High definition television on Freeview will be available to nearly half of British homes by next year's football World Cup

Ilse Howling, the managing director of Freeview, has disclosed that the roll-out of Freeview HD, which was originally set to launch in line with the switchover timetable, has been brought forward. Some 40pc of homes in Britain will have access to Freeview HD for the football tournament in South Africa next June
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...s-out-high-definition-for-World-Cup.html

Looking forward to it.

Got a HD ready LCD TV with freeview built in.

Ive never seen the quality of HD yet though

HD is brilliant, but i don't want it until all programmes are in HD

You will need a HD decoder built into the TV im afraid Joe, and any Freeview HD broadcasts are likely to be MPEG4 instead of the existing MPEG2 format. It may also run on an entirely new standard (DVBT2), because in doing this, Ofcom can utilise MIMO technology, which whilst it requires new arial's to be installed, theroetically doubles the bandwidth available on the QAM, to about 40mbps, maybe even more dependent on whether a 16 channel QAM or a 64 channel QAM is used.

Any TV currently on sale in the UK, with a built in Freeview decoder will "not" be Freeview HD compatible. Any TV currently on sale in the UK that say's it contains an HD tuner, will unfortunatly contain a DVBS tuner which is not compatible with DVBT/T2 though it will still recieve HD via a DSAT dish.

HD Ready simply means the TV is capable of recieving and displaying an HD source via either DVI or HDMI wit HDCP (the reason component is no longer supported for SkyHD) in at least 720p an 1080i resolution (has to be native to 720).

1080p is not included in the HD Ready certification, which I think is a con tbh, as it confuses things even more for consumers. It costs little more to produce a 1080p set than it does to produce a 720 set.

Ive been watching a lot of stuff this last year or so in HD, and tbh, its not all its made out to be; its good for sets over 42" because SD starts to struggle quality-wise, but there is a lot of upscaling systems contained on the higher end TV's that will turn an SD source into HD without much in the way of noise etc. I prefer to see quality programming than more drivel like we are seeing on TV atm, in HD. It does cost more to film in HD, special effects are a a premium, and sets have to be ultra-high quality to cope with the demands of it, not to mention new equipment and mastering requirements. If you gave me the choice of a quality programme, in SVHS quality, and an average programme, in HD quality, id take the former anyday. Also, do you really want to watch Eastenders in HD?? They upgraded their sets two year's ago, but have never broadcast in HD, I think Auntie have realised people arnt really all that bothered. Is a novelty, but its a short one, and time and money is better spend on the programming quality.

The main advantage to HD for me, is HD Audio, unfortunately, whether or not any Freeview HD broadcasters will be allow to utilize this, is in doubt.

As part of the development of TopUp TV, we have yet to see any indication of an HD future, so expect that when it does finally arrive, it will be expensive and very limited, especially in the intiial years.

Imho, they should limit it to ITV HD and BBC HD, 1 channel each, and the rest of the spectrum should be used to SD channels and other services, whilst HD is the future, DVBT HD is always going to be underpar in comparison to other formats.

The changeover in format from MPEG2 to MPEG4 is the thing that really annoys me; Sky were blasted by the BBC, ITV, Ofcom et al, when they wanted to launch Sky Picnic utilising MPEG4, all citing concerns over the viability of MPEG2 and MPEG4 running in the same spectrum, even though it is working in France without issue. It was a mjor sticking point for Sky's plans. Yet, as soon as HD comes into the picture, and the bandwidth requirements jump through the roof, it is suddenly okay to use MPEG4 in the same spectrum as MPEG2... either that, or we are all going to be right royally shafted again (ie. they will be forcing everyone to change over to MPEG4 boxes - not the first time this government has shafted people who have already "changed over" to DVBT).

Ahhh gutted.

Never realised that

Just thought, HD & Freeview = happy days

Probably better to just a get Freesat HD system instead Joe. At the moment, the Fresat HD PVR's are a bit on the steep side, but prices will fall over the coming 12 months, im sure. Freeview HD is always going to be a poor contender imho, and won't be much cheaper to purchase, especially at first, and evenmoreso if they do use MIMO, as you will require a new ariel (another way for the rip-off merchants aka tv ariel installers to shaft you).

The prices of a MIMO compatible ariel installation will make £80 for Freesat installation seem cheap (remember, its free if you already have a dish).

The full spec is out and London are currently testing this format, Granada region is set to follow. Its upscaled 720.
geeky stuff here (technical)
http://www.10ash.info/

[youtube]3tq4qxVDJog[/youtube]

London tests (not hd on here)

Aha, the new Betfair system is on that link, we are just recieving TUTV development units for it this week, and "fake" money to use it lol.

