The Philippine government has finally adopted the Integrated Services Digital Broadcast-Terrestrial (ISDB-T) standard for its TV broadcast. The shift will be from an analog system to digital. It is based on the ISDB-T of Japan and has been used in 15 countries around the world such as Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador, among others.
With the approval from President Benigno Aquino, the Philippines has begun the process of shifting to the Japanese digital TV standard.
The Philippine move, Coloma said, is in sync with the rest of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which, according to him, is one of the significant aspects of connectivity for regional integration by 2015. Another reason cited for the shift is because the ISDB-T system is anchored upon the built-in emergency alert system for mobile phones and television.
Hearing the word digital may sound good, but what exactly does it mean to you?
1. Do you remember the number of hours you had to wait just to download a high-def version of the Game of Thrones episode? Well, you don’t need to wait that longer because the TV channel will be broadcast in HD format and it is sent to your TV in real-time.
2. Aside from the long wait of downloading a HD movie, you also need to have a stable and fast internet connection but this will be a thing of the past. You won’t need an internet connection to watch a TV show in HD because the signals are freely transmitted over the air.
3. Gone are the days when you have to climb on top of your roof and swivel the lanky antenna that has been misaligned by strong winds. Even if the antenna keeps on dancing, you can still watch on your couch without having to worry of any loss in the signal quality.
4. If you have a handphone that has digital tuner inside or a DTV receiver dongle, such as Tizi, connected to your laptop or computers, then you can watch all the TV channels at the comfort of your office–although I’m not quite sure if you’re supposed to do that during work.
5. The government can quickly send a warning or alert message to anyone watching a TV show regardless which channel they are in. An example of this is the Earthquake Early Warning that plays a sound and shows an emergency box superimposed on TV screen during the T?hoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
6. If you and your cathode ray tube (CRT) TV have some sort of marital relationship, then don’t despair. You can still use your vintage TV. You just need to buy a set-top-box receiver that will convert the digital signal to analog. The quality may not be in HD but it will be better than what you’re used to.
Can’t wait for the HD channels on your TV? Take a look at the 5 interesting channels in Youtube from this post.
Read also: Looking for interesting YouTube channels? Here are five for you!