What can I do when logged in?

You can submit new articles, so we can make unique versions of them and distribute them for you.
If you want to simply publish the same article on 800 websites, you can tell us to do that.
You can see the archive and current status of all your article distributions.
You can order any number of high-quality articles - just let us know your keywords.
You can browse the archive of all the articles we have written for you.
You can order our Complete Service (10 high-quality articles plus 10 article distributions).
You can purchase more credits for our services and check your affiliate earnings.
Much more ...

SpinDistribute.com Article Directory

The following article was published in our article directory on November 14, 2009.
Learn more about SpinDistribute Article Distribution System.

DVB-T - Digital Video Broadcasting - avoiding mistakes

Article Category: Computers and Technology

As you probably already know we will make a transition to digital television broadcasting (DVB-T in Europe). But you probably don't know what are the reasons and benefits of this transition. There are many important facts you should know. The most important is that you will still be able to use your old TV set.

Firstly, let's take a look at the reasons for digital broadcasting. To get television sound and picture in our home we need a "way" to transfer the signals from TV station to us. One of the ways is terrestrial broadcasting. This means using transmitters on high transmitting sites to broadcast signals that we can receive with rooftop or indoor antenna.

Terrestrial broadcasting uses radio waves. But broadcasting is just one of the services that uses radio waves. Therefore there is only a small amount of radio frequency spectrum allocated to television broadcasting. And this small amount of spectrum allocated to television broadcasting was used until recently only for analog television broadcasting. In practice this means transmitting one TV channel at one particular frequency. In order to avoid harmful interference from other television transmitters transmitting on the same frequency there are very precise rules on the international level that regulate frequency usage.

Some years ago many countries have come to the situation where adding new TV channels to the terrestrial network was not possible because all frequencies (TV frequency channels) assigned to the these countries were already used. Therefore a new solution has to be found. And it was. Digital technology allows us to compress video and audio and to generate various digital signals suitable for data transmission. One of such technologies for digital data transmission is DVB-T. It means Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial and is a successor of analog television broadcasting. While analog television transmitter broadcasts only one TV program, digital television transmitter (DVB-T transmitter) transmits a package of various services (radio, television, teletext, subtitles, data, etc) called multiplex.

This new way of broadcasting brings us many new features: better sound and picture quality, wide screen format (16:9 aspect ratio), high-definition television (HDTV) and more choice. Because digital broadcasting allows us to broadcast much more content than with widely used analog broadcasting, it is also much more spectrum efficient. This is one of the key reasons to switch to digital broadcasting. The most expensive resource is radio frequency spectrum which is limited and must be used in the most efficient way.

But ordinary people are not concerned with radio frequencies. They want TV channels and choice. DVB-T is a solution for this. Of course, the old TV set is not enough to receive new digital broadcasts. In general, you only need a set top box (STB), a box that you connect to the existing TV set. That's it. With this device you will be able to receive all digital multiplexes and watch TV channels on your old television set as you did before. Prices for set top boxes vary, from about 20 Euro to few hundred Euros depending on features.

One the most important factors when buying a STB is for which country it was designed, i.e. which codecs or compression standards does it support. DVB-T is a widely used standard. Europe and many other countries are using it (USA, for example, uses a different system called ATSC). But this is not enough. There are many compression standards available, for picture and sound.

There are two major compression standards for video, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 (H.264). Most of the European countries are using MPEG-2, while also quite a lot of countries have decided to use a better compression standard officially known as H.264 (equivalent to MPEG-4 part 10 AVC). MPEG-4 is more wiser decision because it offers higher compression ratios compared to MPEG-2. The problem is that you have to have a set top box that supports it. If your country is using MPEG-2 then there is no need to buy MPEG-4 set top box. However, if you would like to receive channels from neighboring country that uses MPEG-4, than you need a set top box which supports MPEG-4. Almost all set top boxes that support MPEG-4 also support MPEG-2. And many countries that today use MPEG-2 are already discussing a switch to MPEG-4 coding. The MPEG-2/MPEG-4 labels are usually related to picture (video) compression. For sound there are also many compression standards. Countries that are using MPEG-2 for picture usually use MPEG-1 layer II for audio. And countries which are using MPEG-4 for video usually use AAC for sound. But be careful - all combinations are possible! This means that one broadcaster might use MPEG-4 for video and MPEG-1 layer II for audio.

Again, to switch to DVB-T broadcasting you don't have to buy a new TV set. Unless you would like to receive and watch HDTV - high definition television you only need a STB. In the case you want to watch HDTV you will need a wide screen television set with higher resolution display (up to 1920 x 1080 pixels or image points). But be careful! HDTV TV set does not automatically receive and decode DVB-T signals. Those marked as "HDTV Ready" have ONLY the capability of DISPLAYING (not receiving off air or decoding) HDTV picture. Usually it comes from an external source: a HDTV DVB-T set top box, Blue ray player, satellite receiver, computer, etc. Of course, there are also integrated TV sets which have DVB-T receiver and MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoders built in. Check before you buy.

DVB-T is not something you should ignore. Digital broadcasting brings us many new services and more choice. But it brings also a lot of problems and plenty of room for wrong decisions. Be extremely careful when buying a new television set. Check features, compare prices, ask for demonstration, read articles and enjoy!

Keywords: dvb-t, digital video broadcasting, mpeg-2, mpeg-4, set top box

Learn more about SpinDistribute Article Distribution System. We also offer Professional Article Writing to everyone who's looking for high quality web content.

SpinDistribute.com Network

Each article you submit at SpinDistribute.com is sent through our innovative Article Distribution System to our network of more than 1840 publishers - about 55% of them are high-quality article directories, 30% of them are niche blogs and 15% of them are other content-rich websites.

To achieve the best possible success we only publish your article to most related websites. This means your article will show up on approximately 640 - 880 most related websites which will give you great SEO results.

We also offer a separate Professional Article Writing Service to everyone who's looking for high quality web content and well researched unique articles.