There are just a few days until all DTT is in HD… or not. Next February 14 meets the deadline established in the National Technical Plan on Digital Terrestrial Television so that it adapts to the new times and increases its resolution, releasing frequencies in the 2.6 GHz band in the process. However, most channels are already making this transition to arrive with their homework done by the deadline.
Retune your television, because starting today more DTT channels are available only in HD. Some of them were already broadcasting simultaneously in HD and SD, but in others it will be from today when they will only be seen in high definition.
Cessation of emissions in SD
Specifically, it is RTVE who is going to move forward to the date set in Royal Decree 16/2023. The public entity’s channels today show a final notice in their SD version specifying that they are in a “cessation of broadcasts” situation. It is expected that throughout the day they will disappear to make way for the high definition version only to remain. From then on, La 1, La 2, Teledeporte, Clan, 24 Horas and TVE Internacional can only be seen in HD resolution.
In the specific case of Clan, the Spanish Television children’s channel, it is one of those that will require mandatory retuning. Currently it is not one of those that also broadcast in HD, but in addition, with the move to high resolution its broadcast frequency will also change, going from the RGE2 multiplex to the RGE1. This is why the channel we have saved, which now shows “cease of broadcasts” in the EPG programming, is probably going to go black and we will have to find the new one.
Is your television ready for HD DTT?
It must be taken into account that the date for the obligation of all DTT in HD does not mean that channels have not been broadcast in high definition for years. Some have done it directly in this format since their conception and others have had simultaneous broadcast in standard definition and HD. Therefore, if during this time before the rule came into force you have watched HD channels, you don’t have to worry. The SDs will simply disappear and you will have to retune your television so that everything is in order.
In the event that you only watch the SD channels, which in the case of RTVE are perfectly identified because they put those acronyms next to the channel logo, your option if you do not want to go through the checkout buying a new Smart TV is to buy an external tuner . If you get ahead of the future and it is also compatible with the DVB-T2 standard, the better, because then you will be able to watch 4K DTT as is the case with the La 1 UHD channels.
Remember that if you watch DTT through the operators’ television, such as with payment platforms such as Movistar Plus+, Orange TV or Vodafone TV, the retuning is automatic and the order of the channels cannot be modified, it is adjusted by the operators.
