Currently, DD Free Dish broadcasts 80+ TV channels in MPEG-2 quality, because other TV channels have recently shifted to MPEG-4 quality, and HD channels have been added in MPEG-4 and HD like DD National HD, DD India HD, and DD News HD.
Technology has always been upgrading itself. Like the upgrade of the telecom sector in India, as 2G to 3G and 3G to 5G.
So maybe a similar upgrade will be seen in India's only free satellite TV service, who knows?
Recently Prasar Bharti had taken out a tender for a set-top box in that notice invited for SITC open e-tender (NIT-08/2023-24) of 8.7 lakh DD Free Dish Receive System at beneficiary's premises in strategic areas Was.
This type of new set-top box may be approved by Prasar Bharati if the BID is done by any manufacturer.
See these two points on page number 79 of the notice given below on the new upgrade of DD.
Page no.79 -
The set-top box must be compatible with MPEG-2, MPEG-4 SD, MPEG-4, and HEVC HD for DVB-S and DVB-S2 systems.
The proposed set-top box will have the facility to pass all Dolby-encoded 5.1 audio channels.
So it means, maybe in the near future, you can get DD Free Dish TV channels in HEVC HD picture quality and 5.1 Dolby Audio.
But the current situation
Currently in India, free-to-air MPEG-2+MPEG-4+HEVC HD set-top boxes are available in the market, but due to the Dolby license fee, free-to-air set-top boxes with 5.1 Dolby Premium audio or So it is very less or it is not available at all.
