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NTC adopts ISDB-T, drops DVB-H in RP

If you’ve wondered what happened to the digital mobile TV market in the Philippines, it’s basically back to the drawing board. In April 2010, Smart MyTV service was suspended indefinitely, three years after it launched and operated without earning a dime.

In June 11, 2010, the National Telecommunications Commission officially adopted the ISDB-T standard and effectively crippling DVB-H which was used by Smart MyTV. DVB-H was only working on the Nokia N92 and Nokia N77 back then.

Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting – Terrestrial (ISDB-T) is the most advanced international standard on digital terrestrial television broadcasting format originally developed in Japan. Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting (DTTB) services using ISDB-T started in Japan in December 2003 and in Brazil in December 2007. {via}

ISDB-T is able to broadcast HDTV and “One-seg” programs simultaneously. “One-Seg” is the name of a broadcasting service for handheld receivers such as cellular phones.

According to a commenter, Kyle Florentino, who alerted us of the changes:

1seg uses unused segments of an ISDB-T UHF transmitter. A Digital UHF transmitter is divided to 13 segments — 12 segments for an HD channel or for 4 SD channels leaving 1 segment. The best thing about 1seg is that channels are free, no need for a separate transmitter (unlike DVB-H), plus stronger coverage area.

Sad thing is, there are no 1seg phones available yet in the Philippines unless you buy 1seg phones or the PSP 1seg tuner from Japan.

There are 2 1seg channels for now — GEM HD and NBN. ABS-CBN will launch hopefully by this month.

Looks like we’re back to square one.

Note: NTC didn’t really dropped DVB-H because it wasn’t supported in the first place. Smart just went ahead to using it for MyTV and was lobbying for NTC to officially adopt it. Unfortunately for Smart, NTC went another way.wasn’t

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

16 Responses

  1. Avatar for mar valenciaIII mar valenciaIII says:

    for isdb-t stb and antenna posted on my facebook/mar valencia/twitter/oploks01

  2. Avatar for pdpla pdpla says:

    To yuga and all the readers of this blog

    To be updated to Philippine DTV, like this fanpage.
    http://www.facebook.com/IWantDTV4thePhilippines

    Note : This is not a cheesy fanpage on FB. It used to be one but things have changed since there were enthusiasts and broadcast engineers who shared their thoughts, ideas and content about Philippine DTV.

    If you are new to DTV, you can go to this Tagalog blog for every Juan can read.
    http://dtvpilipinas.blogspot.com

  3. Avatar for pbcnx pbcnx says:

    here’s one-seg in action in a mobile phone and a PSP.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wker6boobes

  4. Avatar for watusi watusi says:

    from filsat forum….read read read!!!!

    http://filsat.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=44

  5. Avatar for Mark Mark says:

    It was a good decision.

    Technically speaking… it’s no secret that ISDB-T is the better standard.

    Its about time for Philippine broadcasting to go digital. Advantages of Digital Broadcasting include better bandwidth utilization (you can fit several channels into the bandwidth of a current channel *6MHz), lesser power output and great signal fidelity (especially when you are on a moving vehicle).

    I heard news that GMA has no current plans on pursuing Digital Broadcasting. One of the primary reason is its on the higher part of the spectrum (lower broadcast power), and is the same reason why ABS is hastily providing it.

    Some other info, I saw a demo of ISDB-T and the remote of the TV has a data button. when pressed it shows show-related content (i.e. when watching basketball, user stats are displayed).

    The only disadvantage I see is incompatibility with current (analog) TVs which would be easily overcome by cheap set-top boxes.

    Let’s just say that ISDB-T is the latest and more advanced standard for Digital TV Broadcasting, so logically, why should we settle for anything less?

    **I still believe the future of broadcasting is IP. :)

  6. Avatar for Guy Guy says:

    ISDB-T rocks! NTC did the right thing in shifting to the other side of the road.

  7. Avatar for Kobe-air Kobe-air says:

    There’s a huge market for mobile tv. Globe telecom, what are you waiting for?!

  8. Avatar for mousephotato mousephotato says:

    dati ng isyu ito di pa rin pala tapos…

  9. Avatar for kyflo kyflo says:

    Thanks for featuring about the Philippines new DTV standard.

    I hope that you update this post with these ISDB-T broadcast videos in HD and SD:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TegEeKGEOAg
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOjgE8dHcKA
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdyI8MnTLTE
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpQIim9v_WE

    If you want an ISDB-T ready TV, get the Devant LEDTech LCD TV.

    As of now, there is 1 seller in the Philippines who sell ISDB-T set top box + recorder.
    You can contact Andy Villamer(andsmv) on sulit or tipidpc for more info.

  10. Avatar for kyflo kyflo says:

    to jeff and other readers out there:
    Ranking of Terrestrial DTV systems by global usage :
    1. DVB-T (65 countries*)
    2. ISDB-T (12 countries*)
    3. ATSC (9 countries, 5 US territories)
    4. China DMB-T/H (4 countries*)

    *There is an exemption for countries who are under assessment.

    For you to be updated, you can go to this fanpage/blogsite :
    facebook.com/iwantdtv4thephilippines
    facebook.com/ABSCBNDTV
    dtvpilipinas.blogspot.com

  11. Avatar for watusi watusi says:

    binigyan na tyo ng loan ng japan para i repair ang ating roads ito na yata ang bayad sa favor ng tv system natin….

  12. Avatar for kyflo kyflo says:

    The Philippines will not be the only country in the ASEAN to adopt the standard. Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia may consider this standard.

  13. Avatar for berkano berkano says:

    This is quite old news, but good news nonetheless. Other readers of your blog should be made aware of the government’s steps to go digital. It becomes doubly exciting to note that the isdb-t tuners should be more available as soon as companies (such as SMART or ABS-CBN) start making their move and let the public know. Too bad though that these companies will have to make modifications in their investments as they have openly supported and performed tests using the European standard.

  14. Avatar for Anon Anon says:

    *it wasn’t supported

  15. Avatar for manaka_junpei manaka_junpei says:

    nagka-problema kasi ang DVB-T pagdating bundok, mahina kasi at hindi robust ang DVB-T, plus hindi abot sa mga nakatira sa kubo, kaya ganoon, kaya ISDB-T isa an excellent choice para mga technical skills, madali kasi sa mga nagtrabaho sa transmission department nang network na i-operate ang ISDB-T kaysa DVB-T, kaya ganoon, yung labanan nang DVB-T vs ISDB-T noon ay hindi pa natatapos noon pa, kaya natapos ito sa huling decision nang former president, kaya NTC agrees, kaya kung available sana ang ISDB-T setup box sa pinas, kailangan makahawak na ako.

  16. Avatar for jeff jeff says:

    argh, they already adopted DVB-T several years ago and they changed their mind? well at least there are only 3 countries in the world that uses this standard unlike the over 70++ countries that uses DVB-T tsk

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