No HD on freeview

[Tonyphotoplus]

I have a PANASONIC TX-L32X10B HD. I am using it temp accommodation but have used it with Freesat. Freesat was fine and we had HD - excellent. However, now for the first time we have tuned it to freeview using the in-built freeview receiver. We cannot get any HD channels at all! That worries me as the new place we are buying is also freeview. HD is available as much as I am aware in West Wales as we have gone completely digital in the area. Is the fact that it is HD have no guarantee that the freeview built in receiver will not give me HD? Or do I need a new box? Or have I missed something on the settings? Have reset the setup for finding the channels several times, but as you have guessed it has not been successful. Looking forward to hearing your answers soon

Thanks

 

[Badger0-0]

I don't think it has an HD tuner.

 

[a516]

The TV must have or be connected to a device with a DVB-T2 tuner in order to receive the Freeview HD broadcasts in the UK. Without it, the TV remains HD ready in that the unit is ready to accept HD input from another source/device.

The HD services in West Wales via Freeview HD are:
50 BBC One HD
51 ITV1 HD
53 S4C Clirlun
54 BBC HD

 

[Trollslayer]

Yup, it is Freeview not Freeview HD.

 

[Tonyphotoplus]

Thank you. I hadn't realised Panasonic would sell an HD TV without the means to watch it. Ah well best get a satellite dish

 

[Adrian_F]

You might want to consider one of these boxes, fantastic value for money at £19.99 delivered and with 12mths guarantee. I bought and set one up for a neighbour recently and the only thing refurbished as far as I could tell was the software, an excellent box.

TECHNIKA HD FREEVIEW SET TOP BOX STBHDIS2010 | eBay

 

[lbear]

Thank you. I hadn't realised Panasonic would sell an HD TV without the means to watch it. Ah well best get a satellite dish

HD on both satellite (mostly) and terrestrial (exclusively in the UK) uses the second generation of the DVB standard. The second generation of the satellite 'flavour' DVB-S2 was available two or three years before the terrestial version, DVB-T2 was finalised and the specifications for "Freeview HD" were published in Autumn 2009 with the first set top boxes coming on the market in April 2010 when they were around 170 pounds. The chipsets have come down as more countries have adopted DVB-T2 so by this time next year it will probably be difficult to find a set over 32inches without Freeview HD.

The upshot of that was that when they made your set, Panasonic did not have the right chipsets available at a reasonable cost to include it.

The Tesco box mentioned above is a bargain and a software to upgrade to BBC iPlayer is out with final beta testers at the moment. They have been told it will be on general release very early in the New Year with another upgrade for some other IPTV services in development. The original fimware was very unstable, which is why they had so many returns. The latest (May 2011) software makes it very stable and added features. Other very cheap Freeview HD boxes you may see probably do not have this continuing software support. At the moment there are only 63 left on Ebay so they may be coming to the end of their stocks of 'refurbished' models. They had been sold at 30 new but were back up to 70 just before Christmas, which is probably so they can be heavily discounted in the sales.

 

[Badger0-0]

You might want to consider one of these boxes, fantastic value for money at £19.99 delivered and with 12mths guarantee. I bought and set one up for a neighbour recently and the only thing refurbished as far as I could tell was the software, an excellent box.

TECHNIKA HD FREEVIEW SET TOP BOX STBHDIS2010 | eBay

That's an excellent shout, which I might follow up myself.

To think I paid £50 for this Sharp TU T2, the biggest load of rubbish I've bought in my life