Print Page 9/15/2009

SANTIAGO: Chile has adopted ISDB-T, the digital TV standard of Japan, wire reports indicate.  In doing so, Chile falls in line with Brazil, Peru and Argentina, which announced its decision in late August. The coastal South American nation passed over North America’s ATSC and Europe’s DVB-T in favor of ISDB-T.

Michelle Bachelet, president of Chile, said ISDB-T allowed for better DTV reception, “given the characteristics of our country,” Dow Jones Newswires reported.

Brazil first adopted a version ISDB-T nearly three years ago, starting a trend by which the bulk of the continent now uses it. Uruguay and Columbia have adopted DVB-T, and Venezuela is testing it, according to DTV Status, a Web site maintained by Raffael Trappe in Germany. All three are physically far smaller than the ISDB-T countries.

Economic factors played into Chile’s decision, a regulator there said. An ISDB-T converter will run around $40. Chile will convert over a period of eight years, giving people plenty of time to adapt, the Dow Jones article said.

More on DTV standards:
May 19, 2009: “Panama Selects DVB-T”
In breaking with decisions by some other Latin American nations, Panama has officially adopted the DVB-T standard for that country’s terrestrial digital television service. President of the Republic Martin Torrijos Espino signed a national executive decree on May 12 to set the wheels in motion for DTB-T transmissions.

May 11, 2009: “El Salvador Adopts ATSC
The ATSC Forum gave a thumbs-up to El Salvador today for adopting the ATSC DTV standard for terrestrial transmission. The country’s General Superintendency of Electricity and Telecommunications--SIGET--decided to go with ATSC in late April. It joins North America, South Korea and other Latin American countries in using the standard, developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee.”   Print Page