Freeview and HD

[JAS]

Spotted this letter in my latest tv listings magazine. Not sure if the same would apply to you guys but if you plan buying a new tv and don't have satellite it might be worth checking if you're going to need extra boxes in the future cos I'll bet most people here have no idea that they won't be able to get FreeviewHD when it starts.

I'm going to wait a bit longer before replacing my crt tv now.

Regards
JAS

[Psyber]

Spotted this letter in my latest tv listings magazine. Not sure if the same would apply to you guys but if you plan buying a new tv and don't have satellite it might be worth checking if you're going to need extra boxes in the future cos I'll bet most people here have no idea that they won't be able to get FreeviewHD when it starts.

I'm going to wait a bit longer before replacing my crt tv now.

Regards
JAS

Yes the changeover is imminent here now - though I've forgotten the planned date.
It has been deferred once because not enough people had already bought HD [or "HD ready"] sets for the government not to fear a backlash when SD was stopped.
So, when my 12 year old CRT died a couple of years ago I bought a cheap replacement in anticipation - $300 for a Panasonic 21".
I've since added a cheap DGTEC HD digital tuner box to it - $99 - as a temporary measure.
I plan to buy a 1080P Plasma TV in January and a Panasonic PVR HDD/DVD recorder combination with twin HD tuners - about $3200 all up after a bit of heavy negotiating has taken place.

[JAS]

Must admit if I had bought an HDTV with built-in Freeview receiver I would have assumed it would be capable of receiving the FreeviewHD service too when it starts as it's been planned for some time now so that letter's reply saying you would need another set-top box was quite an eye-opener.

I tend to be the type who waits a bit before rushing out to buy new tech to let them iron out the inevitable kinks first and the crt still works just fine. I like the look of the led tv's I've seen on display so hoping by the time I've saved up to replace it they'll have dropped a bit in price.

Regards
JAS

[Westsider]

WTF?

http://freeview.com.au/channels/default.aspx?regionId=4

I have a regular hd and i get these channels

[Westsider]

Freeview is already transmitting, you dont need a specified freeview set top box

http://freeview.com.au/faq/

[Westsider]

Oh JAS isnt in australia, my bad!

[JAS]

Oh JAS isnt in australia, my bad!

Sorry Westrider I should have said that. Wasn't sure how much further along your freeview is...obviously better organised than ours then...just thought i'd give the heads-up incase you guys got stuffed the same way.

Regards
JAS

[Psyber]

I didn't pay it a lot of attention at the time, but I think in the early stages retailers here were offering allegedly "HD Ready" sets that were neither capable of rendering in HD, nor had anything but an SD tuner and a slot to plug an HD tuner into. They were able to scale down HD signals and display the scaled down version.
The punters, however, mostly saw through it and stayed away in droves - hence the deferment of our ending SD transmission
Sets of that type are still around, though, being touted as bargain buys at present to the unwary.

[dedja]

There is some confusion about the terms SD (standard definition) and HD (high definition).

PAL analogue is up to 576i = 576 lines of resolution, interlaced.

SD (digital) is 576p = 852 x 576 pixels, progressive

true (full) HD (digital) = 1080p = 1920 x 1080 pixels, progressive

the following (digital) are still considered HD (in Australia):

1080i = 1920 x 1080 pixels, interlaced
720p = 1280 x 720 pixels, progressive

The difference between progressive and interlaced is that progressive 'draws' each line in sequence, while interlaced is every 2nd line. Hence progressive gives you less 'flicker'.

Any (most!) HD tuner (whether it be internal or a set top box) or digital TV will be able to scale down from 1080p to 576i, so you can watch HD content on an SD TV (or analogue CRT TV) with no issues. A HD tuner will deliver both HD and SD content.

An SD tuner will only deliver SD programming, so you will not be able to receive any HD programming (so don't buy one of these!)

The problem is the vast majority of CRT TVs can only handle 576i and have an analogue tuner, so this is why you need a set top box or a TV with an inbuilt digital tuner because the analogue system will be phased out in Australia between 2010 and 2013. Once your area has had the analogue signal switched off, you must either purchase a digitial set top box (and scale the output signal to 576i) or purchase a TV with and inbuilt digital tuner. Digital TV has been broadcast in Australia from 2001.

Freeview or Freeview HD is just a marketing term the free to air broadcasters have devised in an attempt to differentiate themselves (but at the same time align to) the pay TV operators to try to protect market share.

I personally have a couple of LCD TVs at 1366 x 768 resolution, both with inbuilt HD tuners, and am able to enjoy all HD content (as well as SD), including Foxtel HD+. As stated earlier, an signal above 720P will just be scaled down to the native resolution of the TV with no problems.

There's just one thing to remember, the better the native resolution your TV is (ie best is 1080p), the better HD content will be displayed ... but the sting is that the lower the resoution of the source signal, the display will be worse than a lower resolution display (ie. 1080i, 720p or 576p).

Enjoy!