Analogue Switch Off

Yes but you have fallen into that *exact* trap that i mentioned in my above post :-

The BBC have branded everything as Freeview and sold the boxes as *subscription free* - whereas all that is branded as Freeview are their muxes (and possibly crown castles - i cant remember - please correct me on that one) Hence back to my original point that the BBC *SHOULD NOT* have sold taken the liberty of branding ALL muxes as Freeview and informed the general public (not us as we all already know) that only certain muxes/channels are guaranteed to be subscription free.

Its annoying that the BBC have done all the hard work in the DTT market and now another company comes along and saw a small money making scheme in the digital tv market and are going for it!

I cant blame Top up tv - it is only business and the opportunity of subscription based channels on DTT were always an option and shouldve been pointed out by the BBC and when I purchased my box!

The great selling point of the new DTT boxes (branded as freeview) were that there was NO SUBSCRIPTION EVER TO PAY - even though there was always this possibility of the subscription based channels coming back - but the BBC just seemed to totally ignore this fact!

The way it should be done is that every TV set (and video) sold has to have a DTT tuner (they can have an analogue one as well). The way consumer electronics last these days everyone will change their TV in the next 10 years through breakdows if not anything else.

Digital TV isn't really that confusing, it's just pressing numbered buttons. If those who aren't into digital TV just want to watch channels 1-5 they can..... the channel numbers are even the same

And how would they do that? the idea is to make things simpler not confuse things by only promoting half of the services on the system and letting the others get on with it.

The whole system has to be marketed together, and the Freeview consortium have the right to do it, just as their predesessors did.




But those who did buy it on that premise aren't loosing anything (except TV Travel Shop) it's an add on to the exsisting service, If you want to not pay a subscription then you don't have to

I don't think that analogue will be going away for a long time yet. I am also of the opinion that digital, particularly the quality of the pictures and sound isn't always better than analogue - I get problems with blocking on certain channels, breakup of pictures and general crapness of the sound on things like The Hits Radio, Kiss, Q etc because the low bitrate at which it is compressed. At times, the quality of the pictures and sound on FV can sound dreadful.

I have also heard that the quality of broadcasted material on Telewest isn't the best either, with it suffering blocking etc.

Further to that, coverage of DTT is restricted in the main to main stations at present due to a lack of suitable clear frequencies which could be used for digital services from relays.

Freeview's PR types say that they can't expand further until analogue is shut down so they can reuse the frequencies already in use on analogue relay stations, but then aren't the government saying that they won't switch off analogue until digital is available to everyone?

Well the only problem I have against the Digital switch over is that the elderly as said aren't too keen on the new technology and it can cause a pain for those who have bedroom TV's, as the majority of those have indoor aerials which can't recieve digital, so that means buying a box and a new aerial which is a nusance.

Though in areas which can get Digital and the majortity of those people who have TV's which are Digital, then they should switch it off, areas like the North West, Midlands and London. But in those where the signal is poor or where the signal can interfere like in Wales, far North Scotland and the South of England it would be a good idea for it to be kept on.

They should start at first by doing a BBC Scotland on Digital Satellite by taking off the good programmes and say that the programme is only available on Digital or whatever platform. Then switch the channels off. Though the goverment set targets for Digital TV and targets which need to be achieved, maybe it would be a good idea if the goverment did some form of campaign to tell those who are less enabled of what digital and how it works.

I think we are more likely to see a new government in power first before we see any demise of the analogue service.

That's a good point.

Once all TVs have got digital tuners built in (which should be happening NOW), old people will be able to cope again - just pressing "4" for Countdown like they do now isn't a big problem.

Although a greater percentage of people watch via digital in Wales than anywhere else in the UK.

Can you record from integrated digital tvs?

That's the problem (unless it has an integrated video). I suppose with DVD-R coming in we may see some integrated drives, as they are much more discreet and you can still have a nice thin frame, but have the feature.