As I said, it needs to be a freeview "HD" tuner for you to receive HD via freeview, a normal freeview tuner will not give you HD.
Quite simply, if you can see the HD channels in your program guide you can get HD, if not then you've not got a freeview HD tuner and can't receive HD via freeview.
If only this logo is shown
http://www.aerialaid....ges/freeview-logo.gif
then your set is simply 'HD ready'. That means that it can display an HD signal from an external soure, such as a Blu-Ray disk player, a Sky HD box or a Freeview HD set-top box, but it doesn't have its own HD tuner built into it.
No you're not alone. A while back my brother was trying to show me the effects of HD by switching between HD TV and Non HD on a Rugby match. He was almost getting angry with me that I was struggling to tell the difference.
Chris, I'll see what logo the TV has when I get home. Thanks!