http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4247622.stm So by the year 2012 the whole of the UK will be digital only, now for me that's not an issue as I don't even have an analogue aerial, and have Sky and Sky+. But there are some area's that will be without an analogue signal as soon as 3 years time, and for those who have not upgraded to some form of digital set top box they will be without any form of TV transmission. That in it's self is not a huge issue as there are a number of freeview set top boxes available for under £50 now, but what about those that are in low signal area's, they will either have to invest in a new aerial set up or invest in satellite. I imagine also there will be some areas that will have no choice but to choose Sky as they won't have a strong enough terrestrial digital signal, that will incur a charge of £100 for a freesat system (and not all homes can have Sky installed due to various reason such as landlord not allowing a dish, or health and safety reasons).
I've known about this for a few years, the orignal date for the whole country was 2009, but I guess they've put it back a bit (or is it forwards? ) The government has plans for funding to over 75's and for people who can't get a strong signal, really nobody will lose out, we'll all be getting at least 30 channels. Good idea to turn off analgoue, no more fuzzy pictures!
Problem as I see it is the manufacturers seem to be lagging, there aren't a lot of new basic TVs and recorders available with FreeView built-in. Argos only list half-a-dozen CRT/Freeview sets, and are charging an extra £30-£50 for the built-in tuner. I guess the same applies to DVD-Recorders, Argos only list 3, Sagem & Goodmans, not particularly good brand. And it seems odd (or political cunning) that they're starting the analogue closedown in the wilds of Cumbria rather than in the London area, where it's easier to organise a protest. Nothing wrong with digital, but unless manufacturers pull their fingers out it's going to be difficult for a lot of people to record one program and watch another. We need more twin-tuner stuff.
Exactly! i brought a new TV form my perants last year and i couldent find freeview capible one which wasent silly money (it semes all tvs have to be 32" wide screen monsters to get any features nowerdays!) I still dont have digital cous a extra box semes a messy way of doing it to me. i want it built in to all tvs.
They're in the process of doing that now in the US. The switch is supposed to be complete by the end of 2006...
I've already got 2 problems. I've got a freeview box and for the past few weeks bbc channels haven't worked on it. Just got a no or weak signal. Secondly i've got 2 tvs and 2 vcrs in my house and only 1 digi box. That means to record/watch on each buying another 3 boxes. What a rip off!
I've never had Sky/digital/Freeview/whatever at home and really would rather stay without it. I understand that the picture is far better but I seriously can't believe the amount of rubbish that is on the non-terrestrial channels. Actually I take that back, most of what's on the 5 terrestrial channels these days is appalling. As you can probably tell I'm not a big fan of TV, mainly due to adverts on most channels. Still, there's no use complaining, it looks like I'll be forced to switch at some point... or ditch television altogether... Sam
With the current signals you can have multiple connections to one aerial, but now you will have to pay for a box for each tv, or buy a new tv, which is a rip off as fathom17 pointed out. So I suggest the government pay for these, but then that'll come out of our taxes, so we're paying for them anyway. Currently, is there a way of the signal being connected to one central box, and multiple tvs connect to this, and are able to watch individual channels?
I've just got a digital TV card for my MythTV box, and it's really great. Granted most of the extra channels are pretty poor, but there is some good stuff, BBC4 is often good, and BBC3 & ITV2 can be OK some times, I guess it's just about the extra choice. Our reception was terrible at first, but we got a high gain aerial (~£100) fitted and it's fantastic now. I seem to recall hearing that some of the BBC's licensing fees will be going towards a fund to help people get Freeview boxes/upgrade aerials, etc. I can understand the point about having to buy new VCRs, etc though, it's quite a pain, especially as you'll have trouble getting an analogue tuner VCR now, let alone a Digital one!
Well i've just searched dixons website for 'digital vcr' and only 7 tv/vcr combos came up. So they dont seem to even currently manufacture digital vcrs yet.
Thats what its says for my postcode but I got pissed off with 5 channels so bought a box anyway. All channels work fine, except channel 4 and itv occassionally.
well your wrong or dixons website is wrong, infact I brought a pvr (thats what they are called) from currys (part of the dixons store group) for my parents last christmas. Many of the freeview pvrs come with dual tuners and can be had for roughly £160-200 so by 2012 I reckon this will be £60-70 or even less. for some idea of some of the freeview products out there with hard drives look @ http://www.pvruk.co.uk/products.cfm I agree with people moaning about buying new equipment, also how many people have problems setting up vcrs to record normal channels they will be even more confused to record from a freeview box as the vcr doesn't have a native dvb-t tuner. Another thing we were discussing at work was the issue of recording one channel and watching another as you can do now on an analogue tuner tv and vcr, you will need two boxes if you dont have idtv (intergrated tv) box that will be a nightmare even for the technically savy. The only thing they can do to overcome this is to issue digital pvrs with dual tuners, as with the 8 day epg and dual tuners recording will easier. Finally most freeview boxes need regular updates to function properly i.e interactive services etc so they will have to issue one brand of set top box/pvr and make sure the manufacturer issues updates regularly. At the end of the day it will be a big mess until tv's with intergrated tuners are more common or are given away to everyone.
I sell TV's at the place I work, Only about 10% of the tv's we sell have freeview built, and you pay a big primium for this.
Similar thing here. Not allowed Sky as a dish is apparently "too pikey". No cable as I live down a dirt track. We had a blustery storm the other week and it must've shifted our old aerial a bit as I can only get BBC3 now (was getting BBC1/2/3/4, ITV1/2/3, FTN, E4, etc.). Which isn't so bad as I mainly watch that anyway, but it's evil when I know QI is on BBC4 and it's all blocky with no sound.
Misquoted there, I said "I can't have one as apparently it's too pikey". My parents loathe them. They do kind of have a point. Our area doesn't really have any visible at all (apart from the neighbour's one on our fence, but anywhere other than up in my room and you can't see it), but go through Whitley and there are millions all over the place... I did say we didn't need to have one on the side of the house, but they're having none of it. I can't really justify the cost just for me, I wouldn't watch it enough.
get it in the loft! you will justify the cost when you discover the discovery channel (see what i did there?) and all the other great channels
I think he means tape (VCR), I only spot the one "unique" JVC VHS/HDD combi at a modest £620 at your link. I can't see them (digiVCR) being made, DVD-R disks are down to under 20p each in modest quantity and the RW are less than tape. I thought Dixons had stopped selling any VCR?
There is no loft as that's where I live, in the converted attic! I watch enough TV as it is, I really don't need any excuses to watch more... I think we're going to have to get our aerial replaced at some point. It's not coping wth digital very well. That one problem with digital TV is you either have the signal or you don't. There's no watching a channel you can almost tune to
