MultiChoice is advising DStv subscribers in the Cape Town area that their picture quality may be impacted from today onwards, as state signals provider Sentech starts turning on transmitters to move to digital TV.
The satellite service says disruption is not guaranteed and is likely to be limited to a handful of areas in Cape Town. These include Tygerberg, Constantiaberg, Paarl, Fishhoek, Table Mountain, Sea Point, Simonstown, Hout Bay, Aurora and Franschoek.
SA is moving to digital television using the European DVB-T2 standard. It is set to turn on dual-illumination around September with the aim of switching off old-fashioned analogue about two years later.
So far, Sentech has covered about 60% of the population with digital signal. MultiChoice says in a subscriber notice that Sentech's lighting up of transmission as it prepares to go live could interfere with the picture quality on DStv.
“We are committed to assisting our customers during this time. There is an installer team on standby to visit subscribers who experience interference and need assistance with the retuning.”
Subscribers who use an RF output on their decoder connected to their TV set, and those with outdoor antennas are most likely to be affected. Users with RCA cables will not be affected.
MultiChoice says interference will be indicated through blue screens, snowy picture, buzzing sound or a flashing 4 (E04). Decoders and televisions will need to be retuned from channel 50 to either channel 48 or channel 52 to solve the issue.
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