How do Canada, Japan, Euro do their DTV conversion ?

[SingSing]

U.S. just transistion into DTV for a month. It was fun for us, that help up folks and friends on the transistions.

I would like to know How do Canada, Japan, Euro, Mexico, England, Singapore and .. do their DTV conversion ?
And what types of TV systems and technology they deployed ?

[filmboss80]

Digital may take years to fully roll out in some countries, and analog may coexist with digital for a long time in some locales, so that the transition is much smoother and less costly than ours. Not all countries are the size of the US, and aren't in a rush to cut off the analog VHS TV spectrum so that the frequencies can be sold by Congress to the telcoms. (America's forced changeover had more to do with lobbyist pressure than constituent demand.)

[jman98]

(America's forced changeover had more to do with lobbyist pressure than constituent demand.)

I'd say it mostly motivated by the fact that Uncle Sam could get a ton of money from selling the frequencies more than caring what lobbyists wanted. If nobody was paying for those frequencies, it probably wouldn't have gotten done at all.

[edDV]

Main issues were freeing the 700MHz band (UHF 52 up) for wireless telco and consolidating the 800MHz band (UHF 69 up) for emergency and mobile services. The freed frequencies mostly will be used by wireless data and cellphone services. The lower VHF band was less popular in the auctions but some new services will be added there as well. Low VHF is limited by the need for a large antenna.

Other country plans are summarized in these documents. Canada is slowly going digital in metro areas but will drag out rural conversion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_television
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_television_transition

[edDV]

Here is an interesting application for the low VHF band. Fixed point wireless internet for uncovered rural areas. For this application internet can be received and transmitted using household VHF TV antennas (Ch 2-6). Line of sight service can be up to 20 miles per cell.
http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/84110

[mh2360]

In the UK, standard def DTV has existed along side analogue for the past 6 years or so. The plan is for a gradual switch over, with a full analog switch-off target of 2012. Sadly, No HD until they switch off the analog channels, there's simply not enough room on the spectrum for them at the moment.

Last year they made 250,000 first generation receivers obsolete by changing the broadcast standard slightly.