George Yang, Author at Goody Feed

There are four types of people in Singapore: The type who doesn’t even know they’ve a thing known as TV at home, and wonder if the big screen thingy in the living room is a decoration just like the fixed phone at the side The type who watch TV religiously because TV is life, and habits are for forever The type who has to turn on TV as a white noise so that he or she can sleep soundly The type who has a TV but it’s merely for Netflix, YouTube and Facebook Watch If you belong to #2 and #3, chances are you’ve seen He Ying Ying telling you every day that analogue TV is ending by 2 January 2018, 12:00 a.m., and unless you switch to Digital TV, you’ll no longer be able to watch your “favourite” TV shows. And if you’re reading this, you should be one of the 10% of households in Singapore that are still seeing this on your screen: Image: digitaltv.sg (P.S. That's an older image. The date should be from 2 January 2019) Because let’s face it: we’re the masters of procrastinating. Unless that TV screen vanishes into thin air, you’d not done anything. And my dear friend, it’s going to disappear in hours. Heck, if you didn’t come to our app daily (which you really should) and are reading this now, you might have difficulty falling asleep tonight because your familiar white noise is gone. So here’s what you’ve got to do, written in Goody Feed style because you love our easy-to-read and entertaining style, don’t you? (My boss forces me to include that last sentence) What’s All this Analogue and Digital all About? You see, back in the days when Mark Zuckerberg is still in diapers and Internet doesn’t exist, all TVs receive their reception via analogue signals because households only have a wife and not a Wifi. These analogue signals transmit free contents to TV, which we call “free-to-air”, and the signals are everywhere in Singapore. However, with the Internet, more signals (i.e. radiation that’s harmless) "lives in the air we breathe in". Moreover, with unlimited data plan, you’re essentially breathing in analogue signals and 4G signals. We all know we can use 4G to watch TV as well, so from 2013 onward, Mediacorp has started to transmit its free-to-air signals on digital format. Removing the analogue signals would mean the air we breathe has only 4G signal: it theoretically frees up more space for 4G. So, the authorities decided that everyone should switch to digital instead of analogue—and there are benefits to that as well. For example, digital contents can be sharper and you can choose the subtitles, much like Netflix or YouTube. That being said, by tomorrow morning, the air would be “fresher”—though I’m not certain if our 4G is going to be faster #justsaying Types of TV in your Nest Ever since the beginning of mankind, the authorities have been telling us to change. But not everyone needs to change, and it depends on your TV. Since digital TVs come into existence, people can now either buy digital TV or analogue TV, though finding an analogue one is pretty hard. Usually, you’ll have one of these TVs at home: Fully analogue TV Analogue + Digital TV Just check your TV—if it says it’ a digital TV a well, then it’s an analogue + digital TV. But hey—having a digital TV doesn’t mean you’ve switched. Read on. Digital TV Need a Box to Get Signals You might have a digital TV, but that only mean one thing: it can play digital content. It’s like having a smartphone without Internet reception—it’s just a brick unless you’ve got reception. In order for your digital TV to receive contents, you need an indoor antenna (known as an indoor UHF antenna). Just remember this because we’ll tell you where to buy that from soon. Analogue TV Needs a Digital Box to Convert Contents to Digital & an Antenna to Get Signals Now, if yours is a fully analogue TV, or the very old CRT TV, you’ll need an antennae to receive the digital contents, and a box (know as DVB-T2 digital set-top-box) to convert the digital contents so that they can be shown on your old TV. Eligible Households Can Get 1 Free Set The authorities have taken the effort to provide one free set (exclude the TV lah) to convert your whatever TV to a digital-ready TV, aptly called the DTV Starter Kit. Initially, the deadline is on 31 December 2018 but they’ve extended the deadline to 31 March 2019 (because let’s face it: we only panic when we see a blank screen) However, not everyone’ eligible for it. Here are the criteria: Household with at least one Singapore Citizen living in HDB flat No Singtel or StarHub pay TV service (If you’re using this, you're already receiving digital free-to-air contents so you actually don’t need to do anything) Your household had not received IMDA’s Digital TV Assistance Scheme package. Do note that it’s only one DTV Starter Kit for one household, so if you’ve a TV in each room, you’ll have to buy a new set. And where can you buy? Buying DTV Kit You can buy it from retailers like Courts, Harvey Norman, Best Denki and other retailers, and prices depend on whether you want a high-end one or a simple one. Do remember that you either need a box and antenna, or just an antenna . Alternatively, if you want the cheapest option, you can just go to Qoo10 or Shopee to buy them; they’re relatively cheaper, but there might not be warranty and let's face it: you can only cry if it cuts off when you're watching your favourite programme #justsaying Our advice is to invest in a good one since it's going to be with you for quite a long time (especially the antenna) Condo and Landed Property You’d have realized that one of the criteria to get a free DTV Starter Kit is to be living in an HDB, and that’s for a reason. Condos and landed property might have an UHF antenna system in the property to receive the signals, so it depends a lot on the property. Rich Residents would have to check if they need the antenna or not; but they certainly need a digital-ready TV or a set box. Now, if it’s all still confusing, we've failed in our job to simplify even the driest information. But it's okay, there is still help: simply call 1800-388-4357 (1800-DTV-HELP) and someone would be there to help.

George Yang

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