NJ
I think its mainly this and in addition to previous arguments in this thread that's going to not "kill" it as such but seriously hold the conversion to digital back by some considerable way. We need the new tuners built into the TVs and the VCRs as standard, perhaps alongside the current traditional tuner for UHF frequencies. A digibox, nice (and often fickle) as it is, will only let you work with one channel at a time, you can't record BBC Four and watch something else on Challenge at the same time for example. Okay, there's Sky+ and all but if you follow the Sky newsgroups these things don't work full stop if they can't see a satellite signal.
All very well having a digibox in the front room. But you're not "converted" to digital. Yes, you can go and pipe that feed to another telly somewhere else if you're that way inclined but why should you? As has been said, most secondary TVs in the bedrooms and what not are usually connected to indoor aerials which are, we're told, not suitable for Freeview transmissions. Again, yes, you could go and hook it up to the main aerial on the roof which, if you're in a catchment area, will get you Freeview on secondary TVs but the point is all this costs money. Joe Public just wants to pay one-off £89 for Freeview and then, once analogue's gone, be able to watch it on any telly in the house if not do that now. As things stand right now, he's going to end up paying more than £89 to do something that the government should be doing, surely?
Neil Jones
Founding member
cwathen posted:
Anyway, I don't believe government claims of digital penetration. A house with a Sky box in the front room has not converted to digital. A house has converted to digital when it no longer has any dependencies on analogue TV reception, and I'd estimate that very few people are in that position. Indeed, it's very hard to be in that position when some devices are either only available or virtually only available with analogue tuners (can I get a DTT pocket TV from Argos? I know someone has finally brought out a DTT VCR, but can I go to Dixons and buy one?).
I think its mainly this and in addition to previous arguments in this thread that's going to not "kill" it as such but seriously hold the conversion to digital back by some considerable way. We need the new tuners built into the TVs and the VCRs as standard, perhaps alongside the current traditional tuner for UHF frequencies. A digibox, nice (and often fickle) as it is, will only let you work with one channel at a time, you can't record BBC Four and watch something else on Challenge at the same time for example. Okay, there's Sky+ and all but if you follow the Sky newsgroups these things don't work full stop if they can't see a satellite signal.
All very well having a digibox in the front room. But you're not "converted" to digital. Yes, you can go and pipe that feed to another telly somewhere else if you're that way inclined but why should you? As has been said, most secondary TVs in the bedrooms and what not are usually connected to indoor aerials which are, we're told, not suitable for Freeview transmissions. Again, yes, you could go and hook it up to the main aerial on the roof which, if you're in a catchment area, will get you Freeview on secondary TVs but the point is all this costs money. Joe Public just wants to pay one-off £89 for Freeview and then, once analogue's gone, be able to watch it on any telly in the house if not do that now. As things stand right now, he's going to end up paying more than £89 to do something that the government should be doing, surely?