Other RWAP Websites
RWAP
Adventures
Internet Business Angels
|
Many countries around the world are looking to turn off the analogue television signal around 2010. Here in the UK, it is proposed to start the switch-off in 2008, on a phased basis ending in 2012. Once the analogue service is switched off in your area, you will need equipment to allow you to receive Digital Television. What is Analogue / Digital Television? The first television signals were broadcast over the airwaves by John Logi Baird in 1929.Although his mechanical method of recording the pictures and displaying them on the television screen was soon replaced by an electronic system developed by Marconi and EMI, television has continued to be transmitted as a series of radio waves in the UHF band. Each channel utilises quite a large amount of bandwidth for the sound and television waves to be transmitted without interference and even so, in poor conditions, you would get what is commonly known as "Snow" on the picture. The advent of teletext saw extra data being transmitted at the top of each frame, providing numerous pages of text which could also be viewed with a teletext enabled TV set. You can sometimes see the teletext signal at the top of a television picture, as a series of flashing dots. This is an analogue television signal. With the advent of the microchip and fast computers, a new system of transmission was developed - Digital Television, which converts each frame of the television picture into a series of binary data which can be compressed before transmission over the air. Equipment in the viewers' home can then decompress that data stream and convert it back into the original picture. This means that a lot more channels can be packed into the same bandwidth, without loss of data or quality. The only downside of this, is that if there is a weak signal, you may see blocks on the screen where the data was received incomplete, rather than under the analogue transmission method, where you would get a fuzzy version of the picture. Compression techniques for the picture have to be compromised to cope with the teletext signal, therefore digital text has taken over, which has its own dedicated digital channel for transmission. Some people miss the look and feel of the original Teletext, but this means that you do not need a special television to view the service. This is a digital television signal. Why the Switch Over to Digital? How do I get Digital TV? Sky: This provides a Satellite TV service - you will need a satellite dish in order to pick up the signal from their satellite transmitters. You purchase the set-top box from Sky as part of your subscription. Again, there is a range of satellite television packages, you can subscribe to freesat to receive a range of free to air channels (although you have to purchase the set top box and satellite dish, costing £150). HomeChoice and BT Vision: Both of these operators utilise the existing telephone network to transmit television signals - however, the areas are currently limited as not all telephone exchanges have the necessary equipment. Your ability to use the network also depends on the distance you are from the telephone exchange. These providers both provide the set-top box as part of the monthly subscription. They do not offer a free package. Freeview: This service is transmitted by radio waves as with the analogue TV signal. You therefore do not need any other equipment other than a set top box (or TV set with a build in decoder). You need to purchase the set top box separately, although these are available from £25 upwards. This is a totally free service once you have purchased a suitable decoder, however the range of channels is more limited than with other services. Currently, not all freeview channels are transmitted at full power (in order to leave room for analogue TV signals), and therefore the range of channels available will depend on where you live and any nearby interference. You may also need to purchase a higher gain aerial. Top Up TV Active: This is an enhanced Freeview service which requires a specialist set top box with a built in hard disk (a Personal Video Recorder - PVR). There is a monthly subscription but it is different to other services, in that the additional channels are downloaded to your PVR overnight, for you to watch the next day. You can however still watch the standard Freeview channels at the same time. Which Provider Should I Choose? It depends to some extent on how much you are willing to spend - digital television comes at a cost. Freeview and the free television package from The range of channels on the free services are fairly similar, with Freesat offering the most channels.
