Digital tv 2: all the news

We hear often talk about the digital tv 2, but what exactly is it? Here you have a small manual to understand what is changing and how to be ready to its arrival. 

The digitale tv 2

The changing will happen in two steps: The first september 2021 all the channels will transmit their programs with the codec Mpeg-4  (the standard currently used even for the videos on the web).

But the most important step will be the one of the june 2022. In this date infact the channels will passed from the old digital tv to the new one: which means from the Dvb-T1 to the Dvb-T2 Hevc.

This passage will firstly bring a higher video quality, infact the new Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) uses some algorythms to minimaze the errors and technologies MIMO. Therefore with the passage to the DVB-T2 some frequences will be free, because this standard is more efficient: it uses less frequences for a higher bitrate. And what we will do with the free frequences, you will wonder? Mostly they will be used for the 5G.

HEVC instead is the acronym of High Efficiency Video Coding it is an optimazed coding that allows to support definitions up to 8K.

How to know if your own television is compatible

The next year, in this period, there will so be the digital tv 2. And in this year the italians will have the time to adapt their televisions to go on watching the tv programs in clear. But how can we know if our television or the one that we would like to buy is compatible? And is it mandatory to buy a new television, or is there an alternative? 

Let’s start with the assumption that since january of the 2017 the televisions sold in italy should be compatible with DVB-T2 and with HEVC. This means that if your television was bought from that date on it might be compatible.

If you aren’t sure about it Rai and Mediaset made available two channels to try to easily understand if your television is compatible with the digital tv 2. It’s enough to go on the channel 100 (for the Rai) or on channel 200 (for Mediaset), if you are able to see the inscription “Test HEVC Main10” so your television is compatible and you don’t have to change it. 

If you are still doubting for any reason on the specific book of the television you have to look for compatible inscription with the code DVB T2 and HEVC, especially with the version at 10 bit (Main10), because the one at 8 we don’t know for how long it will be supported. 

What to do if your television isn’t compatible

But if on the test page you see the inscription “channel not available” or worst you don’t see nothing at all, so it means that you have two options: change the television or add a decoder.

Both cases you can use the bonus of maximum 50 euros to buy TV and decoder of new generation. The bonus is given to the families with ISEE less than 20 thousand euros and it can be used until december 2022 or until the finishing of the 151 millions of euros available. 

For a most ecologic choice is better to go for a decoder, there are for all the pockets: the cheapest ones start from the 15 and they decode the sign. A higher range decoder, instead, can compensate even to other lacks of the old televisions like the possibility to record the videos thanks to the presence of a hard disk.

This post is also available in: Italiano