The switchover from analog to digital broadcast in the Philippines is being carried-out by different television networks in compliance to the government order for the use of ISDB-T. There are now dozens of ISDBT-T compliant set-up boxes flooding the market to cater the non-digital television still exist in every household.
In 2018, almost all networks are testing their broadcast in digital format but not all are HD (high definition). They are using the ISDB-T (Integrated Service Digital Broadcast-Terrestrial) digital technology from Japan which is cheaper than the European counterpart DVB-T2.
The leading set-up box in the market today is ABS-CBN TV Plus (mahiwagang blackbox) that was marketed since 2014 which sold more than a million units nationwide. RCA Digital TV box was also present in 2014 but without marketing campaign it penetrated the market slowly.
Let us examine the two leading set-up boxes by comparing their features and specifications.
ABS CBN TV PLUS
ABS-CBN TV+ also known as Mahiwagang Blackbox is a product of one of the biggest broadcasting company in the Philippines which is ABS-CBN.
TV Plus can receive digital broadcast from all broadcast network that uses ISDB-T format. Compared to the old analog broadcast TV Plus is fairly clear and without snow. You’ll significantly notice the clarity of picture compared to the analog broadcast but far from the true high definition picture. Why? Because they still use RCA Jack(Yellow-Red-White).
TV Plus aside from the regular free-to-air channels added four(4) more channels, namely; CINEMO, YEY, Knowledge Channel and DZMM. I don’t watch movies in CINEMO because sometimes they show old Pilipino movies that you already saw several times or old movies that you almost can’t see the characters. YEY and Knowledge Channels are fairly good enough for our kids to watch. DZMM is very informative especially the news they report. It has a pay-per-view channel KBO during week-end that will cost you 30 pesos for the 2-day viewing.
The unit comes with a remote control and indoor antenna. The antenna receives very good receptions from all channels even if you just pulled it out of your window. The unit has a USB port but its function is only for the manual software update.
RCA DIGITAL TV BOX
RCA Digital TV box is one of the first set-up boxes that came out of the market in 2014. The first set-up box they release here in the Philippines was DV-1402 and DV 1502, now replaced by DV-1609 and DV-1603 respectively.
RCA Digibox has a clarity of true high definition color and picture quality with the use of HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface). The picture quality is crisp and clear especially when receiving HD Broadcast. It doesn’t have the ABS-CBN exclusive channel, the channels has a $ sign when pointed to those channel.
RCA Digibox has a TV Recorder that can record TV programs, you feel watching again, through the USB port. One hour of recording is equivalent to 1GB of file. It can read flash drive and HDD up to 1TB. Set the time, date and channel of the program to be recorded. It has a 7-day Electronic program guide as recording guide.
RCA Digibox can be used as media player that can read almost all media format including jpg, mp3, mp4, avi, mkv, flv etc. and it support DolbySound foe better audio listening. The media player can be access through the USB port. It is compact that can be brought anywhere.
TELEVISION WITH DIGITAL TUNER
Due to the total switchover from analog to digital broadcast, Television manufacturer are now manufacturing Digital ready Televisions. It is now being incorporated with the SMART FUNCTION (internet + android TV capable) to make their LED TV complete.
With the use of Big Network set-up boxes like TV Plus, the consumers or common people will be affected greatly by network exclusive channel war in the future. If you already have TV Plus, try to look at the channels there are many $ channels. May be you are wondering what it is. That topic will be tackled on my next Article. Keep on seeing my blogs.