Analog TV is starting to disappear already in parts of Spain with TDT – Terrestrial Digital Television – being the new standard. Digital TV via the existing, normal cables and antennae.
I decided to get a decoder for my analog TV the other week, only €24.95 in Supersol. Does the job. TDT is great, 25 channels instead of half a dozen, you can change the language on a lot of foreign made films and series if you want. And, no snowstorms!
Instead, you get regular and total digital meltdown as the picture breaks up, usually at a critical moment in a film or during a footy match! Or up pops ‘no signal’.
Problems with TDT, especially in buildings with a communal system and antenna, include wrong polarisation of the antenna itself for digital reception or, due to location, a signal amplifier is required. Canal Sur seems to be perfect virtually all the time, even when the others are cracking up.
As I write, I have a perfect picture, but the sound has suddenly vanished!! Aaagh, back again with a vengeance. Weird science. For the moment, you can switch back and forth between digital and analog, as I was forced to during the Confederations Cup final, but analog is set to totally disappear in April 2010, so hope they get everything sorted pretty quick!