Free Digital TV Channels available in SA
A few weeks ago I bought a new TV. A nice shiny, new Sony Bravia 40″ EX400 series digital LCD TV. It’s a nice step up from our 28″ Philips CRT TV that we’ve had for almost eight years now.
It’s a great TV and I’m glad we made the choice. It’s a full HD digital TV with a great picture and flexible set of features. It has a digital and analogue tuner built in, multiple analogue and digital inputs as well as a USB port for watching DivX encoded movies directly off of a USB stick (I bought a 16GB memory stick just for that purpose).
But I digress – the actual reason for this post is related to the digital tuner. When I first plugged in the new TV and went through the setup process, part of which is auto-tuning, it picked up 12 over-the-air digital channels as well as the 5 terrestrial analogue channels.
I know there’s been a lot of media reports about digital TV coming to South Africa and it being a requirement for broadcasting the 2010 FIFA World Cup (which by the way got off to a cracking start, even though it’s difficult to work with vuvuzelas blaring in the city all day and night long) but I was always under the impression that you needed a set-top box to decode the over-the-air (not satellite) digital channels. So when I did the initial setup of the TV I wasn’t surprised that none of the digital channels the digital tuner in the TV picked up were not displaying, since I didn’t have a decoder.
However, this morning I happened to switch to the digital channels accidentally and they were being broadcast and displayed on my TV. The following channels are being broadcast and unscrambled by my TV’s digital tuner:
- e-TV (a free terrestrial channel)
- eAfri (not sure about this seems to be airing similar programs to e-TV)
- Mstar (showing infomercials in between airing movies, not latest block-busters)
- National Geographic (the one reason I wanted satellite TV)
- eClassic (e-TV broadcast programs, not same airtime as e-TV)
- BBC Lifestyle (one of my wife’s favourite satellite channels)
- Koowe (kids channel, by the looks of it a South African channel)
- MK (music video channel)
Yes, I know, for those who have satellite/cable TV this is nothing exciting – but for those of us, like me, that don’t think paying the premium price you have to pay to get satellite TV is worth it, without having full choice of which channels you want to watch – I think it’s great! Yes, we’ve got loads of movies on DVD but it’s now nice to have a little bit more choice in our TV viewing, and we’re not (for now) paying anything above our usual annual TV licensing fees.
I’m hoping this is not a once-off (testing) thing or at the very least it’s accessible to us through-out the broadcasting of the World Cup, and of course first-prize, available to us in future.
Are there any other South Africans out there that have seen this with their own digital TVs?
Update: 28 September 2010
It would appear that testing has resumed again since there are 8 digital channels available free over the air again. I’ve picked up the following channels again:
- e-TV (a free terrestrial channel)
- eAfri (not sure about this seems to be airing similar programs to e-TV)
- VUZU (wide variety of programmes)
- Blitz (SuperSport blitz sports news and highlights)
- Mstar (showing infomercials in between airing movies, not latest block-busters)
- Action TV (movies and TV-series programmes)
- Mzanzi Magic (local music, documentaries and TV-series programmes)
- Koowe (kids channel, by the looks of it a South African channel)
Tune in and enjoy while they’re available.
Update: 23 October 2010
For about a week now we’ve also been able to tune into MNet and CSN (Sport channel showing Supersport and Indian movies when not broadcasting sport). Not complaining, just saying 
Update: 14 March 2011
For the last couple of days transmission has been scrambled and none of the channels were showing anything – not even the digital version of free channel, e-TV. Tonight, however, it appears test broadcasting has resumed – free digital TV for a little while longer – yay!
Tags: 2010, bravia, broadcasting, digital tv, fifa, free, Sony, South Africa, world cup
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That is just AWESOME
Oops .. I did something with the mouse and it reloaded the page and sent my incomplete post.
I was going to finish by saying .. there’s nothing better (so far) than watching HD TV .. especially when it’s free.
