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Updated Sunday, February 11, 2024-9:31 p.m.

  • TV These are the DTT channels that disappear from your television in February: complete list

This February 14th will not only be Valentine's Day but we will also attend the funeral of

digital terrestrial television

(DTT) as we have known it until now. Starting Wednesday, all channels that broadcast

DTT in standard definition

(SD) will disappear and

only those that broadcast in high definition

(HD) will remain. If in 2010 television in Spain experienced one of its great milestones with the arrival of DTT, this February 14, 2024 there will be a new great leap with the end of SD channels.

Spanish television has taken too long to adapt to new times and, above all, to the improvements offered by new technologies. An example of this is that most channels broadcast at 720p and

there are even channels that only broadcast in SD resolution

. Countries such as the United Kingdom or Germany adopted this technology long before Spain,

whose adaptation was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic

, although no one can deny that the arrival of HD to Spanish television has occurred too late compared to our neighbors. .

Television

Television.

How to tune into HD channels on television due to the blackout of some DTT channels

  • Editor: HA

How to tune into HD channels on television due to the blackout of some DTT channels

The DTT channels that disappear from your TV in February 2024: complete list

  • Editor: L. FERNÁNDEZ Madrid

The DTT channels that disappear from your TV in February 2024: complete list

For this reason, high resolution reaches this Wednesday to all channels that until now did not broadcast in HD, according to

Royal Decree 16/2023 of the BOE

, allowing viewers to enjoy a clearer and sharper image - due to the increase in pixels shown - and, in turn,

leaving free the 2.6 GHz band necessary for the full deployment of 5G

in European territory. Specifically, those channels that use 240p (352 x 240 pixels) or 480p (858 x 480 pixels) resolution formats will disappear.

The Government assures that more than 98% of current devices allow HD services

A week ago, RTVE was the first to adapt to this change:

La 1 and other Public Corporation channels began broadcasting in 4K UHD

. From

Mediaset

, Telecinco and Cuatro have confirmed that starting this Wednesday they will only broadcast in HD, ceasing to broadcast in SD. For their part, the

FDF, Energy, Divinity and Boing

channels

, which currently broadcast only in SD, will also broadcast only in HD starting this February 14. Meanwhile,

Atresmedia

channels (Antena 3 and laSexta), which already broadcast in both formats, will remain only in HD, while

Nova, Neox and Mega

, which until now broadcast only in SD, will also adapt this Wednesday only to the broadcast in high definition. As for Forta's

regional television channels

, they have already begun the transition, thus complying with the

National Technical Plan for Digital Terrestrial Television

.

Although this will improve the image quality of the signal that reaches homes, this regulation means that in order to enjoy channels in high definition

it will be necessary to have a television that is compatible with the DVB-T2 standard

, the second generation of the DVB-T system, the standard terrestrial video transmission system used for the broadcast of DTT. The objective of DVB-T2 is to achieve higher quality retransmission since the previous system, the first generation, does not have enough bandwidth to allow the broadcast of HD channels.

What to do to watch the channels in HD?

But don't panic:

the vast majority of today's televisions are HD compatible

. However, the easiest way to know if a television is ready for this new broadcast system is to retune the device and check if it finds the channels in HD.

If you find them this February 14, the only thing you will have to do is retune the channels

. That is, place them as each one prefers, since when those that do not broadcast in HD disappear, the number of them decreases and therefore the order that was had for each one of them. The Secretary of State for Telecommunications has prepared a guide to leave only those channels in HD quality on the list, since

the SD will occupy a useless service in the channel list

.

Aside from retuning,

the antenna is a fundamental part of this change

. It will have to be updated through a reorientation or an additional module if it is not already there.

If there is no Internet connection, an external decoder or tuner is needed to convert the signal

Although the Government has assured that

more than 98% of current devices allow HD services

, the problem is found in those homes in which

the television is older than 2008

, as they are not compatible with DVB-T2. In these cases there are two alternatives to solve it:

if there is no Internet connection, an external decoder or tuner is needed

that converts the signal compatible with DVB-T2.

The cost is about 20 euros and there have already been requests from some parliamentary groups to

grant aid for the acquisition of these receivers

. For example, the Socialist Parliamentary Group has presented in the Plenary Session of the Cortes of Castilla y León a proposal to claim this aid for town councils and smaller local entities in rural areas, as well as citizens who reside in areas of complicated orography and must make the change. of decoders.

The second option depends on the Internet connection. If there is a connection,

you can choose either the decoder described above or a

streaming

device , which, being capable of transmitting audio and video over the Internet, also gives access to the platforms.