Quote:
Originally Posted by ben
I predict a business opportunity for anyone prepared to scour local car boot sales for DTT boxes (quite abundant now all new TVs have inbuilt freeview tuners) and get a container load sent over there!
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That sounds like a nice idea, but probably won't work in practice. Different countries have different standards for digital TV, just like they used to for analogue TV.
In the UK, the original Freeview boxes used MPEG2 video. Some countries that went digital later than the UK have used the newer and more efficient MPEG4 codec which is not backwards compatible. For example, Ireland uses MPEG4 ; original UK Freeview televisions and boxes cannot receive Irish TV. Some countries use DVB-T2 : UK Freeview HD boxes receive both DVB-T and DVB-T2 but old SD Freeview boxes are DVB-T only. Some countries have completely different standards, not DVB at all. I'm not sure exactly which standard + variant Russia will be using, or if it's in any way compatible with UK standards.
Even if a UK box could receive Russian TV, there are other subtle differences. No menu or on-screen display in Russian, mains plug will need to be changed, UK boxes do not scan VHF channels, only UHF ... etc. This would make it not worth the effort of exporting them from the UK. I am sure the Russians could obtain set-top boxes from China that would be 100% compatible and just as cheap when ordered in large quantities.
As an example, I bought a bargain-priced TDT box from a flea market in Spain while on holiday. It receives TV and radio channels in the UK and even has an English language menu option, but there is no 'red button' or teletext in the UK due to technical differences. That doesn't bother me, though it's worth pointing out that it's not 100% compatible with the UK.
Going back to the subject of DX-TV, now that analogue signals are disappearing, it may still be possible to receive foreign terrestrial digital TV given the right conditions. You will need a box or receiver that is compatible with the foreign country's standard (as mentioned above). The signal will need to be strong enough and stable enough to be picked up in a channel scan. This is not impossible, though it's a lot more difficult.