LCD TV are these any good....

haveagoade

What I mean is why buy a HD Tv with a freeview box in , cos by the time the switch over comes you'll be wanting a new HD equipped freeview box anyway. Its a waste and is quickly going to be as old a technology as an analogue tuner.

My experience has always been that the Tv should be nothing more than a monitor to play images from an external source.

Digital is all or nothing and poor signals are unbearable tonwatch unlike analogue where the old ghost or snow never hurt anyone.

Inbuilt freeviews don't work very well with portable Tv's, which the 20'' LCD can now be classed.

Seajays

Freeview doesn't transmit HD signals anyway yet - although there've been some trials you won't see any widespread roll-out until at least the end of the digital switch over (2012). So it will be several years at least before you start to see any widespread HD broadcast over freeview - and even then current freeview boxes are unlikely to cope (they won't have the hardware capable of dealing with it), so in the same way as you need a new Sky box to cope with HD, everyone'll need a new Freeview box too. That fact alone will probably delay implementation for years anyway (as everyone'll just have gone out and bought standard freeview set-top boxes for the switch over!)

That doesn't mean current integrated freeview/HD ready TVs are pointless either. It just means that in years to come, if you want to view HD freeview you'll need to get an external Freeview HD box, and connect it to your HD Ready IDTV (simply making the internal freeview tuner redundant) - not really any different to what you'd have to do with a non-IDTV - i.e. get a new external freeview box.

haveagoade

Its either HD or freeview...no point in having both really.

If its HD...then you are better off taking your source signal from a seperate box....either Sky or a HD ready DVD.....or eventually a HD Freeview box.

As I said for sub 20" LCD's which tend to be classed as portables these days a Digital freeview is often unusable cos of poor reception.

A digital signal does not like poor reception cos of its all or nothing nature, whilst the old steam driven analogue signal remains watcable with poor signals.

So this arguement is revolving around the 20" portable section of the market.

before_hollywood

have a look at richer sounds, i gave about £260 for a 23'' hd ready philips

http://www.richersounds.com/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=PHIL-23PF5321

that one, serious bargain

turtle2k1

haveagoade wrote: »

As I said for sub 20" LCD's which tend to be classed as portables these days a Digital freeview is often unusable cos of poor reception.

The size of the TV has nothing to do with the recpetion of freeview. Just because you class them as portables doesn't mean they will not have an adequate external aerial.

haveagoade

turtle2k1 wrote: »

The size of the TV has nothing to do with the recpetion of freeview. Just because you class them as portables doesn't mean they will not have an adequate external aerial.

You are not understanding the point I am making!

turtle2k1

haveagoade wrote: »

You are not understanding the point I am making!

Care to explain then!

Seajays

haveagoade wrote: »

Its either HD or freeview...no point in having both really.

Still disagree with this though...

I have an HD ready IDTV (freeview). I have an ordinary Sky box, and a DVD/HDD recorder. So no HD at the moment - although the TV is ready.

So at the moment, I can tape Sky, while watching freeview on the IDTV - and I don't need to have two set-top boxes! In the future I may get Sky HD or maybe even an XBOX360, so the TV will also be 'ready' for that.

haveagoade

Seajays wrote: »

Still disagree with this though...

I have an HD ready IDTV (freeview). I have an ordinary Sky box, and a DVD/HDD recorder. So no HD at the moment - although the TV is ready.

So at the moment, I can tape Sky, while watching freeview on the IDTV - and I don't need to have two set-top boxes! In the future I may get Sky HD or maybe even an XBOX360, so the TV will also be 'ready' for that.

...yes but my point is you are talking about your MAIN tv.....large screen.....I'm refering to a 20" tv which I regard as a portable.

Freeview on a portable is pointless due to all or nothing reception. You end up having to use external aerials....and therfore its no longer portable.....may as well pipe sky or freeview from your main tv set up.

turtle2k1

haveagoade wrote: »

...yes but my point is you are talking about your MAIN tv.....large screen.....I'm refering to a 20" tv which I regard as a portable.

Freeview on a portable is pointless due to all or nothing reception. You end up having to use external aerials....and therfore its no longer portable.....may as well pipe sky or freeview from your main tv set up.

Even though YOU regard it as a portable many people will not. Yes you will need an external aerial but most people have these in most of their rooms now anyway. And how often do you actually move a TV around, even if it is seen as 'portable'?