Terrestrial switch off

That was the idea behind the IDTV. Every TV would have the equivalent of a Set Top Box (STB) built in, and so it wouldn't matter. Of course in practice this has proved not to be as simple as it first seemed. I don't know of any IDTV that has a built in Sky decoder (will Sky even licence it?!) and I beleive even the OnDigital IDTV have suffered from the lack of a Conditional Access Module (CAM).

The government ruled that analogue cannot be switched off until digital TV is available to some high percentage of the population (95%? I can't recall the exact figure). Note the word 'able'. It means that if some form of digital TV is available in your area they can switch off analogue even if people are still receiving it...these people will be forced to get digital TV if they want to continue watching.

Given the problems surrounding this whole thing (there was some early plan to have the digital broadcasters pay for replacement of VCRs etc, but this was soon dropped) I don't know if the government have revised their criteria for switching off analogue...but I doubt it very much.

[kennydies]

It just does not seem practical. We have three TV's. One in the lounge, one in my room and one in my brothers room. They are all good TV's so it would be impractical to replace them with IDTV's. Each additional Cable decoder is £5 a month. Basic cable package, with all the free to air is £12 a month. So to get the same service as free to air we would have to pay £264 a year extra. Does that seem fair?

Well, no, it doesn't. But I don't think 'fair' was in the government's minds when they proposed all this (or more likely had it proposed for them). But I heard that the typical date bandied about for the big switch-off was 'sometime around or after 2010' so chances are your good TVs won't be that good by then. Trouble is, currently there doesn't seem to be anything to replace them with (IDTV-wise) that would ensure even a modicum of future-proofing.

I would hope that in the next couple of years it's all sorted out, that every TV on sale is an IDTV, with a pluggable CAM to cater for your choice of digital TV (Sky, Ondigital or cable). All this of course at little or no extra cost to the consumer. And look, there goes that flying pig again...

[kennydies]

Can you watch one channel and record another with IDTV?

I thought I heard the Government wanted to bring forward the switch off date?

Whether it's a 'normal' TV plus STB or an IDTV (ie with STB built in) you still need two decoders, which right now (for Sky at least) means two subscriptions.

The much-talked about PVR being jointly developed by Pace and Sky apparently has two decoders served by the one subscription card, thus letting you tape one channels whilst viewing another...it would be pretty pointless if you couldn't. Whether Sky will extend that idea to other STBs is a different matter. Personally I'd like to see Sky open up the design of the STBs to other manufacturers...right now they control everything, which is why they all work the same. Great for Sky's marketing dept, not so great for consumers.

[kennydies]

What happens when the Terrestrial signal is eventually switched off? I presume the plan is that everyone will have cable and satellite by then. But this will be a huge problem, as you will only be able to watch one channel at a time and this will make VCR's less useful. I know somone will say have another decoder but this will prove expensive to a lot of people especially as you will still be expected to pay your TV licence. There are quite a few people with more than 3 TV's in their household and to have a decoder for each TV would be very expensive.

Thoughts?

[Fartpants]

"to have a decoder for each TV would be very expensive"

I am sure that is what these companies are banking on.

Interesting replies. At the moment I can watch Digital TV through my ondigital box and record the analogue channels through my VCR. I guess I would need a VCR with a digital tuner in it to watch and record different digital channels. On the subject of having a box for each TV, yes you would. However, I believe in a while you will be able to pick these up for very little, allowing you to watch free to air digital channels on any TV. I would certainly go for this as I could get 9 or so channels in my bedroom as opposed to 4. IDTV's are currently only available (as far as I know) in the big screen variants, I guess the extra tuner put's too much price premium on smaller sets.

The Sony sets have a digital tuner, allowing you to watch free to air digital, and also a PCMCIA slot which can take Ondigital modules. I want to know when SKY are bringing out a module to fit these for sattelite. It just means one less box, one less remote.

The big problem of course, is coverage. Digital TV is patchy at best and most people have problem channels or limited reception. I believe the output power is due to be doubled shortly which make a huge difference to many. Until analogue is turned off though, the problems will occur due to bandwidth and collision problems.

To the person who started this discussion, there are no plans to turn off terrestrial tv, just analogue. It simply means you need a digital tuner. There will be some pain, but we have to move on sooner or later.

Steve

[harvy2001]

I thought I heard about Newer Box's that will have twin tuners in them or something???

So one output can go to the Video and the other to the TV.

Unless you are talking purely about the free-to-air channels, the issue is not so much with tuners, as with decoders. To watch one Sky channel whilst you tape another Sky channel you currently need two decoders, which currently means two subscriptions.

This is patently unfair, as you've already paid your monthly fee to watch all your chosen channels. When Sky say, for example, "8 pounds per month for the Movie Channels" (or whatever it costs), what they really mean is "8 pounds per month for the Movie Channels, as long as you are not watching any of the other channels you've already paid us good money to watch". Outrageous. They should be selling STBs that offer two decoded outputs (at least) from a single subscription card. At least they have had the good sense to realise that a PVR without this capability is worse than useless.

[MartinImber]

As a Sony IDTV owner I am safe if analogue goes off as long as I don't want to record 2 programmes.

Day after we got our TV analogue shut off for the day at the transmitter - I wondered what had happened as I was watching BBC DVB-T but BBC PAL had gone.

Well I need 3 more DVB-T tuners one for my SL-HF950, one for the old 25" TV and one for my portable. The Sanyo and the vhs junk can share a Nokia box I still have from Ondigital.

I am planning to aquire 3 more boxes by car boot sale and smaal ads in the next two years, I will also get a DTTV HD recorder eventually.

OK I hate Murdoch because he killed BSB and owns the Sun

I don't know what all the fuss is about with people having to get digital. Let's face it, every council house in the UK has a sattelite dish. I think they must give them out with benefit books.

Love

Steve

[General Skanky]

The whole thing is a farce and totally unrealistic.
Firstly, analogue only sets still sell strongly in the shops today, and will do for quite some time to come.
Secondly, as stated, people have 2-3 sets, poss 2-3 vcr's in a house. No way will they be easily replaced.
Thirdly, unless digital tv is freely available as analogue, you will 'always' have the 'I don't like change' bunch, and they exist in their millions.
We are an enlightened bunch here and in the mag. But if you add the readership of HCC and others and all those with digital now, work in the industry etc, you can maybe account for 10,000,000 people in the country with 'good' knowledge of what is going on. Wild guess I know, but it's 20% otf the pop or so which I think is optimistic at best.
Even if we all told someone else, their knowledge and more importantly their understanding of it all would be lacking, and what they pass on goes down the chinese whispers route.

It would be a very, very brave government that switches off analogue in the next 10 years, minimum!!!!! Political suicide for sure.

[ 31-05-2001: Message edited by: General Skanky ]

[delta]

When Tony @ No 10 starts to LISTEN to the people of this country, then maybe it won't happen, but if he doesn't, then switch off will be sooner than we expect.

[Tel boy]

I belive Panasonic make an IDTV with sky & ondig tuners built in. Tel.