I just purchased the same tv over the weekend but the 32 inch version. ABSOLUTELY love it, especially with my ps3 and blu ray, only thing is when i performed the initial setup it did not pick up any channels, analogue or digital, which I found strange. Is there a special trick im missing and thats why Im not picking anything up? Thanks
Hey Sandile, thanks for visiting and commenting. Did you have a TV before you bought the new Sony? If so, what were the quality of your terrestrial channels (SABC 1-3 and e-TV) like? Good quality?
I didn’t need to do anything special – I’ve had the aerial cables replaced before by a professional since the ones we had when we moved into our home were very old. I’ve since had very good reception. All I did was unplug the old TV, plug in the new and and select auto scan for analogue and digital channels and it found them without any problems.
Just also double check on the manual that the model you bought indeed does have a digital decoder built-in.
Hope that helps.
Hi there, well I just called the shop where I got it from on Saturday and I hadn’t plugged in an analogue aerial when performing the initial setup and I forgot to so that might help:) I definately got the one with the digital tuner, thats what tipped me into getting the sony ahead of another similarly priced lg and samsung that didnt have digital tuners. With my old tv the quality of the other channels were not bad. I’ll try it this evening and hopefully it works. Thanks for the help, will let you know if it works.
Well I have good and bad news. It has picked up the 5 analogue channels, they’re not a hundred percente clear but its found them. But with the digital absolutely nothing:( maybe its cause I’m using a normal portable aerial? I’m not sure. I’ve even changed the search to full (which takes longer) to no avail. Any suggestions?
Sandile – unfortunately you’re not going to get good reception with a small portable aerial and even less so with digital channels, as you’re currently experiencing. You need a bigger external UHF/VHF aerial mounted outside to pick up the channels more clearly and to ensure you’re picking up the digital channels as well.
I had a feeling you might say that:) That does make sense though. You stated that your only paying for your tv license and thats the huge advantage of these digital broadcasts, but aren’t those aerials mnet aerials? or can i buy and use one even without paying the mnet subscription fees? I dont really need dstv, cause I got the tv for the ps3 and blu ray, i just thoought it would be nice having that little extra, ie the free digital channels, at not too much more of an expense.
You do not need a satellite dish to pick up the free over-the-air digital channels. I have a stock-standard “grid” aerial for UHF/VHF analogue reception and it works just perfectly. You also do not need an MNET/DSTV subscription. Hope that helps.
Would this work with other brands as well with digital tuners? I would assume so..
@Mods, it should work with any TV that has a digital tuner.
Thanks Deems. A friend of mine also picks up the channels with his 32ex400. I am in the market now for a tv so I am doing a bit of research..
Thanks again.
@Deems, I see you are in Cape Town. Do you perhaps have the channel numbers/freq for the Tygerberg transmitter?
Hey @Mods – yes I am indeed in Cape Town. I don’t have the channel numbers I’m afraid. But I simply told it to scan through all the channels and frequencies and that’s how I picked up the channels. There are in fact more than just the 8 (broadcasting) digital over-the-air channels, most of the channels you see on DSTV get picked up but they all show up as scrambled. Give it a whirl.
No luck. I dont think my signal is strong enough. There are trees in my line of sight.
I will try and sort it out over the weekend, even if I need to cut the trees down
No luck. I only pick up the DSTV channels on channel 35 with manual scan. Auto scan gives nothing
I think they may have stopped broadcasting them for free over-the-air as all my channels are showing up as scrambled since this morning. Hoping they will re-instate them soon, we’ve gotten quite used to watching National Geographic and BBC Lifestyle.
Hi Deems. Been following your postings. Got the exact same LCD TV as you and also excitedly picked up the DSTV channels. Thought it might have been an error on the part of MC but enjoyed it anyway as my DSTV decoder is not yet hooked up to this new set. Was also saddened when i could no longer view the freebies but got the scambled message as well. Wonder whether this was a gremlin in MC system which has now been repaired or a test. I guess we will never know. CIAO
Hey thanks for joining in the conversation. Yeah, I think it was part of their digital broadcasting testing phase throughout the World Cup which was probably why they only ran it for the months of June and July. I still maintain DSTV would be much more popular could you specify the exact channels you want, then I’d buy in. I don’t want to be forced to pay Rxx per month for channels I don’t watch or am not interested in. Oh well. Maybe they will air some more channels for free again in the future.