Next there are the cable companies. There are really two cable operators in the UK, Virgin Media and Kingston Communications. Kingston Communications covers only the Hull area and we have no experience of them and therefore cannot really comment on their service. Cable can offer full video on demand services (unlike Freeview or Sky), and also offer Catch-Up Facilities to all customers, whereby popular content from a few channels is stored centrally for a week and can be watched via the set-top box at no cost at a time to suit the viewer. The other main digital television services operator is HomeChoice closely followed by BT Vision - both offer a combined television and broadband internet service. This service offers both 80+ television and radio channels as well as video on demand (with over 1,000 films, 3,000 music videos and hundreds of TV series all of which can be watched at a time to suit yourself. However, the service is currently limited to BBC One and Channel 4 series. This provides television channels via your telephone line (using a broadband connection. However, it is limited to the London area and Stevenage at present, which means that it only serves a small percentage of the population. Digital TV Services Overview and Installation The main competitors for digital TV and telephone services are Sky or Freeview together with a BT landline, or a mobile phone. If you want to use the interactive services, then you will need a land-line to allow two-way communication and this therefore forms one of the big bonuses for cable TV services. Unlike Sky, using the interactive part of cable television does not tie up your phone line nor incur any phone charges. Freeview also only offers the free to air channels (approx 45 television and radio channels) and do not offer any pay per view channels or films. On the other hand, you can easily switch your packages once you have subscribed to cable TV (you need to give 30 days notice). If you live in London or Stevenage and have a BT residential line, then you might like to consider HomeChoice which allows you to connect a television set to digital TV channels via your phone line and a set top box. The HomeChoice television service is broadcast over the DSL/ADSL broadband network, which does mean that the number of houses covered is currently limited and you do have to subscribe to the broadband service as well as telephone call service from HomeChoice itself. That said, packages for 1Mb broadband, plus the TV service and free evening and weekend calls start from £27.50pm, which makes it quite competitive, compared to a similar service from Sky and BT or Virgin Media. However, the main problem at the moment with HomeChoice (besides its limited availability) is the small number of channels currently available. However, if you are in the target area and fancy access to the Video On Demand services, then it is worth considering this alternative. You also need to compare the cost of the basic digital cable TV and phone line from Virgin Media (£11pm), as against the cost of buying a Freeview box out-right (from £25) or subscribing to a Sky package (the cheapest BSkyB package is freesat, but costs £150 to install and also excludes a phone line). On top of Freeview and Sky, is the BT monthly line rental for a phone alone (approx £11pm inc. VAT). Call charges are generally around the same as BT calls, although there are a large number of different packages available to subscribers of both telephone services which may decide which telephone package is cheapest for you - see our comparison of telephone charges. Although you can use BSkyB and Freeview without a phone line, you will lose the right to a cut price installation of BSkyB unless you keep a land line connected to the set-top box for the first 12 months of the contract. Installation costs are in the region of £100 for BSkyB (although they normally have cut price installation packages of £19.50pm or more, provided you also maintain a phone line connected to the box) and £50 for Virgin Media for both the TV and telephone service (although Virgin Medianormally offer free installation for any of their packages). The price of installing a second Virgin Media phone line is only £25 (you can no longer ask just for the phone line to be installed unless you are an existing Virgin Media customer). This is a huge discount compared to BT's standard installation charge of £125!! Digital TV Services At some stage (2006?), traditional television transmission (analogue) is due to be switched off and the only way of watching television channels is via Digital TV. There are several options available to allow you to receive digital television services:
The range of television channels vary greatly between providers and when you look at the number of channels provided in a package, you have to beware that this does not always break the figures down between actual television channels and digital radio channels which are also provided. A close look at the various channel line-ups is also recommended as there are a large number of highly specialised channels, shopping channels, music channels and +1 channels (which are the same as the original channel, but delayed by one hour). It is all too easy to get persuaded to part with £30-£40 pm for 100 -200 channels to find that most of the channels are ones which have no interest for you.
Freeview and HomeChoice offer the smallest range
of channels on their packages and one of the other main problems with Freeview
is that it has a very limited bandwidth, which means that many of the channels
are only transmitted for short periods each day. However, HomeChoice
does have the additional benefit of offering Video on Demand services,
providing a catalogue of
to 1,000+ films,
3,000+ music videos and various television series (although currently only
from the BBC and Channel 4). Freeview offers a digital television service through your
aerial (although you may find that you need to get an aerial
upgrade), without a subscription fee - you pay a one-off fee
for the freeview box (there are several makes available, all
of which offer different software and facilities and each has
its own problems, so we recommend that you research thoroughly
before buying a box). We
have tried Freeview on two different set top boxes, and
although it does provide a good simple means of obtaining
digital versions of the five basic terrestrial channels (plus
a few extra ones and digital radio channels), we were
disappointed by the restricted viewing hours on many of the
channels, such as UKTV Gold and Cartoon Network, which are
available for much longer hours on both cable and satellite. We also found that the boxes can be slow to react to the
remote control, and it is difficult on some set top
boxes to obtain up to date details of what is on other
channels unless you switch to those channels first.
