The current TDT uses the DVB-T standard for broadcasts. A year and a half from now, it would not be surprising if we switched to using DVB-T2 as the standard. However, the DVB standardization group has been working for years on DVB-I , the standard that will unite terrestrial broadcasts with Internet broadcasts. Now, they have talked about new improvements that they are going to introduce in the standard.
In the middle of 2021, depending on a television with a tuner to watch TV seems a bit anachronistic, with a multitude of apps such as the official ones of the television networks themselves, as well as others such as TDT Channels . For this reason, from DVB they decided to create the DVB-I standard to be able to broadcast TDT on any device, where the “I” in the name refers to the Internet.
DVB-I: uniting the best of TDT
DVB-I allows a user to view any TDT, satellite or cable content over the Internet, including hybrid TDT (HbbTV) , IPTV, sticks and multimedia players, and also from mobile phones and tablets, either through WiFi or mobile networks. The metadata is adapted to each device, and the content is displayed over the Internet. The standard is compatible with functionalities such as 5G Media Streaming and 5G Broadcast , so the channels can stop fearing the arrival of new technologies and possible spectrum reductions in the future, since these can even benefit them.
DVB launched a web page in 2019 to demonstrate how well this standard can work. After putting it aside a bit in recent months, the website has received a multitude of improvements, including a complete list of Astra satellite channels, although almost none of them work at the moment. All code related to the standard and the reference web application are available in its GitHub repository.
So you can watch DVB-I channels
If we want to see the channels in test mode, we have to go to the Android PWA link. There are three available depending on the device from which we access:
Currently, where there are more channels that work is in the DVB-I Reference Client service list, although most are test or repeat broadcasts. However, DVB has promised that they will introduce more free channels in the coming months .
In addition to improving the website that allows us to view the channels, the platform has updated its website to make it clearer what the standard consists of and how it can improve our lives. As 5G is gaining presence in Spain, it would not be strange that within a decade television broadcasts exclusively through mobile networks, and that all the spectrum used by TDT is used to have telephone coverage. It also benefits satellite channels, which can be seen even in very bad weather, and OTT platforms, which offer all their content from one place and closer to the user.