Hey you said it.I would like the freedom of choice but that would probably mess up THEIR sneaky marketing strat. I read the ABOUT DEEMS page.See that you are .NET guru. Do you have a mail addy where i can contact cos i want to perhaps bonce some ideas i have off you.Programmed in VB,C & Delphi but not in .NET architecture. LEt me know.You probably can access my mail addy from my post so drop me a response if you can.Will certainly appreciate it.
True, because it’s easier to have fixed packages and prices than rather open yourself up to a wider market and offer people choice, competition is healthy, something many companies (especially state-owned) just don’t get. But I digress.
I’ll drop you a mail regarding .Net development.
I share your views on DSTV Deems.
Some interesting reading with regards to the status of the digital migration.
http://www.sasfed.org/2010/06/progress-reports-on-digital-migration.html
Thanks for the link Mods. Let’s hope that it doesn’t take until November next year for this to get resolved and rolled out. If we can successfully host and broadcast the World Cup from Africa surely we can get our act together and broadcast terrestrial channels digitally and still make it viable for everyone to watch. As for the cost of the set-top decoders, that will be needed for older analogue televisions once the analogue signal is switched off, surely the government can subsidise those to that already pay their TV licenses but cannot afford digital televisions?
I’ve seen that the GOV is planning to subsidise the STB. I dont think this will be rolled out by Nov 2011. The STB should have been available already GOV is now looking at ISBD-T after millions have gone into preparing for DVB-T.
Anyway, they can just continue to transmit the test transmission for now.
Yeah, I’m willing to be a tester – I’ll even provide feedback
Here’s a stupid question….
If you can pick up DSTV channels via DTT, can you plug that into you decoder and you don’t need a dish?
I don’t know the exact details of how the decoder actually unscrambles and then transmits the decoded signals back to the TV but I don’t think there’s a way to pass the digital channel from the TV via the decoder again.
I thought about it after I posted and I think the decoder is the key and if they created a DTT decoder I think it could be possible.
I spoke to friend of mine last night and his signal is also scrambled so it seems that testing has stopped.
I saw an interesting thing over the weekend at Game, an indoor DVB-T antenna. Now what exactly would you use this for now that we don’t have test signals.
I think they were a little too proactive.
For those interested – there are 8 channels available free over-the-air once again – not sure for how long though (see updated post – some different channels to before).
Thanks for the update Deems. Does this mean that we are going DVB-T again? Why else would they continue testing?
Not sure what the final decision will be or why they’re testing further – not really complaining though
Another update – MNet and CSN available as well (for a week now, thought it might have just been a once off last weekend). Not sure how long they’ll be available for, so tune in while you can
Hi.
Gosh, got the tv yesterday and never been so excited… especially watching Avatar again lol.
But i am using a basic aerial to pick up sabc etc and obviously the signal is shocking, does my strength of my antennae determine if i get those satellite channels as well.
Hey @Eb_Jay – the quality of the cable between the aerial and TV as well as the elevation of the aerial (assuming you live somewhere relatively close to a broadcast antennae you should get a pretty good picture. We had to replace the cabling a couple years ago to get crystal clear quality reception. If you’ve got poor quality terrestrial analogue reception you’re probably not likely to pick up the digital channels.
Thanx for reply
I live in the southern surburbs, rondebosch east.
Is that close to a braodcast antennae u think?
Unless they’ve put up another one somewhere I only know of the Constantiaberg and Tygerberg antennaes – you should be in a good enough position to get a clear reception. Is your antennae mounted inside of or outside on the roof?
hey fellas the freeby is still on … I can get 10 free channels …
Which includes Mnet – FTW!