Freeview does provide a 7 day EPG (programming guide) which is
sadly missing on Virgin Media, but there was no
facility to compare what is on all channels at the same time.
We were also surprised that none of the channels carry
Teletext or Ceefax, although there are devoted channels to BBC
interactive and digital Teletext (neither of which carry the
full information available through the standard services).
Both cable and satellite transmit this text service alongside
the programming, allowing you to still use the Teletext button
on your TV remote to access it. TopUpTV is a new subscription service which offers a few
additional channels through your Freeview box (though not all
boxes are compatible) for around £7.99 pm - however, we felt that
the channels on offer and the restricted viewing hours did not
justify the additional expense. How To Connect More Than One Television Set Most households have more than one television set and so you have to consider that if the analogue transmission service is switched off in the future, how are you going to connect all of your televisions to the digital service. If you own only digital television sets (or put a digital television card in your PCs) and are happy with Freeview, then you will be able to use the Freeview service in each room (although a portable aerial will probably not be sufficient) If you do not have a digital television set, then you can also consider connecting a digisender to your main set top box and attach a receiver to each television set. This will enable the secondary television sets (with the receiver) to view the same channel as is on the main set top box - you will also need to consider a two-way system (an infra-red repeater/sender system) which allows you to change the channel on the set top box from another room, although you will still only be able to watch one channel on all televisions. Cable subscribers will also need to ensure that the digisender is compatible with a cable set top box and may need a redeye convertor because the cable set top boxes use a different set of codes (IRdA) to those sent by standard remote controls. One digisender which works straight out of the box with cable television is the AEI Digisender Gold. This will also provide remote control of DVD and PVR functions, allowing you to also watch those remotely. However, if you want to watch a different channel or use some of the other services available through Digital TV on another television set, then you will need to obtain another set top box. In the majority of cases, this is what most people will require - however, it can prove an expensive option. At present, if you have a subscription to Sky or Cable digital television, you will need to pay an additional subscription fee for each additional set top box. This fee is fixed no matter which package your household is subscribed to (Sky charge £10pm for each additional box). This is good value if you want access to the top packages on each box, but seems a ridiculous charge if you are only subscribed to one of the lower packages. There is also a maximum of 3 set top boxes per household on all 3 of these systems. Sky users might also like to consider purchasing a second hand set top box and connecting it to their system provided that they are willing to accept just the freesat channels, but cannot do this if they wish to watch the Sky subscription channels. The other option is to subscribe to a different service provider, for example by purchasing a Freeview set-top box. If you are a Sky subscriber, you might actually decide to use a Virgin Media telephone line and their starter package for £14.50pm rather than paying Sky £10pm plus your BT line rental of £11.50pm (thus saving £7pm).
In all of these options however, you have to
consider the additional installation costs (and whether you might need an aerial
upgrade for Freeview), as well as the range of channels available and required
for secondary television sets..
Low Cost E-Mail and Messenger Services One of the advantages of
having a set top box connected to your television set, has to be the ability to
use the set-top box to send and receive e-mail. This can be particularly
useful for people who cannot afford to purchase a PC or find the kids always hog
the family computer. Although Virgin Media and Sky all offer the facility to
send and receive e-mails through the set top box, the implementation of the
service differs between the providers. Sky users will find that using this
facility ties up their phone line and they also have to pay for the time that
the box is connected to the internet which can be a bit off-putting. The
Sky service also seems slow and cumbersome compared to that offered by the cable
operators (although Sky do have the added facility of an address book - a
feature sadly lacking on the cable version). On the other hand, this is a
completely free service from Virgin Media (provided you have the set top box
of course) and does not tie up your phone line. Recording Digital TV
Although it is relatively simple to video programs which you
are watching through the digital TV service, you can only video
whatever the set-top box is looking at. This means that if
you want to video one channel whilst watching another, you either
have to watch the terrestrial TV service, or use a second set top
box. You have to bear in mind that if you change channel on
the set top box, whilst you are videoing a program from the
set-top box, you will record the changes as well!! However, the good news is that none of the channels on
cable television (including the film channels such as Front Row) are copy protected, which means that you can use
a standard video recorder to record your favourite programs and
films still. One of the ways around the limitations on videoing digital
TV services, is to use a Personal Video Recorders. BSkyB
provides these under the Sky+ brand. Freeview users have a wide range of PVRs
available although again, their features vary greatly. A Personal Video Recorder stores up to 80 hours of programs
digitally onto a hard disk (basically you need to compare the size
of the hard disk - 2Gb per hour), to be later screened on the
television, or copied onto normal video tape or a DVD if you have
a DVD recorder. It also
features live pause facilities, where you can pause a program
which you are currently watching for up to 30 minutes, to resume
later on (even if the program is still being transmitted). A
Personal Video Recorder is also the only method by which you can record
one digital television channel whilst watching another (although
to do this you need a PVR with twin tuners).
