Freeview HD Trial: A Success!

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 22 Nov 2006, 20:01

Nothing new really other than it's over but even so:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6169632.stm

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 23 Nov 2006, 17:43

Bullshit

we and many millions of other people cannot even get good standard digital TV, never mind HD. Our picture and everyone we know has shitty image quality, unless you have sky etc..

I think its a joke we have to pay the BBC for a licence when they cannot even get us a signal worth watching! scumbag bbc rip off merchants

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 23 Nov 2006, 18:29

romerojpg wrote:Bullshit

What that the trial was a success? It focused on only 450 people and yep it was a success.

romerojpg wrote:we and many millions of other people cannot even get good standard digital TV, never mind HD. Our picture and everyone we know has shitty image quality, unless you have sky etc..

No one said anything different. This is focusing solely on HD not Standard Freeview which btw will jump from 75% who can get it to 98.9% at analogue switch off (whether that means 98.9% can get a good signal I don't know but it will mean more than currently can).

romerojpg wrote:I think its a joke we have to pay the BBC for a licence when they cannot even get us a signal worth watching! scumbag bbc rip off merchants

The BBC don't own Freeview so your beef makes no sense.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 23 Nov 2006, 18:58

But you have to pay a licence to the BBC if you have a TV, which is what Romero means I think

Freeview is only £40-ish though, hardly bank breaking IMO.

My freeview is mostly fine, the BBC channels/5 are a bit iffy though but the signal is better in the evening/night for some reason (as is on terrestrial in our house).

Hopefully it will get better once the switch-off comes or we get a new arial (which we'll have to).

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 23 Nov 2006, 19:52

grim_tales wrote:But you have to pay a licence to the BBC if you have a TV, which is what Romero means I think Freeview is only £40-ish though, hardly bank breaking IMO.

Of course I know he does but you can't complain at Freeview for the BBC charging you. That makes no sense.

£40 no way, it's £22 but £30 for a reasonable box. For £40-50 you'll get a proper Branded Panasonic type make.

grim_tales wrote:My freeview is mostly fine, the BBC channels/5 are a bit iffy though but the signal is better in the evening/night for some reason (as is on terrestrial in our house).

It sounds like you just need an aerial upgrade.

My Freeview is signal 100% perfect 24/7, 365. It used to be a bit dodgy but hasn't been for year now.

grim_tales wrote:we get a new arial (which we'll have to).

No you won't. The signal will only get stronger at switch off, it won't change otherwise. You may as well do it now tbh.

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 23 Nov 2006, 19:57

Most freeview looks fine, on a small TV, blow the image up to say 37 inches or over and its absolute pants for most people, in fact its shocking even with a great signal on larger screens. HD I really cannot see being any better as they will be usin the same transmitters etc.. hence it wont exactly be good for anyone who has crappy signal (which is most the UK)

My beef with the BBC is a big one, as you cannot get Freeview without a TV lisence, hence the BBC own the world of UK TV. They make all the cash and should be forced to stick some of it back into tech to get the signal worth even watching, instead of blowing billions on TV and Radio no one watches and doesnt even want. Grrr.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 23 Nov 2006, 20:03

romerojpg wrote:Most freeview looks fine, on a small TV, blow the image up to say 37 inches or over and its absolute pants for most people, in fact its shocking even with a great signal on larger screens.

Well the same applies to ALL transmission TV including Sky.

romerojpg wrote:HD I really cannot see being any better as they will be usin the same transmitters etc.. hence it wont exactly be good for anyone who has crappy signal (which is most the UK)

You're right we should give up on HD now because HD-DVD and BD look no better than DVD do they

Considering Freeview HD is years off how you could make such a statement accurately is beyond me. You've no idea what transmitters they'll be using. Freeview HD isn't remotely on the cards until analogue switch off and by then the signal strength etc... will be very different than it is today so therefore any assumptions are just that assumptions.

romerojpg wrote:My beef with the BBC is a big one, as you cannot get Freeview without a TV lisence, hence the BBC own the world of UK TV. They make all the cash and should be forced to stick some of it back into tech to get the signal worth even watching, instead of blowing billions on TV and Radio no one watches and doesnt even want. Grrr.

Agreed but your beef is with the BBC not Freeview.

Besides millions of people watch BBC1 and listen to Radio 1 before you even get to the other channels. So millions is hardly no one.

