DTT will change greatly in the coming days. As of February 14, standard quality channels will disappear forever, meaning you will only be able to watch DTT channels if you have a television that supports at least HD resolution.

Having a Smart TV with HD or higher resolution is something many families have at home. However, there is still a small percentage of people who do not meet this requirement, so They will need to update their decoder or buy a new television To continue enjoying TV channels.

New DTT change coming on February 14

In January 2023, the BOE finally announced the new digital television standard for Spain; In this standard, “every digital multiplex, wherever located, must switch its broadcasts to high definition (HD) before December 14, 2024.”

This means that all digital terrestrial TV channels will be available from that date. They only stream in “high definition quality” or “HD”and normal definition or “SD” channels disappear from the channel grid.

There are already plenty of channels warning about this by this point, so if you don’t have a TV that offers a minimum resolution of 1,280 x 720 pixels (HD) on February 14, You will not be able to access DTT channels.

If you have a decoder and are already paying to watch TV, you won’t notice any changes.

However, for some, there are situations where everything will remain the same despite this change. I include myself here because I have the Movistar Plus+ decoder and the contracted tariff from this operator. I will be able to continue watching DTT channels as usual Even though my TV is a few years old.

If you have a decoder from Movistar, Orange, Vodafone or any operator that offers television content, today you most likely do not even have access to channels in standard quality. This means for each string: you are already playing the HD version So the change on February 14 will not affect you in the slightest.

The same thing happens if you use your carrier’s apps to watch television. I have in my case Movistar Plus+ application installed on my TV and mobile phonethat is, it will be reproducing DTT channels via streaming. The same happens if you use the app for your television services from Orange or Vodafone. These apps are available on multiple devices and platforms, including Android TV/Google TV, Chromecast, Fire TV, webOS or Tizen OS.

According to the Ministry, More than 98% of TVs in Spain are already compatible Although it doesn’t show how they extrapolate the data or whether they only take into account equipment sold after certain dates, with these requirements we may still have an incompatible television in our home.

The greater national bandwidth gained after SD channels are eliminated will allow the country’s telecommunications infrastructure to be enhanced with other types of technology, freeing up more room in this digital dividend frequency band.

Unfortunately, this change does not mean that all broadcasts will be broadcast in 1080p or 4K quality, we will continue to watch television channels in HD, and the only difference is that the opportunity to watch in SD quality will also increase. to disappear. There will be some occasional 4K broadcasts, as RTVE has demonstrated with its broadcasts of the 2022 World Cup or Women’s World Cup in Qatar. However, it is still a long time before we start watching DTT channels in 4K regularly.

What if my TV is not compatible with DTT in HD quality? We either buy another TV or we can opt for a more economical solution that involves purchasing an external decoder for HD DTT. This decoder will convert the signal to high definition at a resolution compatible for television.

If we receive DTT service via satellite (TDTSAT) using a decoder that only allows standard definition reception, we will need to replace it with an HD decoder to continue receiving DTT signals.

If you do not have a decoder from an operator such as Movistar, Orange, Vodafone to broadcast television content, You will need to do a new search for DTT channels With this new change, starting from February 14, you will be able to see all channels correctly. This will definitely make you reorder your channels, so perhaps you can leverage this trick to easily order DTT channels.

at Xataka Smart Home | These are OCU’s recommendations and alternatives to overcome DTT outage and continue watching all TV channels.