Can't get HD freeview

Hedgehog99

Have you checked the colour code of your aerial? There should be a plastic coloured end which you can then look up on this table:
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Technical/Aerials/Aerial_Selection_Guide.html

Compare the range of your aerial with the channel range you should receive in your area.

There's a lot of fuss about needing an outside aerial, but I get good reception/channel availability from my loft aerial after swapping the red coded one (too narrow a range to get all channels) for a black coded one.

...although my TV dates from 1997!

Broadwood

almillar wrote: »

Broadwood - this is rubbish. You're telling me that most kit on sale today is Freeview SD, not Freeview HD. Not true. Look through the Argos or Currys websites and get yourself up to date.
I'll accept that there is plenty of DVB (1) kit still being used, AND I accept that it seems unfair for SD viewers to lose an SD channel, but that's down to the broadcasters, and I don't really think you can blame the government - the broadcasters crave bandwidth, and to cram more channels in. DVB2 is more efficient, and allows them to stuff more in.
My question is, how long do you intend to stay in the SD world?

I didn't say most, I said the majority (i.e.more than 51%).
In my local Tesco Extra and Currys PC World recently it was more than half without Freeview HD tuners.
I have just counted up the totals for Freeview or Freeview HD tuner equipped tvs, set-top boxes and PVRs in the current Argos catalogue. Even though ALL the tvs were being sold as HD, Full HD or HD ready the count was 52 Freeview only tuners against 87 Freeview HD tuners. That's still 37% of equipment being sold without DVB-T2 tuners by Argos in their catalogue.

Many people must be buying tvs WITHOUT HD tuners but think they can receive HD because they are sold as HD capable or FULL HD or HD Ready. The manufacturers are playing with words and they could rightly be accused of misleading people with the small print. It's a bit like describing a tv as a colour tv because it is made of blue or red plastic, even though the picture only displays in monochrome (B&W).

Broadwood

almillar wrote: »

- the broadcasters crave bandwidth, and to cram more channels in. DVB2 is more efficient, and allows them to stuff more in.
My question is, how long do you intend to stay in the SD world?

Which means it will end up like DAB radio - more channels, less stereo, more mono, lower bitrates. Poor quality, but load of it.

[Deleted User]

Broadwood wrote: »

I have just counted up the totals for Freeview or Freeview HD tuner equipped tvs, set-top boxes and PVRs in the current Argos catalogue. Even though ALL the tvs were being sold as HD, Full HD or HD ready the count was 52 Freeview only tuners against 87 Freeview HD tuners. That's still 37% of equipment being sold without DVB-T2 tuners by Argos in their catalogue.

Have you taken it upon yourself to reveal this "con" to the world? Of course the cheapest set top boxes are not HD, that's why they are so cheap.



I don't think it's a "con" to say that you get what you pay for, even for FREEview!:D

almillar

That's still 37% of equipment being sold without DVB-T2 tuners by Argos in their catalogue.

Thanks for taking the time to do that, but you prove yourself wrong. The majority of TVs on sale in Argos that you counted DO have an HD tuner. I bet if you got rid of the smaller TVs so that we're talking about 'main TV' or living room TV, it would be even more of a majority.

You're right about the conventions, and I've posted on it many times. HD ready is the only official one, and to get this sticker, a TV has to have at least 720 lines vertically, and at least 1 HDMI port. Everything else is marketing, buyer beware.

Agree 100% about the low bitrate mess that is DAB, but TV is already there if you want to waste your time looking at some SD music or shopping channels, on Sky, Freesat, Freeview at least.

Broadwood

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

Have you taken it upon yourself to reveal this "con" to the world? Of course the cheapest set top boxes are not HD, that's why they are so cheap.



I don't think it's a "con" to say that you get what you pay for, even for FREEview!:D

From talking to family and friends and even work-colleagues, over the last year or two, whenever the subject strays onto TVs, loads of them are convinced that because their TV screen is HD (ready or full or whatever), it follows that all that they watch on it is HD - be it DVDs or standard Freeview.

IMHO too many non-techy people especially those aged over about 45 fail to understand that you need either a built-in HD tuner or HD box or Blue-Ray player etc for the resulting picture to be an HD picture.

Marketing for AV products generally is confusing and sometimes misleading. That's my personal view from my experience to date anyway.

Nilrem

HD ready means it can display 720p and iirc has inputs suitable for it (IE component, VGA, DVI or HDMI*).
Full HD means that it can display the full 1080p HD format, and IIRC that it has at least one HDMI connection.

The tuners etc are separate, and usually have their own logo's and specific mentions in the product title and manual.
For example Freeview means it's able to receive digital TV at the minimum specification called for by the Freeview consortium (so things like the EPG and user interface have to have certain things as standard).
Freeview HD means it's got a HD tuner and is suitable for the uk.

It's been a matter of confusion since the first HD ready/Full HD sets came out, as at the time there were no HD transmissions on terrestrial, and indeed for a while after the full HD sets arrived the format of the terrestrial HD transmissions was not decided (the UK from memory uses a different method than some of the rest of Europe).



*Early HD ready sets did not even have HDMI, as from memory HDMI didn't reach mainstream use for a couple of years after the first HD ready sets came out (and from memory early Sky HD boxes had both component and HDMI).

[Deleted User]

Broadwood wrote: »

IMHO too many non-techy people especially those aged over about 45 fail to understand that you need either a built-in HD tuner or HD box or Blue-Ray player etc for the resulting picture to be an HD picture.

While that may well be the case, I fail to see how this misunderstanding is somehow a "con" by manufacturers. In the early days of colour broadcasting, many programmes were still broadcast in Black & White-but customers still had Colour enabled sets. I really see little difference with today's latest technological improvements.

It's also the case that some people cannot tell the difference between HD and standard definition. I know I've been in homes were HD channels were ignored in favour of their SD equivalents simply because the latter appear earlier in the EPG. This is another reason for some being confused by the issue.

Again, I don't see this as a "con". and I resent the implication that "those over about 45" need to be led by the nose when purchasing a TV or Freeview set top box.

There will always be improvements in TV technology, otherwise we'd all still be watching on a twelve inch screen with a huge cathode ray tube at the rear!:)

custardy

45?! jeez. Not long till I have my technology lobotomy I guess.....

[Deleted User]

custardy wrote: »

45?! jeez. Not long till I have my technology lobotomy I guess.....

I'm already 52.