HD box without HD subscription

"jb" wrote in message
...
it is generaqlly being discusse that the BBC's new hd freesat service will
launch as early as the 5th of May at which time a gradually emerging
economical and interesting and diverse arrange of HD as well as non HD kit
will gradually become more and more avaiable - all one off cost and all
non subscription.

it therefore follows that it would make good sense to avoid buying
existing apperatus with or without subscrition with only roughly a month
to go.

hope this helps

Thanks. I've been very interested in Freesat and I don't mind too much about
the limited channel lineup (at launch).

But Sky does seem to have good multi room installation offers. My problem is
that it will cost me about £300 to £400 for an aerial upgrade to receive
Freeview to more than one room. It's cheaper to go for cable of sat (even
Sky multi room for a year).

I suspect that Freesat won't have a multi room PVR offer to compete with
Sky - even if they do it is almost certainly going to be a case of a whole
new installation outlay upon moving home. Sky, it is claimed, only charge
£40 for relocation (although I can find no mention of the charge on their
website).

Still, I think I will hold out for the Freesat details. It would be silly
not too. Freesat, unlike Freeview, can only get better in the coming years
(bandwidth and all that). And it's free.

I suspect that Freesat won't have a multi room PVR offer to compete with
Sky - even if they do it is almost certainly going to be a case of a whole
new installation outlay upon moving home. Sky, it is claimed, only charge
£40 for relocation (although I can find no mention of the charge on their
website).

Freesat is nothing more than an "umbrella" idea. Your not going to be
limited to one box supplied by the BBC. Instead your going to get the major
STB makers producing all kinds of box's to match the Freesat requirement.
Some people will only want a cheap single tuner, SD MPEG2 only device
(becuase they are outside Freeview DVB-T reception). Others will want the
full blown twin tuner, HD MPEG4 PVR.

John Russell wrote:
: Freesat is nothing more than an "umbrella" idea. Your not going to be
: limited to one box supplied by the BBC. Instead your going to get the major
: STB makers producing all kinds of box's to match the Freesat requirement.

What you say will *NOT* quite be true for some time! To make a "Freesat"
receiver manufacturers need a licence (and will only then get access to the
EPG specs etc.). Only 4 manufacturers have been signed up for launch - and
these are guaranteed some "exclusive" period.

"Gareth" wrote in message
...
Thanks. I've been very interested in Freesat and I don't mind too much
about the limited channel lineup (at launch).

im sure you are refering to the High Definition lineup which 'at present' is
very limited. However following the lauch of freesat who knows how many HD
channels will become avaiable..

I am merely guessing that many of the standard lineup eg itv (and c4 etc
when released from sky in the autumn) etc will clamber on board over say the
next year, simply becase - why wouldnt they?. Just my humble opinion mind
you!

Finally for the less initiated, these comments relate to HD transmissions -
The number of non HD channels broadcast digitally in the clear on Astra
curerently amounts to several hundred very roughly - including BBC 1,2,3,4
ITV 1,2,3,4 C4 Film BBCNews24, Sky News, CNN as well as loads and loads of
other channels (eg music channels such as Flaunt and Vault to name just a
few)

Probably at least several hundred, of the nine hundred or so, channels
broadcast on Astra are unscrambled eg completely free already... Please
forgive me for not finding the time to count all of them! : )

Presumably the new Freesat boxes will also be hotbird (13e roughly
1300channels) and Astra 1 (19e about a thousand channels) compatible - if
anyone wants to see other european HD (or indeed non HD) broadcasts..

hope this helps

jb

But Sky does seem to have good multi room installation offers. My problem
is that it will cost me about £300 to £400 for an aerial upgrade to
receive Freeview to more than one room. It's cheaper to go for cable of
sat (even Sky multi room for a year).

I suspect that Freesat won't have a multi room PVR offer to compete with
Sky - even if they do it is almost certainly going to be a case of a whole
new installation outlay upon moving home. Sky, it is claimed, only charge
£40 for relocation (although I can find no mention of the charge on their
website).

Still, I think I will hold out for the Freesat details. It would be silly
not too. Freesat, unlike Freeview, can only get better in the coming years
(bandwidth and all that). And it's free.

jb wrote:
: forgive me for not finding the time to count all of them! : )

: Presumably the new Freesat boxes will also be hotbird (13e roughly
: 1300channels) and Astra 1 (19e about a thousand channels) compatible - if
: anyone wants to see other european HD (or indeed non HD) broadcasts..

Only by accident! (Like the SKy STBs). It is NOT a design feature.

"Brian McIlwrath" wrote in message
...
jb wrote:
: forgive me for not finding the time to count all of them! : )

: Presumably the new Freesat boxes will also be hotbird (13e roughly
: 1300channels) and Astra 1 (19e about a thousand channels) compatible -
if
: anyone wants to see other european HD (or indeed non HD) broadcasts..

Only by accident! (Like the SKy STBs). It is NOT a design feature.

They will have to include a manual channel system for non EPG channels. That
won't appear by accident!

John Russell wrote:
:
: Only by accident! (Like the SKy STBs). It is NOT a design feature.

: They will have to include a manual channel system for non EPG channels. That
: won't appear by accident!

Ok - not quite totally "by accident"....but if they cover all the symbol rates
etc. - and make manual tuning and selection of manually tuned channels easier
than a Sky Digibox that would be a start!

Still likely to be harder to use for multi-satellite than a more general
purpose FTA receiver.

Still likely to be harder to use for multi-satellite than a more general
purpose FTA receiver.

How many Sat's are used as sources is already hidden from Sky users. Many
SKY users probaly think there is a single SKY owned Sat from whoch all the
channels they use come from. So Freesat will be multi-sat in the same way.

On Tue, 8 Apr 2008 13:32:13 +0100, "John Russell"
wrote:

How many Sat's are used as sources is already hidden from Sky users. Many
SKY users probaly think there is a single SKY owned Sat from whoch all the
channels they use come from. So Freesat will be multi-sat in the same way.

That's not what multi-satellite means.

--

"Zero Tolerance" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 8 Apr 2008 13:32:13 +0100, "John Russell"
wrote:

How many Sat's are used as sources is already hidden from Sky users. Many
SKY users probaly think there is a single SKY owned Sat from whoch all the
channels they use come from. So Freesat will be multi-sat in the same way.

That's not what multi-satellite means.

--

I do like it when people think they can "own" words. "multi-sat" means what
it says. If people have something particular in mind other than "more than
one" then they should come up with a better, more specific definition.