I will still await to see what actually happens, unfortunately the Crystal Palace trial's are just that, to see how it works out. There is a lot of money for the government to make out of the analogue spectrum when it finally closed off, and Ofcom are under intense pressure to maximise revenue on it, so a shift to MPEG4 and MIMO does tend to make a lot of sense; imho, its simply delivering content in a more efficient way, but it will all cost the consumer more money.

Do you mean by upscaled 720, it is simply SD broadcasts upscaled to 720? If thats the case, any half-decent TV will do the same job with its own software (albeit maybe not as perfect). Surely broadcasters will be able to broadcast their own HD sources?

I have freesat HD via my computer which works out very cheap, you can also build a media center too, which are becoming very popular.





windows 7 ultimate release candidate

Im a bit of a novice to modern technology, hence my wind up PC!!
I have just bought new TV and DVD player as an xmas bonus, got the HDMI cables etc. Prob is that my NTL/VIRGIN box has no HDMI outlet. I called them up and was told it would cost me £99.00 for a new box and an extra £5.00 rental per month!
Is there any way round this?
I was looking at boxes on ebay, but was told they may not work as they should have been returned to NTL, who still own them as they are leased as a package!
Any info greatly appreciated, but keep it in English, i dont do Tekki!
Thanks in advance

Just use SCART - unless the source is HD or it has an upscaler on it (if that was the case, it would have HDMI), then connecting via HDMI vs SCART will make little/no difference, especially if you have a decent 21pin SCART cable.

If you want to upscale your SD, the only way is either a SCART->HDMI convertor which is about £60+ or a DVD Recorder with HDMI out and upscaling.

My TV does not have SCART input, so I got around this buy purchasing a Toshiba DVD Recorder with 1080p upscaling - some upscalers are crap, but this one makes a massively noticeable difference on my 42" compared with the upscaling turned off.

The box they will be trying to sell you is a V+ box, which is HD capable and a PVR, hence the additional £5.00 per month fee.

I'm with hoseman here, totally flummoxed as to what to do to get HD viewing. I thought it would come in gradually and everyone had the benefit of it.

For free HD, there is no better option than Freesat.

For PayTV HD, the options are either V+ from Virgin Media, or SkyHD from Sky.

Sky offer a betteer linear HD service (as in normal TV channels) whereas Virgin offer a better on-demand HD service. This is all set to change soon however, with the launch of IPTV in 2010 on the SkyHD boxes.

Don't bother with Freeview HD, or even waiting for it for that matter. The most HD channels there is like to be is 3, 4 at a real squeeze, Freesat is a much much better offering. Also, Freeview HD is still in development, despite what some people believe, because the BBC have still not decided upon which copyright protection system to use.

I have a panasonic DVD 'Panasonic SC-PT170EB-K 5.1 DVD Theater System' is it possible to have the Virgin SD box hooked up via the DVD player to have a better quality picture on my 1080p tv ever so slightly blocky if you are about 5 inches away from it

My tv is 1080p, watched a few dvds on in HD and the difference to my old tv is soooo much better. I watch a lot of pay to view movies (NO, not thoes type!!), cant see the benefit tho as no connection for HD on my NTL box! Would the HD to SCART adaptor give me a higher definition on my tv then? I do use `good` quality scarts!

SCART -> HDMI adapters primarily take the analog signal and turn it into a digital one that can be sent over the HDMI interface. They do the upscaling as a secondary job, however I cannot comment on the quality of the upscaling, as I have never used one. Some upscalers are great at what they do, others can be lame. Your TV will itself upscale the picture (it needs to so a 570 picture can fill the screen), but an external upscaler seems to make a lot more difference with regards quality.

As for a DVD player with HDMI out, it won't work, it needs to be a DVD Recorder because it needs to be able to display a source other than the TV. On a DVD Recorder, like a VHS Recorder, it can take a source such as SCART or S-Video to record onto the DVD, and you can view this source on your TV. If it is connected to your TV and upscaled via HDMI, then whatever source is on the DVD Recorder, will also be converted and upscaled. A DVD player has no reason to display any other sources (it isnt going to record to need any other source) so it wont do it im afraid.

I cant watch TELEVISION on a LCD or similar.. CRT is the best no problems it lets you see the picture and lets you here the sound.. What more do i want ?? I dont need HD.. Why? Because why should i pay loads of money for something i already have.. I only need to watch and here it.. Not to have fancy upscalers and bullshit.. Seriously though some of these LCD's are very poor arnt they.. Maybe im being old lmao but seriously untill its properly sorted out why should we waste our money cause they change things every day.. ???