"Dave R" wrote in message
.uk...

"Adrian B" wrote in message
news:[email protected]
"Adrian" wrote in message

I'm sure the vast majority are in a similar position. Until the
switchover there is no point in me buying Freeview euipment, as it's not
possible for me to receive it. I have 4 D-Sat receivers.
--
Adrian A

I don't blame you - you'll also get boxes for less money, and/or with
better features in 3+ years time. However, I suspect that there will be a
serious shortage of boxes shortly before or at switchover in each area.
Whether the shortage is serious enough to delay the switchover, remains
to be seen.

I also wonder about all those "portables" sitting in bedrooms and
kitchens which rely on loop aerials for their patchy analogue reception.
STBs are unlikely to work without a proper aerial feed - even after the
power is turned up.

Adrian B
I have a portable with a loop aerial and it works fine using an old
philips ondigital box.

Dave


Well, we can switch off the analogue signal for whole UK then, now that is
settled.

;-)

Adrian B wrote:
All the reporting yesterday implied that 73% of households were ready
for the digital switchover.


I think the 73% figure is how many households have Freeview coverage,
but only about 75% of those households can get Freeview without
requiring a new aerial, apparently.


--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

Find the cheapest Freeview, DAB & MP3 Player Prices:
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/fr..._receivers.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/da...tal_radios.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/mp...rs_1GB-5GB.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/mp...e_capacity.htm

"MJ Ray" wrote in message
enews.net...
"Michael Chare" wrote:
At the moment 37% of homes don't have any digital TV.

If that's the Ofcom figure, it's rubbish. It doesn't count non-Sky
or expired-subscription Sky satellite sets.

When has DTT ever been described as a satellite service ?! Doh...


I'm intending to buy a second tuner and I've already got the kit
to send pictures to screens in other rooms. How many channels does
your household watch at once? ;-)


Well, lets see, a family with three teenage kids, each with their own
TV's, dad watching in the lounge whilst mother is in the kitchen -
that's five sets in use, and all possibly tuned to different
terrestrial channels...

Heracles Pollux wrote:
"Dave R" wrote in message
.uk...

"Adrian B" wrote in
message news:[email protected]
"Adrian" wrote in message

I'm sure the vast majority are in a similar position. Until the
switchover there is no point in me buying Freeview euipment, as
it's not possible for me to receive it. I have 4 D-Sat receivers.
--
Adrian A

I don't blame you - you'll also get boxes for less money, and/or
with better features in 3+ years time. However, I suspect that
there will be a serious shortage of boxes shortly before or at
switchover in each area. Whether the shortage is serious enough to
delay the switchover, remains to be seen.

I also wonder about all those "portables" sitting in bedrooms and
kitchens which rely on loop aerials for their patchy analogue
reception. STBs are unlikely to work without a proper aerial feed -
even after the power is turned up.

Adrian B
I have a portable with a loop aerial and it works fine using an old
philips ondigital box.

Dave


Well, we can switch off the analogue signal for whole UK then, now
that is settled.

;-)

Did you hear the expert on the BBC R5 phone in today? They did a call in on
the switchover and one listener asked "I have 3 TVs and bought 3 STBs to
convert them but the TVs don't have SCART sockets, what do I do?" The
expert's answer was "I'm sure you can get a lead with a UHF plug one end and
a SCART plug the other"!
With advice like that there's going to be a lot of ****ed off viewers come
switch off day.

Well, lets see, a family with three teenage kids, each with their own
TV's, dad watching in the lounge whilst mother is in the kitchen -
that's five sets in use, and all possibly tuned to different
terrestrial channels...


Seems to me that the switch to digital will be a good thing for your family
if it gets you viewing together again........:-)

"Mike Henry" wrote in message
...
In ws.net,
":::Jerry::::" wrote:


"MJ Ray" wrote in message
reenews.net...
"Michael Chare" wrote:
At the moment 37% of homes don't have any digital TV.

If that's the Ofcom figure, it's rubbish. It doesn't count non-Sky
or expired-subscription Sky satellite sets.

When has DTT ever been described as a satellite service ?! Doh...

Doh to you: "Digital Terrestrial Television" is NOT the same as "Digital
Television".

Ofcom's 37% is their claim for number of homes without "any digital TV".
But we all know that some of that 37% includes non-Sky digital satellite
receivers and expired-subscription "digibox" satellite receivers.

How do "we all know this"?

ISTM that given a percenatge of the population don't have
the ability to receive terrestial digital TV a figure of 37% not
having any digital seem too low.

I personally know of no-one (in the UK) who had DTV
and most of those people know no-one who has DTV.

(I only added the rider because I do know someone
outside the UK with DTV, not because I know few
people in the UK)

Ofcom
don't count these people has having digital TV at all! Which is why
their figure is rubbish. When the BBC and ITV's Freesat service takes
off, and there is a massive leap in the number of non-Sky digital
satellite receivers,

I agree, but it doesn't make their figures wrong today

tim

"Vic" wrote in message
...

Well, lets see, a family with three teenage kids, each with their
own
TV's, dad watching in the lounge whilst mother is in the
kitchen -
that's five sets in use, and all possibly tuned to different
terrestrial channels...


Seems to me that the switch to digital will be a good thing for
your family
if it gets you viewing together again........:-)


You must work for Relate!....

"tim \(moved to sweden\)" wrote:
"Mike Henry" wrote: [...]
Ofcom's 37% is their claim for number of homes without "any digital TV".
But we all know that some of that 37% includes non-Sky digital satellite
receivers and expired-subscription "digibox" satellite receivers.

How do "we all know this"? [...]

They announced it last year:

"homes with a digital satellite set-top box but without a
current Sky subscription can receive BBC channels but not
ITV1, Channel 4 and Five. Ofcom no longer considers such
homes to be digital households." - from Driving Digital
Switchover, Ofcom, 5 April 2004, section 3.7,
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/tv/...eport/section3

I understand FTV sets are now added to Sky's count again, but
I've not checked the latest report.

It's utter ignorance of how digital satellite works. Many in
the UK equate satellite and Sky, but Ofcom should know better!
This does make their figures wrong today.

Hope that helps,
--
MJR/slef

On Fri, 16 Sep 2005 12:43:59 +0100, Heracles Pollux wrote:


"Sam Nelson" wrote in message
...
In article [email protected],
"Adrian B" writes:
What we therefore have is a huge number of TVs and recorders which are
NOT
ready for digital, and I'll bet the real figure of digital conversion
is less than half that.

It's government by management summary. --
SAm.

Spot on.


What would you do then?

On Sat, 17 Sep 2005 16:19:36 +0100, Alan Pemberton wrote:

Dave Fawthrop wrote:

Even with my $ky box, 4 TVs, 4 DTT boxes, and a DTT pci card in my
computer, I am not ready for analogue switch off.

Me neither. In order to get full value from my licence fee I recorded four
Proms in the Park concerts last Saturday and had to resort to watching the
Prom itself on R3 vhf and BBC1/2 analogue. And they weren't in lipsync.
It's enough to make one demand a refund.

There is no need to simulcast with NICAM, just because some people are odd
does not mean the BBC should cater for it when the are already providing a
perfectly decent service.