Today NTV starts building out DVB-T in Norway. The first two antennas to be upgraded with a new new UHF transmitter are the sender in Bjerkreim and Bokn in Rogaland. One of these antennas is pretty close to my hometown, but my parents will not be able to receive the signals cause of several mountains blocking the signals. Only 1/3 of our population will receive TV broadcasts over DVB-T, the rest of the population will receive digital sendings over DVB-S and DVB-C. At home we are already enjoying the Norwegian channels over DVB-S, and I recently upgraded my UPC subscription from analogue to digital. I am still in the WOW-mode, picture quality is just stunning!

To receive DVB-T we will all need to buy a decoder with an inbuilt cardreader. We are also one of the first countries to go for MPEG-4 and not MPEG-2, so none of the PCI, PCCard or USB devices sold today will be working. France is the only other country that I know went for MPEG-4, so I will ask one of my friends what USB solutions are available and perhaps buy a device next time I am in France. Why MPEG-4 and not MPEG-4? Cause MPEG-4 has the possibility to transmit HDTV quality. Having been one of the few here in Norway actually having a PCI DVB-T card, I must say that I am very happy with the decision that NTV made. The quality of test broadcasts done in MPEG-2 from Tryvann was one step back from our analogue sendings.

My earlier blog entries on DVB-T

Elgato EyeTV- DVB-T

Tested DVB-T some more

Not exactly impressed