Digital TV

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Los reyes magos left a digital TV decoder under the siñorita's Christmas tree as they did in many homes across Spain this year. It was a Philips decoder and was slightly more expensive that the others but was nice and compact. It very easy to set up. It prompted me for a country (Ireland wasn't there) and then a postcode. I hope the postcode was to make it more efficient in some way and is not part of some rights management issue that would prevent viewing of otherwise available channels. I was impressed. There were some twenty-odd channels and most of them were useful. Spanish networks are in the habit of broadcasting programmes both in Spanish and in the original version. That usually means English, although it was briefly entertaining to watch manga in 日本語.

I visited my sister in France over the break. Digital TV has come to France also. There, however, the programmes seem seem to be only in English. This is a wasted opportunity.

A buddy of mine called to the house today with his laptop and digital TV decoder. I wanted to see if the signal was strong enough at my house to justify splashing out. It was. Cork is one of the first places to have a digital signal. The only question now is do I buy a decoder for my computer or my TV. The live ability to record to the hard disk is pretty cool. But I would really like to get to see HD TV on my nice TV. It seems a waste not to use it if I can.

TV decoders are not available to buy in Ireland at the moment. That's a pity on account of the recession and all, it might be the only thing in the shops actually selling. If I want one I'll have to import one from one the countries that uses a similar system to Ireland. And Amazon.fr ships electronics to Ireland. Strangely Amazon.co.uk does not. But in any event a UK decoder is no good to me. Both Spain and the UK are using a different system from Ireland. As far as I know the French system is the same as Ireland.

Decisions. Decisions. Decisions.

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