Using a UK DVB-T STB in Aus..?

[Boz]

Probably been answered before but can they be used if complient to the DVB-T
standard as both systems seem to be? I've a Netgem i-Player en route from
the UK and it seems to be the very similar to a locally available Teac
STB....

TIA - Boz

[Stephen Neal]

Boz wrote:
> Probably been answered before but can they be used if complient to
> the DVB-T standard as both systems seem to be? I've a Netgem
> i-Player en route from the UK and it seems to be the very similar to
> a locally available Teac STB....

In the UK we only have UHF TV transmissions (analogue or digital) and we use
an 8 rather than 7 MHz channel spacing I think. (This is a legacy of the UK
using PAL I, which has a wider spacing between the analogue vision and sound
carriers than PAL B/G, and digital TV fits into the analogue channel spacing
model I believe)

Therefore you may find you can only tune UHF digital channels with a UK STB
(as the UK models may only have UHF tuner modules to save money) - or
depending on how it tunes you may find it doesn't find even the UHF stuff
cos it is looking at the wrong frequencies? (Hopefully the latter is not the
case) On the other hand I think VHF is being used in Berlin - where they
also use 7MHz spacing as they were a PAL B/G region - so a German STB may be
of more use? The Germans (Pro7 ?) are also using AC3 Dolby Digital audio on
some of their DTT stuff - so you may find you can get a box that will output
the AC3 stuff being broadcast in Aus?

Steve

[tifino]

Probably been answered before but can they be used if complient to the DVB-T
standard as both systems seem to be? I've a Netgem i-Player en route from
the UK and it seems to be the very similar to a locally available Teac
STB....

TIA - Boz
I'm not familiar with your particular model of stb, so it will be a matter of try your luck when it arrives. There are units around in Aust that have menu control for your to input what country you are receiving your digital terrestrial transmissions from. That should take care of the 8 ~7 ~ 6 etc mhz question. As an example the thomson dti500au has this menu feature.
I've also been trying to keep up to date with UK model information from a monthly magazine 'Home Cinema Choice" The UK seems to be a model or 2 advanced on what units we can buy in Aust. Another handy reference magazine from the UK is 'Television and Home Electronics Repair' which has topics detailing standards and other differences between models avaialable in other countries.