With the imminent blackout of DTT as we have known it until now, users have to face a change in the way we use our televisions. Or at least, those users who do not have an adapted television to the new reality and they are thinking about buy a external tuner.
On February 14, it is expected that all television channels in Spain will stop broadcasting the channels in SD resolution, although in the case of RTVE this was something that should have been brought forward a few days, something that has not happened for now (and which has made it impossible for La1 UHD to arrive). Users with old televisions will have to choose some alternative to continue watching these television channels and two of the possibilities are: buy a new television or an external tuner.
We have already seen that for some time now, practically all televisions on the market have the DVB-T2 standard in the built-in tuner. However, to receive television channels in HDa DVB-T tuner is enough, so let’s clarify the differences between the two.
What is DVB-T?
Digital Terrestrial Television as we have known it since its inception, has been based in the Spanish case on the use of the DVB-T standard, the English acronym for Digital Video Broadcasting. This has been the system that has been used until now to broadcast both channels in SD resolution like those who now want to settle with HD, high definition.
Created by DVBDVB-T was first published in 1997 and is supports MPEG-2 and MPEG4 encoding, while the most modern models, those manufactured from 2016 onwards, generally already support DVB-T2, which means that they come with more improvements. DVB-T is but one of the different types of DVB that exist.
It is a standard used in all European countries, Australia, part of Asia, much of Africa and Colombia. In addition, marketing must be taken into account, and although some manufacturers such as LG and Samsung have been incorporating this standard since 2012 and 2013 in their TVs, it is a version that does not offer support for H.265, so You will not be able to take advantage of the full potential that this standard offers by staying in H.264 as a codec.
DVB-T and DVB-T2. Improvements and differences
However, over time, DVB-T has become encapsulated and very limited in its features and that is why In 2008 DVB-T2 was introduceda standard that improves, among other things, in the codec it uses.
While the first generation of the standard relies, as we have already mentioned, on MPEG-2 and MPEG4 encoding, this most current one uses the HEVC or H265. This results in improved compression that allows more information to be transmitted while taking up less bandwidth.
Compared to the old MPEG-2 and the more modern H.264, makes way for H.265with support for variable bitrate, better compression and better performance in fast-moving scenes.
And one of the main advantages of DVB-T2 over DVB-T is that the first offers a minimum of 30% more capacity, which translates into the ability to offer a greater data flow (approximately 40 Mbps).
If we talk about streaming, this means that a higher bitrate and better image qualityhigher frame rate per second and improved audio with more channels.
Both generations DVB-T and DVB-T2 coexist over time, each with its characteristics and specifications. The difference is that if you have a tuner or TV compatible with DVB-T you will not be able to access features such as UHD resolution or HECV encoding, while if you have compatibility with DVB-T2 you will have backward compatibility with the previous system.
Cover photo | Piotr Cichosz in Unsplash
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