Gstaad steps into the digital TV era

Here in Gstaad, the age of analog television officially ended this past Monday November 26. The antenna on the Eggli has been switched off, and the Hornberg antenna is now only transmitting a digital signal. For those of you who have clung onto the analog service to the bitter end: it's time to change. Essentially there are three options. If you are within range of one of the digital antennae, you can head down Schmid TV or Interdiscount to purchase a SFr 200 set-top box to receive the digital signal. Alternatively you can switch to satellite (~SFr 800 for a dish), however, without an extra “sat-access” card you cannot receive Swiss TV (and the loss would be what, exactly? Let's not go there...). Finally, for as little as SFr 20 monthly charge you can opt for a basic terrestrial cable connection. With the Cablecom and Swisscom currently battling it out with their over-the-wire offers both these services have improved substantially in recent months. Our recommendation...

go with cable if your chalet or apartment is in Cablecom's footprint (see if it is by clicking here); the channel selection is as big as Swisscom's Bluewin TV, the digital recorder is really simple to use, it's easier to install, and Swisscom's whole internet protocol TV thing is a new technology still suffering from a few growing pains. Sure, Cablecom's customer service is pretty awful (especially if you don't speak German or French), but once the service is up and running, it's very good.

PS if you have one of those Range Rovers with the combined TV-GPS functionality, the TV won't work any more. The only fix is to...well, buy a new car. How about that...the world's most expensive set-top box at just SFr 120,000!