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Coffee House => Coffee House Boards => CH / General => Topic started by: sumner7 on February 23, 2004, 11:11:29 AM
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Have any of you in the UK got Freeview in your homes? I have 3 freeview boxes in my house and only 1 has a card slot :cry: so I can only get Top up TV on that one. If anyone outside the UK is curious to know what this is all about, here are the websites...
Freeview (http://www.freeview.co.uk/)
Top up TV (http://www.topuptv.com/)
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I have two DVB boxes, the old OnDigital one downstairs and a new Thomson one in my room I got as a graduation present.
The Thomson one doesn't even have a card slot, but I can get all the channels on both - they're all free now! Howcome you can't get them?
(And btw. - digital TV rulez! ;-))
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Top up TV hasn't started yet, there is just a preview on channel 26. It's £7.99 a month, plus a one-off connection fee of £20. I can get every channel on freeview on every box in my house, but when top up tv actually starts, the extra channels will only be available on boxes with card slots.
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KennyR wrote:
I have two DVB boxes, the old OnDigital one downstairs and a new Thomson one in my room I got as a graduation present.
The Thomson one doesn't even have a card slot, but I can get all the channels on both - they're all free now! Howcome you can't get them?
(And btw. - digital TV rulez! ;-))
What's that... KennyR actually likes something?
I jest, I jest ;-)
I rememeber a time in the mid-nineties when, armed with a sattellite dish and receiver, you could watch Cartoon Network all day for free. I once skipped school for an entire month doing just that.
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Hi Sumner7,
I have a Nokia old ONDigital box and it has a slot (infact it is same as one shown in topup preview). Were the ones you have without slots bought as specifically freeview boxes as opposed to being old on/itv digital ones. I thought all the ondigital boxes needed cards to work. Maybe it is new boxes like KennyR's that don't have them? I had heard that SkyOne would be in the topup line-up but it seems not. Apparently, might be added later. Hope so, that would make a big difference to whether I get it or not. And KennyR is right - digital TV is pretty damn good.
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I have got a Nokia freeview box, with a card slot! Can't wait for that new service to start.
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Why is it called FREEview when you still have to pay? Trade Descriptions act, where the HELL ARE YOU?
Anyway, when I get a flat, I'll get Sky if I can.
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Hum,
Well spotted...
And i suppose it is questionable if it`s VIEWable as well...
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I pity freeview customers...
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Freeview is pretty good. I agree that more needs to be worked on it but it is very good at the moment.
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Jonopike wrote:
Why is it called FREEview when you still have to pay? Trade Descriptions act, where the HELL ARE YOU?
It's called Freeview because it's free. Really.
(Although you'll have to pay for the hardware first.)
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Bloody Top-Up confusing things. Out-of-date hardware which Teletext on 4 won't work on, is now required to get C4's other channel, E4. Are C4 sending out confused messages or what? Not to mention the service hasn't even started yet and already people are confusing Freeview with Top-Up, and thinking that you now need to pay to receive Freeview.
The Freview consortium runs the following multiplexes: 1,B,C,D (channels (http://cgi.unsatisfactorysoftware.co.uk/dtt/?reg=E&by=lcn&mux=1BCD&type=VRDIPE))
They market all the FTA channels on DTT and call this service "Freeview" (even though some of the channels are nothing to do with them), which was fine when all the channels were free, and by rights they should have all remained free.
However, Top-Up TV (which is run by two people who wanted to run a subscription service (http://cgi.unsatisfactorysoftware.co.uk/dtt/?reg=E&by=mux&mux=12ABCD&type=E&hist=dta) on DTT back when ITV Digital collapsed, and have cropped up in the press every so often reminding people that they still want to do this), have now caused confusion. As they can't put subscription services on any of the Freeview muxes, they are launching on muxes 2,A.
Why it shouldn't happen or will fail:
Muxes 2,A have had some power increases since ITV Digital closed but still run "64QAM" so suffer from break-up.
Top-Up TV have taken the majority of available space away from existing and potential FTA channels (TV Travel Shop has closed, Setanta's proposed sports channel has been axed, TCM/Boomerang were going to launch initially as FTA and haven't; some or all of these have been caused by Top-Up before they have even launched), there is also the danger of existing free channels going subscription or being replaced with subscription services (although this would be limited to mux 2,A channels (http://cgi.unsatisfactorysoftware.co.uk/dtt/?reg=E&by=lcn&mux=2A&type=VRDIPE) except ITV, C4, Five, S4C, so would not be major)
They are using old decoders which you can't buy anymore (except on eBay etc), are slow, unsupported and often have problems with MHEG (text services), whereas the majority of boxes sold in the last two years have been new, fast, supported boxes which cannot get Top-Up anyway.
The service is limited to just four or five channels on air at any one time (they may advertise eleven, but they time-share).
Most people who were subscribers to ITV Digital have moved to satellite or cable. Of the remaining people that didn't, it is unlikely that the amount that would want to subscribe (after getting their fingers burnt last time) would be enough to sustain the service.
It undoes all the work Freeview have done in deassociating "digital" with "pay".
The confusion will most likely slow down the uptake of DTT, which will put back analogue switch-off (which is the reason for digital TV in the first place)
I give it six months to a year tops.
Chris
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Subscription won't work for one other simple reason: the new DVB boxes are being made without card slots now.
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blobrana wrote:
Hum,
Well spotted...
And i suppose it is questionable if it`s VIEWable as well...
At least you got channels :-) Sweden hasn´t got that far yet. The only free channels is the same as on regular terrestial(3channels,2 public service and 1 commercial) with an crap 24hour news channel added(it just runs the same news over and over again)
There is a Canal+ pay packet but that is cheaper on satellite.
Was the investment in this digital crap worth turning the public service channels into partially commercial channels with sponsor breaks in all sportprograms?
And the put DAB on hold because "digital-tv" was more important:crazy: , bah it was DAB that was needed, the FM-band is full but tv-freqencies there is plenty of.
But the worst part is that if digital terrestial takes off I probably won´t be able to watch danish tv! :madashell:
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They are making new boxes with card slots at the moment and they should be available in the next few months. BTW, I have only 1 freeview box that is an old OnDigital Box and the other 2 are new without card slots. :-)
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BTW, I first got Freeview a year ago today. That was when I got the box with the card slot (the old Nokia OnDigital box). Digital TV is by far the best! :-D