HD Freeview

[dothawkes31]

I've checked my postcode on the freeview website and it says i can get HD BBC and ITV and C4, I have a samsung HD ready TV with built in freeview . what else should i need to view these freeview HD channels?

[Buenchico]

While your TV is 'HD ready', its Freeview tuner almost certainly isn't. (Manufacturers were producing 'HD ready' TVs, with Blu-Ray players and satellite HD in mind, well before HD on Freeview became a reality).

Unless your TV was described as having 'Freeview HD' when you bought it (which would have been very recently) you'll need a set-top box in order to provide the special type of tuner that you need.

There are still only a few models available. Click on the image (on the left side of Section 3) here, to see what's on offer:
http://www.freeview.co.uk/freeview/HD/Products

Chris

[dothawkes31]

I've had this TV less than 2 years, will i need to upgrade again? I';ve nly ust bought a little pink freeview box or upstairs too, it's bloody complicated. We didn't know how lucky we were to just have channel 1 2 and 3 lol

[AlBags]

I thought you knew about this, Dot ..
You need a HD Freeview or HD Freesat box .. or HD receiver built in.
Anyway .. thought you had reception problems .. or is that just occasionally?

[dothawkes31]

No I don;t think I;ve ever had a problem with this tele with the built in freeview, but i thought it was HD ready to show HD Tv, i didn't realise it was HD ready but wouldn't be ready for HD

[dothawkes31]

If the specs say it's HD ready, where does the HD come from if not inside the TV? Why do I have t but another freeview bx to attach t a TV with bult in freeview?

[Buenchico]

Unless you really can't do without HD programmes on Freeview it might be best to wait a while. As my link shows, Freeview HD boxes currently cost at least 5 times as much as you'd pay for a standard Freeview box. Freeview HD boxes with a recording function aren't even available yet (which is why the image of one is greyed-out in my link); when they first come onto the market they'll almost certainly be very expensive. If you wait a while,prices will start to come down (probably quite dramatically).

I've currently got the TV on next to my desk. It's the one I usually watch, with a 4" LCD screen! (My 'big' TV, which I haven't watched for several months, is an old 14" CRT portable). I really can't see the point in massive screens and HD. I'm perfectly happy with my little telly!

Chris

[dothawkes31]

Oh no I need a big screen, in 1975 Mum and Dad got a huge 32 inch colour TV in a massive cabinet, it was proper huge, like a massive chest of drawers! My flat screen is the same size I think screen wise.

[AlBags]

HD TV .. or HD ready TV just means it will display a HD picture (there are a couple of specs involving the number of lines in the picture .. 720 and 1080)
Built-in Freeview OR Freesat (which a few have) is Standard Definition quality (SD)
HD broadcasting standards had not been agreed among the various
manufacturers at the time, so SD became the norm.

This is the problem with technology. Latest today is out of date tomorrow.

So you can only plug in ...
HD Sky Box (HDMI or component cables)
HD Freesat Box (ditto)
HD Freeview Box (ditto)
Other HD source, like Gaming boxes or PC's with compatible HD outputs (using licensed devices, or you will not see a picture) (ditto)

[dothawkes31]

so my HD ready TV is not actually an HD TV? bloody conned, what a load of techno garbage they spew at you and make you think everything is gonna work grrrr I'm not happy, I've been watching the freeview ads saying to go on their site and check if our postcode can get HD and we can, they fail to say that ust cos you;ve already got an HD ready TV doesnlt mean it's ready to show the HD channels.

[Buenchico]

You've been posting, Dot, while I've been typing. I'll try to catch up!

Blu-Ray disc players produce an HD output signal, so manufacturers designed 'HD ready' TVs that could be used with them. At about the same time as Blu-Ray players were coming onto the market, Sky was also beginning trials of HD TV from its satellites. So 'HD ready' TVs were designed to have something else plugged into them (either a Blu-Ray player or a Sky HD box) in order to display HD programming.

Clearly anyone purchasing a new TV would also expect it to be capable of receiving Freeview. So manufacturers built 'ordinary' Freeview tuners into their sets. It was initially thought that it would be impossible to transmit HD signals on Freeview (because of bandwidth restrictions), so nobody had even thought of (yet alone manufactured) HD tuners for the Freeview system. It's now been found that there is some limited bandwidth capacity within the Freeview system, which can carry a small number of HD channels. The HD signals can't be handled by 'ordinary' Freeview tuners, so you need to acquire a new tuner. You can either buy a completely new TV set or (far cheaper) an HD set-top box.

Chris

[AlBags]

Chris ...
You need to stop using Wiki .. searching for all these wrong answers.

Humax Fox T2 is HD Freeview and PVR available up to 500Gb.
That's just for a start.
They do Freesat HD PVR too.

[AlBags]

Yes Dot, it is.
It can display them with an HD input.
Conned to a certain degree, like the rest of us. I think the manufacturers knew it was coming .. but not quite so quickly. So we have all ended up with cheap Freeview boards in out TV's.
A freeview board only costa a few quid. To add it is nothing, really.

[dothawkes31]

I'm just going to email samsung and ask them why they sold me an HD ready TV that I can't watch the HD channels on, I'll let you know if and when they reply, the bastards, I;m not happy, I feel totally conned, the salepeople tld me it was HD ready for when HD tv started, but it is blatently not.

[Buenchico]

Al:
My answer was based upon the current information shown on the official Freeview website. (See my link above). If their own site can't keep up to date it only goes to show just how fast things are changing!

[AlBags]

Official sites never show the latest news. You should know that.

[dothawkes31]

well they owe me a tele capable of showing HD channels and I want it installed by the first England match on saturday or i'm throwing the TV in their shop window

[dothawkes31]

I've got a phone number for samsung off their site and i;m going to ring them tomorrow and kick seven bells out of them, metaphorically speaking

[AlBags]

Look no further ... Everything here ... Standards .. HD, Specs ....

http://www.hummy.org.uk/forums/

[AlBags]

Well done Dot : )