Revolution Looms For Thai Digital Television

[Oberkommando]

Good luck with the digital TV when none of the flat screen TVs sold in Thailand come with digital tuners.

Everyone will have to buy a digital set-top box regardless of what TV they have.

Compare that to the UK and Australia where all TV's sold have built in digital tuners.

[micman]

It was stated be a brilliant participant above, "WHO cares about American TV?"

ANSWER: Intellegent, educated people world-wide.... like Americans!

Is this an oxymoron?

Hey I'm an American and I take offence to these comments. Most of us are fairly intelligent, we just can't see because our heads are stuffed up our butts.

[osiboy]

what?

The us has showtime, hbo, AMC and a few other insanely good channels with premium tv shows

then add to that all the wildlife channels/health and food networks that have amazing content 24/7

and commercial breaks every 5-10 mins,......USA tv is CRAP !

[KamalaDreamer]

It was stated be a brilliant participant above, "WHO cares about American TV?"

ANSWER: Intellegent, educated people world-wide.... like Americans!

Is this an oxymoron?

Hey I'm an American and I take offence to these comments. Most of us are fairly intelligent, we just can't see because our heads are stuffed up our butts.

Correct.

Ask a native american red indian for endorsement.

[DickyDavies]

Will this mean we will soon see the LIN PING REALITY channel in high definition?

[bkk_mike]

Hang on a minute! So they aim for 100 channels within 5 years. Since we already have 118 channels from True Visions and they have just added BBC Entertainment, BBC Knowledge, BBC Lifestyle, and CBeebies what channels are they going to chop? It just goes to show how out of touch they are. With a larger trackable dish and receiver over 1200 channels are available. Still TV in Thailand has come a long way since 1994 when the only English language movie on TV could be watched once a week by listening to the English language sound track on the Army FM radio broadcast. Only problem was that often they would have no qualms in changing the radio broadcast from the English Language Sound Track to Thai Boxing Commentary from Lumpini Stadium! Not much fun when you were about to find out who done it in a detective movie.

I think you misunderstood...

From the BBC references I'll make an assumption that you're from the UK.

True is the equivalent of Sky, except it has fewer channels and costs more (if you want Disney for the kids and Discovery and don't care about football.)

What they're talking about is the introduction of the equivalent of freeview.

Given freeview dates from 2002, whereas 3G didn't launch in Europe until 2003, what they're actually saying is they're literally 10 years behind in digital terrestrial TV broadcasting where they were only 8 or 9 years behind with 3G.

To be honest if it means you could use indoor aerials and still get a decent picture (which you can't currently in Thailand), I think it's a good thing. And they need to do it to turn off analogue transmissions and free up the bandwidth for 4G (which is out in the US and some other countries already.)

[SouthernMan3]

Who cares about American TV?

Americans. Duh....

[softgeorge]

Who cares about American TV?

Americans. Duh....

I think the best show to come out of the U.S is HOUSE but aren't they Aussie and British actors?

[Ulysses G.]

Breaking Bad is much better and American actors.

[SouthernMan3]

Who cares about American TV?

Americans. Duh....

I think the best show to come out of the U.S is HOUSE but aren't they Aussie and British actors?

You are obviously not American....

[PattayaParent]

"After a long delay plagued with disputes stemming from political and business motives"

So now they've all agreed who's going to get their cut of the pie it's all too late to catch up with the rest of the world.

Sort of like 3G all over?

[oggie911]

Who cares about American TV?

the yanks do its mad

[oggie911]

hd is the on my hd tvs looks the same as normal tv no better

[wxyz]

I moved from England 8ys ago because the goverment does not give a shit if you are British and bring back Guy Fawkes but British TV is the best in the world

A man is only as old as the woman he is holding"

The only British TV show I found tolerable was "The Benny Hill Show" (TV Series 1969–1989)

Edited February 5, 2012 by wxyz

[wxyz]

Who cares about American TV?

Americans. Duh....

I think the best show to come out of the U.S is HOUSE but aren't they Aussie and British actors?

One Brit and one Aussie does equate to ALL, These are the ONLY non Americans on the show.

Born: James Hugh Calum Laurie

June 11, 1959 in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK

Born: Jesse Gordon Spencer

February 12, 1979 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Edited February 5, 2012 by wxyz

[wxyz]

The Thai censors will have to work ever harder to censor all those breasts, cigarette and other shots they do not like you to see. Great bonus for them

Ya, Thai TV sucks, the censors gut the movies, you have to watch it on the internet or buy the movie off a street vendor to see the real movie.

Edited February 5, 2012 by wxyz

[zzaa09]

It's not the quality of reception and viewing, but the quality of varitable, free, and open programming.

Shouldn't surprise anyone that such gushing on towards surfaced inpracticalities continues.

[David Barker]

Come 4 yrs time (as one of the biggest satellite installers in Spain) I would say that most people are going to be watching IPTV (Via ADSL) things are changing very rapidly and we are having to reposition our businessto take into account that you will be able to take a small box with you wherever you go and have channels from wherever you want.

[o2eZy]

in australia we have had digital tv for a few years

when there is rain or storms there is no reception

[thaiIand]

lol iptv. in thailand? Thailand has worse internet stability than most african countries with civil wars.

[csolgosz]

Anyone know about the boxes you can buy in Thailand that give you access to a lot more channels without paying a subscription for cable TV?

[astral]

I wonder if they have worked out the technical details of how to get the signal to all the people?