Move house if it bothers you "that" much, like I said it's perfect for me. At the end of the day I'm excited about Freeview HD even if you're not

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 23 Nov 2006, 20:08

Hey thats why I barley even watch TV, I buy the dvds

HD Freeview in my eyes is so far away its just worthless at the moment to everyone. Things will have moved on by the time it comes out

look at Japan etc.. they are even further ahead and are now watching things so detailed it blows UK HD away, never mind in 4 years when HD comes to freeview

still I am excited about HD, more so now I want a Bigger TV, as I know how poor standard stuff (TV and DVD's) looks on Big screens. But hell its all change and by the time the Uk has all this stuff, we will be 5 years behind america and 8 years behind Japan once again, its frustrating as hell that the UK is so pathetic when it comes to service in TV, and hell most other things! like Broadband! grrrr.

and some of the shitty BBC radio stations get so little listeners they barley even register on the counter apprently

a few thousand at times! thats silly to spend hundreds of thousands for a few people. BBC = wasteof cash, get sponsers andI would be far happier, add breaks are better than crappy BBC ads anyday.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 23 Nov 2006, 20:14

Agreed I'd prefer commercials like everyone else than the rip off price we're forced to pay.

It should be illegal!

romerojpg wrote:HD Freeview in my eyes is so far away its just worthless at the moment to everyone.

Of course but I'd still like to keep an eye on the latest.

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 23 Nov 2006, 20:31

It will be nice to see when the announce an official date, as these things change so much, like the turning off of the analogue signal. I still think the analogue signal is better than my Digital as digital for me is pretty choppy and blocky, at least analogue is stable and nice to look at (if not in widescreen

).

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 23 Nov 2006, 20:39

I've not watched analogue rubbish for years. I wish they'd get on and turn it off (IMO).

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 23 Nov 2006, 20:47

Wonder if they've actually stopped broadcasting it. I wasn't part of the trial but anybody with a tuner could get it but I sadly broke the comp my card was in the other day. Never seen a broadcast that looked better, very high bitrate AVC with advanced parameters. And unlike Sky HD you can capture the whole thing.

IronMonkey · Post by **IronMonkey** » 23 Nov 2006, 20:51

romerojpg wrote:look at Japan etc.. they are even further ahead and are now watching things so detailed it blows UK HD away, never mind in 4 years when HD comes to freeview

I'm pretty sure they are watching 1080p stuff at the moment actually, which is no better than what is available to us. There are talks that 2160p is in the works but as I gather it is nowhere near final yet.

Besides, you've got to remember that Japan is always going to be about 15 years ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to technology. They have had HD broadcasts since 1991 (or at least the early 1990s) I believe.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 23 Nov 2006, 21:10

IronMonkey wrote:I'm pretty sure they are watching 1080p stuff at the moment actually, which is no better than what is available to us. There are talks that 2160p is in the works but as I gather it is nowhere near final yet.

I'm sure I read we're getting 1080i not 1080p.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 23 Nov 2006, 23:45

£30? Blimey didnt know it was that cheap. Mine is a Nokia Mediamaster (something like that). The guy who came round to fix our tellies when we moved here gave me that one.
You're right, an arial upgrade is probably whats needed, though most channels are perfectly fine 24/7, its just the BBC ones which arent always.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 24 Nov 2006, 22:07

I'd upgrade.

£30 will get you a decent box, £20-25 a dodgy one but of course all technically give the same channels. £40-50 a nice one with TopUPTV slot.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 24 Nov 2006, 22:21

My one doesnt have a Top Up TV slot, its a different type of box, its a Pace Box (?) or something, quite small. I doubt its dodgy though

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 24 Nov 2006, 22:29

I doubt it is too. Only about 1 or 2 in 10 have a card slot (just my guess) and NO Recorders have a slot (that is a DVD or Hard Disc Recorder with Freeview).

p.s - I meant dodgy as in cheap parts which cause it to freeze/break up not that it's bootleg.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 24 Nov 2006, 23:58

When I first got it it used to piss me off by freezing some of the time or refusing to turn off (I've read pretty poor reviews for it TBH) but its not so bad now TBH.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 25 Nov 2006, 15:26

Is this a family Freeview box or your bedroom one? If a bedroom one you may as well get your own too (I recommend the Wharfedale at Argos).

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 25 Nov 2006, 15:34

Its my bedroom one.

IronMonkey · Post by **IronMonkey** » 25 Nov 2006, 16:26

bradavon wrote:
IronMonkey wrote:I'm pretty sure they are watching 1080p stuff at the moment actually, which is no better than what is available to us. There are talks that 2160p is in the works but as I gather it is nowhere near final yet.
I'm sure I read we're getting 1080i not 1080p.

I meant in Japan, not over here. Yes, we get 1080i over here & in Japan they get 1080p.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 25 Nov 2006, 17:00

in Japan they get 1080p.

In Japan they get schoolgirls dressed like this:

Do they know how lucky they are ?

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 25 Nov 2006, 17:08

YOOZER! 8)

What's the state of play for analogue switch off in France Tom?

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 25 Nov 2006, 17:30

Over here we've got TNT (Télévision Numérique Terrestre) aka Digital Terrestrial Television in most big cities.
The analogue switch off is set for 2011. It should also mean the end of the SECAM format.

We got about 30 channels on TNT so far.
Free channels are encoded in Mpeg-2.
Pay channels are encoded in Mpeg-4.

I'm still using cable myself.

21 standard-def channels in Mpeg-2.