On digital terrestrial TV, the minor channels of RAI and Mediaset will soon be seen only in HD, but important news are also coming for Italia 1 and Canale 5 on digital satellite
End of 2021 of profound changes for Italian TV, which has finally entered the first technical phase of the switch off from the old to the new digital standard, both terrestrial and satellite. After the announcement of the switchover to Mpeg-4 encoding for 19 "minor" channels, and a handful of radios, by RAI and Mediaset, now comes news that will have a much greater impact on some viewers because it concerns two channels with high ratings: Italia 1 and Canale 5.
Mediaset's two main networks, as we already know, are excluded from the technical change of October 20th and, on digital terrestrial, will continue to be broadcast with the old Mpeg-2 standard. The same, however, can not be said on digital satellite of tivùsat, the free platform that retransmits, via satellite, the same channels of digital terrestrial (plus a few other channels, transmitted exclusively). On this platform, in fact, the two Mediaset flagships will soon be broadcast only in HD resolution: goodbye to the channels with standard resolution, which will be turned off, but also goodbye to Italia 1 and Canale 5 for some users of the service, with a very old TV.
Italia 1 and Canale 5 only HD: when
The transition of Italia 1 to only HD on tivùsat will happen very soon: November 1, in just three weeks. There will be more time, however, for Canale 5 that will turn off the channel in standard resolution only on January 1, 2022.
Also in this case the change of resolution is contextual to the change of codec: from Mpeg-2 to Mpeg-4. These are not the first two Mediaset channels to switch to Mpeg-4 and HD resolution, because in June the same thing happened to Rete 4, another network with a high audience.
Italia 1 and Canale 5 HD only: who needs to change TV
Those who are already tivùsat users on satellite, and today see Rete 4 without any problem, will not have any problem either on November 1 with Italia 1 or on January 1, 2022 with Canale 5: the standard and the resolution are the same, if you see Rete 4 you will also see Italia 1 and Canale 5.
In principle, all televisions and decoders equipped with the Tivùsat HD, Tivùsat 4K, lativù and lativù 4K labels are compatible with Mpeg-4 and high resolution. Those who are not equipped with this type of equipment will have to update their TV or decoder.
In this case the most appropriate choice will be to buy a new HD or 4K TV with a double integrated decoder, both digital terrestrial DVB-T2 and digital satellite DVB-S2.
All modern TVs with dual decoders on sale today, in fact, are fully compatible with HD resolution, Mpeg-4 and will have no problem either in November, January 2022 or even January 2023, when the standard will change again to the future HEVC Main-10 codec. On these TVs, equipped with a CAM slot and a vignette, we will be able to use the Tivùsat card we already have without any problem.