Uk Freeview

There is a message on Teletext (at least: on BBC World) informing the viewers that all Freeview sets need to be retuned because of a change in the system. (The bad news is, that some older decoders may not be compatible.)

Yes I retuned mine earlier today, but that`s not the answer, there`s never been a channel 8 or at least not for some months (years).

Even more channels of repeats and crap now!

Ron

Dunno which ones. All mine did - including a very early one.

My elderly next door neighbour asked me to re-tune hers. Twas a Sagem STB.. When I switched it on it was set to CH5 and up came a message over a black screen saying to press 'OK' to retune. Did that and it did. Didn't realise that facility was possible - all mine needed accessing the menu.

Mine too, Dave. I read on the 'net that all this latest shenanigans, was partly to do with clearing space in one of the muxes, to allow it to carry a couple of HD progs. I see no signs of these at this time, so any idea when they are thinking of putting them on there ? Presumably, another retune, if only of the 'new channels' variety, will need to be done to receive them ??

Arfa

know?

There are 2 things I find annoying about all this retuning stuff. You have to delete manually, one by one, all the totally crap stations after each retune. They never tell you to only retune when you have good signal strength - if you don't then you are likely to end up with less channels than you had before the retune. I've not seen anywhere the statement accompanying the box "no Signal, retune your box" that to do so when the station is there, but too weak at your site, then you are likely to loose more than just that one channel.

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

One of my PVRs crashed shortly after the retune but was OK after unplugging for a few seconds.

That and to make CH5 more readily available.

Think trials start later this year. But you'll need a new STB if you wish to receive them in HD.

ch8 is TeleG in Scotland and C4 in Wales.

Ok on the timings. I'll look out for the trials. Doubtless, the Beeb will be trumpeting about them when they start. In terms of actually receiving them, I was thinking more in terms of my "HD ready" TV with Freeview built in, being able to resolve them. I'm half suspecting that many TVs which say this, actually mean that they can operate in an HD mode when supplied with an HD signal into one of the external inputs, and that the built in Freeview receiver, will not be compatible, as I believe I am right in thinking that the compression format of potential Freeview HD transmissions, has had to change in order to fit them into the available bandwidth, due to the government and Ofcom reneging on the deal to allocate more space after the analogue transmissions all cease ? If it is the case that any or all Freeview-equipped and "HD Ready" TVs fail to be able to receive these transmissions, I can see it leading to many very unhappy customers, and riots at the doors of the Comet-style barns who sold them ...

Arfa

Ah thankye, that explains it. I wonder why when I select chan 8 it takes me to the channel I was last watching.

Actually, that was a useful feature of some old analogue satellite rx, the 'go back' button by means fo which you could flip back and forth betwixt two channels

Ron

Not a chance in hell, I'm afraid.

As suspected then, Dave. Any 'definitely known' reasons ? Do you think that the general public is aware of this any more than I am, or are they all looking forward to being able to receive HD, as the marketing hype and the "HD Ready" logo has implied ?

Arfa

Arfa Daily wrote: I can see it leading to many very unhappy customers, and

Yes. Problem at the moment is that the media hasn't quite woken to this and radio news slots on Wednesday were informing people that 'freeview HD is on the way, which was the dumbed down and stated reason for retuning ...'.

I'll then be expecting BSkyB to start promoting their set top boxes a bit more strongly. i.e. "You are gonna have to buy a HD set top box - why not get ours free? [TM]"

BTW That phrase TM'd by me, mr murdoch. Payment in the usual bank account please....

know?

no ch8 on my box

According to the channel ident info , flashed up on channel change, the ITV channel that has been around since inception is now called ITV1 and ITV2+1 (ITV2 shifted 1 hour) is now called ITV for ident purposes. I hope someone knows what this is all about.

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

Thing is, the Freeview HD service, if and when it ever materialises, is going to be free. My son has a Virgin cable TV package with his 'net and 'phone, and the service that he receives has many HD channels included, so fundamentally 'free' - I know it's not really, but to all intents and puposes, it at least 'appears' to be. So really, Sky should change their marketing policy on this, and stop making a separate charge for the service, and charge a one-off for the HD box, instead.

But all of this aside, if we know for sure that "HD Ready" TV sets that are equipped with a built-in Freeview receiver, are not going to be able to resolve the HD channels when they appear, should we not all be making loud noises about misrepresentation, intentional or not ... ?

What is the situation in the US ? Presumably, there are TV sets over there with built in terrestrial digital receivers for whatever the equivalent off-air service to UK Freeview is ? Are there HD channels on this service ? Were TV sets sold for the last couple of years with an "HD Ready" logo, and if so, can they receive off-air HD channels if there are any, or will they be able to if there's not any yet but going to be ?

Arfa

Dunno. HD is of course available from a variety of sources. DVD, satellite, etc. Depends on whether you'd think you'd need a new DVD player for HD discs if you already have an HD TV. Or a new satellite box.

I also wondered why there was no Channel 8. Now I know!

This website gives you essentially the same information, transmitter by transmitter (and a lot more, if you care to explore what's there).

I note that also lists the four Top-Up TV channels (306 to 310), where as one of my four STBs finds only one (310).

I see what you're saying, but seems to me that when you have bought a TV set with Freeview built in, and it has an "HD Ready" logo on the front, then it might be a reasonable expectation that this referred to the Freeview functionality as well as the AV inputs for Blu Ray etc. A few people I have asked today, certainly believed this to be the case, and were quite upset to find that it probably isn't.

Thinking back to when all the original guff about switching off analogue started, I seem to recall that it was going to be the case that Freeview HD transmissions would be able to be received as they were going to employ the same modulation and compression schemes as the standard res transmissions, more spectrum space being handed over after analogue switchoff to accommodate this. Then, fairly recently, the government and Ofcom went back on this, and said that no more space was going to be made available, so a different, harder, compression scheme (mpeg 4 ??) would have to be employed to provide any HD channels. I also seem to remember reading in the trade press somewhere, that the set manufacturers were deeply upset about this.

I actually think that this entire terrestrial digital TV via Freeview, has disintegrated from a shaky system in the first place, to a ridiculous compromise now that the greedy government has decided to hang onto those few extra megs of spectrum space, to sell to the phone companies for obscene amounts of money. Seems to me that the proper way to go, if you want a high bandwidth service with the public broadcasters' offerings in HD for no cost, is Freesat. At least TV sets with a Freesat receiver built in, will receive and decode the HD channels.

Arfa

The announcements about HD on FreeView are relatively recent. Plenty of FreeView equipment pre-dates it. I agree about the marketing hype, though. But then this applies to TVs in general - as well as much else. The only advantage of an LCD over a *good* CRT is the size. Certainly not the picture.