Under the analogue system they could not even manage sharing antenna masts

so multiple aerials are needed pointed at the different station masts

Coverage with digital is more difficult and people in remote locations

may find themselves without a signal when the old system is turned off,

as they have in the UK, which is a much smaller area than Thailand

Interesting comment about Australia, I wonder how Thailand will cope

in the monsoon rains?

No signal? Just like the satellite service?

[astral]

The topic is about Thai television, please stick to that

Several abusive comments have been deleted

[softgeorge]

I wonder if they have worked out the technical details of how to get the signal to all the people?

Under the analogue system they could not even manage sharing antenna masts

so multiple aerials are needed pointed at the different station masts

Coverage with digital is more difficult and people in remote locations

may find themselves without a signal when the old system is turned off,

as they have in the UK, which is a much smaller area than Thailand

Interesting comment about Australia, I wonder how Thailand will cope

in the monsoon rains?

No signal? Just like the satellite service?

Most people in Australia had to buy new T.V's (Good for the overseas economy) or set top boxes as well as new Antenna's. Yes in Australia when you get medium/ heavy rain (not as heavy as Thailand) you loose your reception exactly the same as sattelite T.V. If you live in the Major cities In Australia then it is best to get your T.V through cable. I live more than 70 kms from Melbourne so can't get cable t.v. Unfortuantely for Thailand to use cable they would need to go underground. Definately no more room on thier poles.

Edited February 5, 2012 by softgeorge

[David Barker]

lol iptv. in thailand? Thailand has worse internet stability than most african countries with civil wars.

We have been using it in Hua hin for 3 yrs you only need a 2m connection

[sultan]

This would (or could) dovetail nicely with the supposed drive to learn english, if they were to provide a range of english-speaking channels for kids, news, natural history etc.

Unfortunately I can't really see that happening....

Wake up ! If you put 100 channels on Thai TV; 98 of them in English and 2 in Thai, which channels do you think the Thai's will be watching?

Morning SIr!

I think, having 2 young kids of my own here, that young kids will watch what they like. My kids watch a broad mix of thai (mostly dubbed) and english stuff like peppa pig, wiggles etc. the average adult doesn't factor in my arguement here - a healthy exposure to english/chinese/japanese programmes geared at infants/toddlers via free-to-air tv does wonders for a childs ear for any language. throw in some structured, fun use of language like simple songs and you have kids with the confidence to learn, but more importantly they will want to - who on earth wouldn't?

When I go to my local Jusco we have a dvd outlet there (not scorpion, but similar) - they offer dubbed disney etc dvd/vcds for less than 100 baht, but the source disks that they must have been copied from and dubbed, which are english language..... 450baht. I'm no genius but obviously there is an infectious agenda coming from somewhere, with an objective brazenly opposed to the 'English is a priority' discharge we get from this weeks education minister.

The open world of social media must terrify the powerbrokers of this country after the recent protests and other problems. Oh yeah - I can see exactly why these old boys want to empower the next generation with unrestricted information. Perfect sense that

[richard_smith237]

Oh dear!

Thai TV in it's current form is rubbish, now imagine Thai TV with 100 more channels of even worse rubbish. The mind boggles.

I just got back from 2 months in the USA. There they have hundreds and hundreds of channels available. And barely any worth watching. american TV has deteriorated significantly in the past 10 years. Reality TV and shopping seem to top the list, followed by narrowcast channels aimed at specific groups.

I am talking about 'Free' TV, not the premium pay channels. Although the free tv is not really free either. And many premium pay channels just rerun the same old movies time and time again. Not really worth paying for, in my opinion.

I predict that the future of TV in Thailand is dismal.

Watching TV isn't compulsory. If you don't like it, don't watch it. Plenty of other things to do.

Somewhat unimaginative: Do you also answer 'if you don't like it go home' in other threads where there is some criticism of Thailand ?

[KamalaDreamer]

Oh dear!

Thai TV in it's current form is rubbish, now imagine Thai TV with 100 more channels of even worse rubbish. The mind boggles.

I just got back from 2 months in the USA. There they have hundreds and hundreds of channels available. And barely any worth watching. american TV has deteriorated significantly in the past 10 years. Reality TV and shopping seem to top the list, followed by narrowcast channels aimed at specific groups.

I am talking about 'Free' TV, not the premium pay channels. Although the free tv is not really free either. And many premium pay channels just rerun the same old movies time and time again. Not really worth paying for, in my opinion.

I predict that the future of TV in Thailand is dismal.

Watching TV isn't compulsory. If you don't like it, don't watch it. Plenty of other things to do.

Somewhat unimaginative: Do you also answer 'if you don't like it go home' in other threads where there is some criticism of Thailand ?

Mediocrity.

Watch what moves you.

[thaiIand]

lol iptv. in thailand? Thailand has worse internet stability than most african countries with civil wars.

We have been using it in Hua hin for 3 yrs you only need a 2m connection

maybe you are happy with your low quality CRT tv but for a good tv, 2mbit doesnt give you much quality. Only good for thai soaps.

[wxyz]

lol iptv. in thailand? Thailand has worse internet stability than most african countries with civil wars.

We have been using it in Hua hin for 3 yrs you only need a 2m connection

maybe you are happy with your low quality CRT tv but for a good tv, 2mbit doesnt give you much quality. Only good for thai soaps.

or thai soapies, hehehe

Edited February 9, 2012 by wxyz