Malaysia adopts DVB-T standard for digital broadcast transmissions

The Malaysian government has approved the adoption of the Terrestrial Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB-T) standard for broadcast transmissions, nearly a month ahead of the completion of its DVB-T trial in and around Kuala Lumpur.
Deputy Information Minister Chia Kwang Chye said the country decided to adopt the European standard for digital broadcasting since the initial response from the 1,000 households participating in the trial had been very positive.
We received very positive feedback about the DVB-T trial. Of the 1,000 households, more than 60 percent said the quality of the signal ranged from good to very good. Over 88 percent said the picture quality improved, while 70 percent said the sound quality was better.
These were all expected results, but we didn’t imagine the response to be overwhelmingly positive for the overall transmission, he said.
Speaking after addressing the ABU Digital TV Symposium 2007 in Kuala Lumpur, Mr Chia also said the country was expected to roll out digital transmissions in and around the capital in 2009 and eventually take it nationwide.
On High Definition (HD) TV, Mr Chia said the Malaysian governments Digital Task Force were also considering the implementation of  the HD format in programming.
Source: ABU website
Item added: 28th March 2007