HD and Digital TV in Europe?

[Jason Kravitz]

I have a question for Filip, Phillip or any of our DMT community in Europe/UK...

What is the state of HD in Europe these days? I might be moving to Belgium in the near future and was wondering what the options were for digital TV and HD TV.

I have a 26" LCD TV with an NTSC tuner. I was hoping if digital cable was comparable to US I could use component in (or DVI) from a cable box and not have to swap out my tuner.

In the US I pay about $120/mo for cable modem for internet + digital cable (about 100+ channels, movie channels and music with around 10 HD channels plus a DVR box with 140gb hard drive for recording TV)

thanks!

Jason

[Filip Norrgard]

Well, to start with there are as far as I know, the availability of digital TV in Europe is quite good coverage. The digital TV format on Europe is DVB and it comes in mainly three different formats that you should know about: DVB-T for terrestrial
DVB-C for cable
And DVB-S for, you guessed it, satellite.

Of these three, the one with the lowest resolution for the major moment, is the DVB-T version. This is due to local governmental differences in available bandwidth, but also a desire from the broadcasters to use as much as possible of the bandwidth for broadcasting as much as possible channels as possible. However, the small bandwidth is noticeable in the fact that usually (depending on antennae, coax-cable quality and interference) DVB-T image is slightly worse in quality. (Don’t take that as the norm, however)

As such, I suggest that you try to choose either satellite or cable depending on what you are prepared to spend while in Europe. I have heard that German Premiere would/should have started broadcasting in HD resolution DVB, but I could not confirm that for the moment. As for the amount of HD DVB broadcasts in Europe, I fear that it is very low amount of the digital TV broadcasts today in Europe that occur in HD resolution. The latest version of DVB-S (DVB-S2) does include better support for HD resolutions, so we can expect HD broadcasts first coming from satellites. This does not mean that we should count out cable, but this mainly depends on your local cable operator and the level of readiness they have for DVB and HD broadcasts.

Then there is the issue of getting DVB showing on your HDTV. Currently, there is only one digi-box I know of, (that’s what I’ll call “digital tv set-top boxes”) that has got DVI out, and that is in Australia! Most of the digi-boxes in Europe are designed for old analogue CRT TV sets and utilize a SCART (an abbreviation you should get familiar with: Syndicat des Constructeurs d'Appareils Radiorécepteurs et Téléviseurs) with an output resolution that is close to the analogue PAL resolutions.

When converting SCART to work with your TV, it is no problem. SCART is a bulky cable that simply contains the composite and S-video signals, and left-right-sound channels. There are also cables on the market that have a SCART in the one end and composite, S-video and left-right sound channels on the other end. Some digi-boxes also include a digital optical output, so have a look for those if you need/want digital audio.

A problem might arise also due to the difference in resolutions and refresh rates between digital NTSC and PAL (note: not talking about the analogue PAL and analogue NTSC resolutions here). Digital PAL normally has got the resolution of 720×486, while digital NTSC usually is 648×486. That means that PAL is slightly wider than NTSC which might cause problems on your TV. If you are lucky, your HDTV might be capable of correcting to the refresh rate difference and clip off the extra pixels without any major problems. I can’t really say how your HDTV will react, let alone say which digi-box is capable of outputting signals with suitable resolutions for your TV.

If you ask what I would do, then it would be to bring along my desktop/notebook PC and buy a USB or PCI DVB decoder and view that on the HDTV using DVI. Btw, have you checked that your HDTV is capable of the European voltage 220V (+/- 20V depending on who you listen to)? You might want to do that as most voltage converters, e.g. 110V to 220V, usually produce an uneven frequency on the voltage and/or low current which most home appliances don’t like. Anyways, my recommendation would mean that you could essentially use the DVI easily than trying to hunt down a digi-box that can do DVI output.

If you managed to read thru this, then reward yourself, take a break and get a drink from the fridge. ;)

[Jason Kravitz]

Thanks for the great info!

I was wondering about the PAL NTSC thing - I guess it does not matter if using digital or satellite since I will be by-passing the TV tuner by using DVI,s-video or composite - is that true or would I have to put a PAL tuner in there?

I believe the TV is rated at 220v so it should be able to handle the power with an adapter for the plug.

I guess I'll wait to see how realistic this move is and then determine if it is worth lugging the TV from the US :)

[Filip Norrgard]

I was wondering about the PAL NTSC thing - I guess it does not matter if using digital or satellite since I will be by-passing the TV tuner by using DVI,s-video or composite - is that true or would I have to put a PAL tuner in there?
I'm hoping that your TV set can adjust to the PAL composite/s-video feed. Have you checked the manual if your TV supports PAL (not tuner-wise, but input wise), as I know that Nokia/Salora TV sets here support NTSC resolutions and using a NTSC VCR, it was possible to watch American videos. The TV detected the change in resolution and adjusted to the NTSC resolution, which looked semi-good on a 100Hz TV. (Perhaps because NTSC is often called "Never The Same Color"? ;) )

So, if you use the composite/S-video input, you probably won't have to buy a PAL tuner. Unless you want to watch analogue TV broadcasts... :)


I believe the TV is rated at 220v so it should be able to handle the power with an adapter for the plug.
You better check that right away and not do the classical mistake of letting the powersetting be on 110V and plug into a 220V outlet. "Snap, crackle, pop" is what you might hear from the power source and smell a new type of "perfume"... :x