In the scope of the activity of the DTT Forum, created to promote the public awareness and clarify all facts related to the implementation of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT), PT just disclosed a mechanism to help consumers check whether the devices that they want to acquire, such as TV sets or decoder boxes are DTT-compatible.

The creation of this symbol is important at a time when DTT is about to start to broadcast (29 April) and consumers wonder about which equipment they should buy. Therefore, this symbol is a way of making the identification of DTT-compatible devices easier for consumers so that they may take full advantage of Digital Terrestrial Television.

The DTT compatibility symbol may be found on devices compatible with Digital Terrestrial Television

To check the DTT-compatibility of the abovementioned devices, manufacturers may request a compatibility test from PT Inovação, which will check and analyse the devices and indicate whether they are DTT-compatible or not, upon receipt of the respective results.

The compatibility symbol will help consumers assess the compatibility
of a device with the Portuguese DTT standard, when acquiring a new one.

What is DTT?

DTT is the designation of a new standard of video, audio and data broadcasting by means of digital signals as compared to analogue signals used by traditional analogue television systems.

The European Commission has determined the introduction of this technology in every European Union country by establishing a deadline for the switch-off of the current analogue technology until 2012. In Portugal, the Government has determined that this switch-off will take place before 26 April 2012.

What is the necessary equipment for DTT?

A decoder connected to the TV set will be necessary to watch free-to-air television in digital format. There are several decoder models and brands which will be available for sale on the market; a few will be simpler with just signal reception functions; others will have more advanced functionalities such as TV Pause or recording capability.

There are also latest-generation TV sets already available in Portugal prepared for DTT reception without the need of a decoder.

Either the decoders, or the abovementioned latest-generation TV sets must be compatible with the European DVB-T Standard and MPEG4/H.264 compression format.

Pay-TV subscribers will have nothing to change as all this will only apply to free-to-air channels.