QCOSTARICA – Looking to buy a new television set or bring one down from the US or Canada? Then consider this, as of December 15, 2017, Costa Rica switches to digital television, and a have an analog “blackout”.
The country has adopted the ISDB-T International, ISDB-Tb or SBTVD, short for Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão Digital (English: Brazilian Digital Television System), launched into commercial operation on December 2, 2007.
The ISDB-T is a technical standard for digital television broadcast used in Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Honduras, Venezuela, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Philippines, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Uruguay, based on the Japanese ISDB-T standard. ISDB-T International
That does not mean that your “North American” TV will stop working, starting at the end of 2017, what it will need is a converter.
Costa Rica chose the ISDB-T on 25 May 2010 and started first transmission by Channel 13 (state channel) from Irazú Volcano on March 19, 2012, and started official transmissions on May 1, 2014.
To facilitate the task to consumers making the right purchase choice, the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (Micit) – Costa Rica’s Ministry of Science and Technology – will be distributing distinctive labels.
What is the benefit to digital television?
Sharper and better signal quality. One special feature of ISDB-Tb is the possibility of multi-program transmission for a single channel. This means that a single broadcaster can divide its programming in up to three video sources, with the most commonly cited example being sports broadcasting where viewers can choose multiple camera angles.
List of digital television deployments by country
