Advanced Television

Doordarshan to adopt MPEG-4

March 14, 2016

By Chris Forrester

India’s public broadcaster Doordarshan’s ‘Freedish’ DTH service is to switch to MPEG-4 transmission, and thus increase to 112 the number of channels it can offer to viewers.

The ‘Freedish’ option is extremely important to consumers in rural India where cable systems are limited. ‘Freedish’ is also to encrypt. Viewers need a Conditional Access key in order to comply with India’s addressable set-top box rules.

Doordarshan sources told Television Asia that as all the 64 slots under its current MPEG-2 capacity model had been filled, there was no possibility of other channels joining its system.

It will start transmitting in MPEG-4 in April, and make the transition over two stages until a complete conversion had been achieved.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, DTH/Satellite, Regulation, Standards