The best part about it, is that the Personal Video Recorder
can be taught your watching habits and video programs
automatically which you would normally watch but have
forgotten, or which star a given actor/actress. They can
also be set up to video an entire series of a program, without
you needing to remember to program the video for each episode.
This type of functionality is one of the best selling points
of digital television. A Personal Video Recorder costs around £250, plus £50
installation fee (if you do not want to install it yourself)
and £10 per month subscription (or a lifetime subscription
linked to that specific Personal Video Recorder for £199). Video On Demand (VOD)
Services One of the
catchwords of Digital Television is Video on Demand. To some extent, this
is already available on Sky through Front Row and Sky Box Office which offers Pay
Per View movies. However, this is not a true video on demand service,
since each movie has a specific start time (although admittedly this is normally
15 minutes - 30 minutes apart) and once the movie starts broadcasting you have
no control over it. HomeChoice and Kingston Communication subscribers have access to a TV on demand service where you pay a small fee to watch any TV program which has been on the television network as well as a large back catalogue of films and music videos. The program starts as soon as you have paid for it and some of the programs are available free of charge. Video On Demand should place cable television in front of Sky and Freeview which will be unable to offer similar services for some time. Coupled with a personal video recorder and the +1 hour delayed channels, this means that you should never have to miss another program or film agai n.Technical Help Although technical help is free for digital customers, there can be fairly long queuing times before you get to speak to one of their customer service advisers. However, it must be bourn in mind that a lot of technical queries will take an average of 15-20 minutes to resolve, and therefore an average waiting time of 15 minutes is only to be expected. That said, the past few months has seen a drastic reduction in waiting for customer services and it is unusual to have to wait longer than 2 or 3 minutes.
Overall
In
all, we think that the digital television services provide plenty of exciting
opportunities for home entertainment (although at a cost). No one provider
stands out as much better than the others and you have to compare the wide range
of packages and channels available in order to decide which suits your needs the
best.
If you want to find out news of what is happening on Digital TV and air your
own views, we would recommend that you try the Digital Spy
network, which has a
wide range of various discussion forums as well as news releases from the
various TV companies and service providers.. Although Freeview is
probably expanding at a much quicker rate than either satellite or cable
television, we would urge you to compare the features and consumer reviews of
the various set top boxes available before deciding which one to purchase.
You also need to bear in mind that new services may require you to but an
updated set top box and in reality the service offered by Freeview is intended
to replace only the standard 5 terrestrial channels, not to offer you an insight
into the whole new world of digital TV. If you want a low cost solution,
then we would recommend that you either consider subscribing to the low cost
starter package offered by Virgin Media,
or look at the new freesat services offered by
Sky
whereby you pay a one-off fee for a box to receive around 140 channels without
any ongoing subscription charges.
Up to 200+ TV and digital radio channels plus Sky+ Personal Video Recorder (PVR) 50+ FREE TV and digital radio channels. 10 Extra
top-up TV channels
available on certain boxes. 98% approx of all UK homes 73% of homes in England, Scotland and Wales. Packages from £13.50 a month No subscription charge for basic channels. Sky Box Office – 62 Movies screens, 9 Preview screens and 1 Events screen. Movies start as often as every 15 minutes None Interactive TV services behind selected channels Sky News Active Interactive TV services on selected channels Sky box with minidish plus one off installation charge. Set-top box or through an integrated digital TV. If you want to compare digital TV
packages (although this does not include the price of the
phone line), we have found that the best site to look at
is:
|
