HD and extra bandwith coming to freeview in mid 2009

[camy]

freeview are currentely trialling bbc hd, itv hd,4 hd, and 5 hd they have said that the trials are going very well and if they carry on like they have then hd will definately become avaliable to everyone by mid 2009 ,HD is bieng made possible by replcing the old mpeg 2 dvb-t1 hardware with mpeg 4 dvb-t2 hardware in the transmitters and increasing the output power of all transmitters they are also icreasing the band from 16 qam to 64 qam so by the end of the digital awitchover everybody will be able to recieve the five hd channels and there will also be twice as much bandwith avaliable due to the new hardware so more channels and HD channels cant wait.!!!!

[danielf]

This sounds interesting. Would the HD channels be available to owners of older freeview equipment or would an upgrade be required? The reason I ask is because I spent nearly £200 on a Freeview Hard Disk Recorder 6 months ago, and I'm interested in HD content, but I'm not that interested in spending another £200...

[Matt D]

Story from last month:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7328029.stm



danielf - You'd need a new box. Freeview uses DVB-T1, with MPEG-2. Freeview HD will use DVB-T2 (not yet ratified as a standard AFAIK), with MPEG-4 Part 10 (aka AVC, aka H.264). No current Freeview boxes or integrated Freeview TVs are compatible.

[the-cable-guy]

Originally Posted by danielf

This sounds interesting. Would the HD channels be available to owners of older freeview equipment or would an upgrade be required? The reason I ask is because I spent nearly £200 on a Freeview Hard Disk Recorder 6 months ago, and I'm interested in HD content, but I'm not that interested in spending another £200...

an upgrade will be required, other wise how else do you expect to be able to view HD channels on a standard receiver ? they use different standards that you wont be able to view on a standard receiver.

[Ben B]

Originally Posted by the-cable-guy

an upgrade will be required, other wise how else do you expect to be able to view HD channels on a standard receiver ? they use different standards that you wont be able to view on a standard receiver.

That's gonna anger a few people that have bought HD TV's with integrated freeview

[camy]

(quick update)

bbc hd, itv hd,and 4 hd will be avaliable mid 2009, 5 hd will be avaliable after switchover this is because channel 5 is broadcast from its own transmitters not the ones used to broadcast the bbc, itv and channel 4 and this is why only 76 % of the uk can recieve channel 5 now and only 90 % after the digital switchover

[danielf]

How does the bandwidth for this new freeview service compare to freesat then? Am I correct in thinking that ultimately freesat is the better option (due to there being more space on it)? If so, why (apart from having a wok on your house looking ugly) is there this proliferation of services and hardware?