IDTVs - interactive services

[Richard Davies]

I bought a Philips 28DW6734 Television last year for digital terrestrial tv. Thus far I have not been able to receive information about any planned upgrade to the smart card or software to enable me to receive digital teletext services, interactive services and other on-screen services such as On Request.
On-Digital have advised me to contact Philips direct but they have failed to respond.
Can anyone enlighten me?

[Timh]

Your not missing much.

Tim

Mines a Philips DW6834C had this response from ondigital....

Thank you for your email of 02/07/2001 detailing your general position
with regards to our services.

I regret to note that you are not happy with ONdigital, but can
certainly appreciate your frustration with the delay you have
experienced waiting for all the services to become available for your
Integrated Television. Even though these services are free and, as
such, they do not constitute any part of the service agreement between
us, nevertheless their lack must be both frustrating and annoying.

As you are aware, the digital technology is at the forefront of the
television revolution. Unfortunately, whilst the reception of the
'normal' digital channels has been successfully implemented, provision
of the necessary software, to all Integrated Televisions, to enable the
full reception of all the new and exciting services that ONdigital are
broadcasting, has proved more complicated than first anticipated. The
end result being that it is anticipated that Integrated Television will
not be able to receive Teletext, ONmail and ONrequest before the end of
this year.

I note that you have a Philips Integrated Television. That being the
case I have made inquiries with our Technical Department and they have
advised me that the software for your specific make of television is
scheduled to be one of the first ones finalised and that it won't be too
long now before it is available. For this delay we can only offer our
sincere apologies, and do assure you that we are doing everything in our
power to expedite and speed the situation along.

Unfortunately, other than the above, the ultimate position remains the
same, in that we are unable to give you a precise date as to when the
full software, that will enable all Integrated televisions to receive
the extra services, will be ready.

Once more I thank you for your patience and do assure you that it should
not be too long now.

If I can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact
me.

Yours sincerely

Chrissy Bayliss
Customer Enquiries

[Richard Davies]

Further news on this. I talked to ITV Digital today. They have received confirmation from Philips that the software for interactive services will shortly be available. The software update should be in place before end of August.

I had a much better response from Hitachi, but I'm regretting it now:

See Televisions/Hitachi Horrors