Check out this article.
http://www.iol.co.za/business/sa-will-adopt-european-tv-standard-1.1007680
Hi there
Just wondering if anyone is still getting the free digital channels. I’m going to buy the Sony 40EX400 soon. Also can you play avi movies directly from one’s hard-drive?
@Stargazer – thanks for visiting and commenting. Yes, digital channels are still freely available at the moment. And no, you cannot plug a hard-drive into the USB port (even if the HDD is externally powered). It will only detect and play AVIs from a USB memory-stick/flash drive that is plugged in. Note I’ve found some AVIs are not playable – I’ve not looked into which DivX codec is built-in to do the decoding yet.
Hi,
I have been receiving the Free channels for at least 3months. Mnet , Etv , CSN , Vuzo , action and M stars are a few of them. Initially the channels were slightly scrambled at night , but in the last month they have been crystal clear . I love the my bravia
Enjoy while it’s there Alfred
Update for those still following this thread – two days of dead air and we’re receiving the broadcasts of all 10 channels again! Woot!
hi,
I just got A Sony Bravia yesterday,
i tried plugging in my 320gb Seagate hard drive and it works on the TV.
I remember it did work on the PS3 so i think i formatted and changed the system to FAT32,
hope this assists
i picked up the digital channels last night but its scrambled
Hey Michael,
Was it perhaps a 3.5″ externally powered drive? My 2.5″ USB powered drive didn’t work – however, it could also be that it was NTFS formatted.
Hey Deems,
Its a 2.5″ portable hard drive,
I formatted it to FAT32 so that my PS3 could read it,
Seems like the TV works on the same platform as a PS3.
Which area/province do you stay in?
I stay in CPT and wondering if anyone in goodwood area has picked up these Digital channels
Thanks Michael – it seems it has more to do with the formatting than with being powered or not. Good to know for future
I’m also in Goodwood and I also still pick up the 10 digital channels – however, since Sunday they’ve all been scrambled.
Yes, i think any hard drive should work if FAT32 formatted.
I pick up 10 channels too but all scrambled, so was wondering if maybe the area im in,
Will be checking everyday.
Cheers
Hi all, there is a program that you get to format any drive to fat32 i use it all the time with my drives you can download it from this site
http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm
once formatted create a folder VIDEO and dump all your movies in there cos the sony bravia has the same engine as the PS3, It worked for me.
Regarding the digital channel, i recently bought the 40″ bravia last weekend and have picked up all the channels but they are scrambled i have tried to put my airiel higher with no luck, we did get m-net but not for very long. my question is could i hook up a stalite dish would it work. Im in durban
Hey Nevil – thanks for the comment and link to the third party formatting tool. Moving your aerial won’t make a difference to the scrambling of the channels – it seems they may have finished testing now, hence no longer being freely available.
Unfortunately hooking up a satellite dish will not work as the satellite channels are also scrambled and you would need the decoder and a provider-supplied card to descramble the channels available on the package you’re paying for monthly.
Any new news of dvb-t channels in cape town can u pay to get them open or not
Hey @cstmatrix – I don’t have a concrete date as of yet – this site still only mentions Nov 2011 on its roadmap – http://www.godigitalsa.co.za/
Hi Deems, I got a mnet decoder from a friend and got it actvated to watch the rugby. I dont want to pay 30 gizilion rand for dstv because I just want the rugby. Now I see some of the games are only on csn. What is csn, how can I watch it?
@Pieter – while the digital over-the-air trial was on CSN was freely available but I think it’s only available on the DsTV packages. It’s a channel that sometimes shows sport otherwise Indian-related content and Bollywood movies. Hope that helps.
Hi Deems, i was clicking through the channels last night and noticed that M-net and all the other channels where gone, so i ran a scan and same thing, before i could pick up the channels but they wouldn’t work but now they are totally gone, any one else in durban notice this?
@Nevil – I think it’s because the testing phase has now completed that they’re not broadcasting the digital over-the-air channels anymore. I’m not sure when the final digital switch “on” will happen though.