was never announced that the trial was over, in fact, if anything, it was announced that the trial had ended, but was being extended.

Perhaps like your posts, your inability to receive the DTT services, is because of your lack of research into the matters at hand !

SPDUB

Radio|Man wrote: »

Nonsense ! It was never announced that the trial was over, in fact, if anything, it was announced that the trial had ended, but was being extended.

That doesn't even make sense

Radio|Man wrote: »

Perhaps like your posts, your inability to receive the DTT services, is because of your lack of research into the matters at hand !

Speaking of lack of research I can receive the DTT broadcasts as a glance at my posts will show

Ghost Train

does seem a bit stupid to flag channels as encrytped when they are not encrypted... especially if it means that a large number of tv tuners are made useless because of it.

as for the fact they're using mpeg2, i've no problem with it, at least it means the average person can make use of the service even if it's not the final spec. Anything they can do to get the most people involved and watching digital tv is a good thing and mpeg4 would really limit the numbers receiving.

rlogue

MPEG-4 will be the way to go. I'm surprised no one has commented on the MPEG-4 SD test that rebroadcasts RTE One.

watty

eolhc wrote: »

does seem a bit stupid to flag channels as encrytped when they are not encrypted... especially if it means that a large number of tv tuners are made useless because of it.

as for the fact they're using mpeg2, i've no problem with it, at least it means the average person can make use of the service even if it's not the final spec. Anything they can do to get the most people involved and watching digital tv is a good thing and mpeg4 would really limit the numbers receiving.

you miss the point.

The Trial is closed
The channels are not for ordinary reception
They don't want people going and buying a bunch of obsolete receivers/tuners.

There is nothing per se better about people watching Digital TV. Digital TV is ultimately about saving bandwidth to fit more channels. Doing the the last 20% coverage will be more expensive than giving out free satellite systems & viewing cards.

Animorphic WS can even be done on analogue. HD needs Digital, but there is a tiny amount of content and few so called "HD Ready" TVs sold have enough resolution and large enough to make HD worth while.

In addition Terrestrial can only support 2 to 4 HD channels as they take 5x the space of an MPEG4 SD channel. MPEG4 is thus important as on the SD channels it gives twice as much space free as MPEG2, allowing consideration of HD at all.

SPDUB

watty wrote: »

you miss the point.

The Trial is closed
The channels are not for ordinary reception
They don't want people going and buying a bunch of obsolete receivers/tuners.

So naturally they leave some channels in a position where they can be picked up by some obsolete equipment when they could easily make sure all obsolete equipment doesn't work

maxg

There is no official statement about obsolete equipment.
BCI has no affiliation to the rte mux and if the decision is mpeg4 for the 3 commercial muxes its the problem of the paytv providers there to supply their subscribers with the right equipment if there are any.

Radio|Man

SPDUB wrote: »

That doesn't even make sense



Speaking of lack of research I can receive the DTT broadcasts as a glance at my posts will show

Well done. A little research goes a long way !

FYI-A trial is scheduled for a particular amount of time. Once the trial reaches its end date, it can be renewed to continue for another set amount of time.

Sense ?