You might not see it now, but changes are afoot for you and your television.
You might not see it now, but changes are afoot for you and your television.
Like most countries around the world, South Africa is in the process of changing from analogue to digital television signals.
What this all means is that when 2011 rolls around, you will have one of three choices: buy a TV that supports the digital signal, buy a little box to convert your TV to a digital signal, or simply do without one.
Victor Veto, an electronics salesman at Lewis furniture store said that the government will make a little box-like decoder called the Set Top Box (STB) available to the public from 2010.
So South Africans who want to keep watching SABC and ETV will need to install an STB to convert from analogue to digital.
However, if you already own an high definition (HD) television you will not need to purchase an STB at all.
The new digital signal promises enhanced visual and audio quality, and the plan is for SABC to branch out and create up to 10 or more channels using the new system Digital signals can also be transmitted directly to portable devices such as cellphones.
But how can you tell if your TV is able to convert to digital? According to Rob Rankin from askbobrankin.com, the TV itself should have a port with either the words digital tuner, DTV tuner, HDTV tuner, or digital receiver next to it.
In that case you need an STB, if your TV isn’t an HD one, that is. If your TV doesn’t have HD, and is not connected to the STB, your screen will go blank after 2011.
Videotronic salesperson Charl Prince advises buyers to take advantage of better quality digital TV signal by buying one of the new ranges of televisions.
"Pictures viewed on an analogue TV with the STB device will not be as clear as those on HD TVs,” Prince said, “however it will be of reasonable quality."
He added that DSTV and M-Net will not be affected by the changes as "people can switch over to digital and keep their DSTV and M-Net decoders."
Some digital STBs have special features such as visual and audio aids for people living with disabilities. Rural dwellers and those who use solar power, generators and even car batteries, can use any kind of TV, as long as they get an STB as well.
Zama Twaku at Russells furniture store said that officials from the Department of Communications (DOC) visited the store to provide sales staff with further information about the digital migration, but, "even though we try to explain, in most cases customers do not always find it easy to ask questions.”
South Africa has been running both analogue and digital signals since November 2008 and will complete the migration by November 2011.
Thereafter the analogue signal will be switched off. Mashilo Boloka, the director of Broadcasting Policy from the DOC, informed the media that a trial run was currently being conducted with a small sample of viewers.
He said there were a number of areas that still needed to be resolved before the service is made available to the public.
