When is tv in the republic of ireland switching to digital for good..?

like in the uk (i live in n ireland) its planned to be completed by 2012.

Is there an equivalent to freeview. i see that tvs from the uk with built in freeview dont work in the republic as i didn’t know before i tried. is there a different sygnal type or something? Im just wondering.

ALL european Digital TV is basically the same standard DVB-T.
But this has several options, and some are recent.

In principle, all TV’s should work anywhere.
However, because the UK started earlier, many early sets and set-top boxes, may not have the latest versions of the decoding standard ‘MPEG4′

The Ireland will use this Codec (MPEG4) from day 1.
Indeed the UK will start some additional transmissions in Oct 2009, and also some for HD TV.

The mans that some current sets may need an over the air update,
Older setup boxes (the early ones from 5 years ago) may never get an update.

So in principle TV sets bought today in UK and Ireland should be both capable of working in both countries, Irish ones into the UK no problem, but expect older UK ones to need updates- which may not come available over the air in Ireland, if the sets were not supplied there. A technician may be able to visit to update them.

therefore, at least in the short term, buy an Irish market TV for the Irish system.

2 Responses to “When is tv in the republic of ireland switching to digital for good..?”

  1. Yea Irelands digital switch over is starting in Oct and should be completed in 2011 but the UK tv’s wont work because Ireland’s digital tv system is more advanced than the UK’s one
    References :

  2. ALL european Digital TV is basically the same standard DVB-T.
    But this has several options, and some are recent.

    In principle, all TV’s should work anywhere.
    However, because the UK started earlier, many early sets and set-top boxes, may not have the latest versions of the decoding standard ‘MPEG4′

    The Ireland will use this Codec (MPEG4) from day 1.
    Indeed the UK will start some additional transmissions in Oct 2009, and also some for HD TV.

    The mans that some current sets may need an over the air update,
    Older setup boxes (the early ones from 5 years ago) may never get an update.

    So in principle TV sets bought today in UK and Ireland should be both capable of working in both countries, Irish ones into the UK no problem, but expect older UK ones to need updates- which may not come available over the air in Ireland, if the sets were not supplied there. A technician may be able to visit to update them.

    therefore, at least in the short term, buy an Irish market TV for the Irish system.
    References :
    Digital TV in UK
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_terrestrial_television_in_the_United_Kingdom

    Digital TV in Ireland
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_terrestrial_television_in_Ireland#National_digital_terrestrial_plan

    DTT ireland
    http://www.digitaltelevision.ie/

    Status of world Digital TV (plus good and bad points)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_television_transition

    world Standards Digital TV
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_digital_television_deployments_by_country

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