Analogue Switch-Off Dates Confirmed

I see Ms Jowell continues to have not even the faintest understanding of what she's saying - if 'all analogue signals' are switched off, then we'll have no TV at all!

Sorry, Larry, I wasn't meaning in the sense of actual watts, or kilowatts.

Are not the main stations having their watts increased a bit, to give the equivalent amount of "ooomph" to analogue, when the signal reaches the telly?

Or is that what they've (supposedly) already done?

hmm, interesting the U.K will switch off anytime from 2008 to 2012. In Australia our switchoff is.......2008 and with only 10% of people having Digital TV..........We have such a stupid government...

There have been some excellent points made so far in this thread. The one that concerns me the most is that it will be impossible to record one channel and watch another. That'll make the VCR defunct.

I just can't understand why the government are going it. The current system has worked perfectly well for many years, and it is nice to have the option of watching digital TV, whilst keeping the analogue signal for convenience (as outlined by many posters - mainly revolving around recording purposes).

Not really. The VCR has three functions:
1 - To record a programme, which would be otherwise missed because of other commitments.
2 - To archive a programme.
3 - To record one programme whilst watching another.

Two of those functions will still be there after the digital switchover - and anyway, in the future most people will probably have a DVD recorder (containing a digital tuner) for archiving and a PVR for timeshifting.

Except that before long, we might see DVD/HD recorders with built-in Freeview receivers. Actually I think HD recorders make a lot more sense anyway.

Chris.

To everyone who says they will be unable to record things, whilst watching others, or whilst out I present:

http://www.qed-uk.com/p/276/b/4000s.jpg

Thomson DHD4000

I've had mine for almost a year, (Got mine in the post Christmas sales). It's the best bit of technical kit I think I've ever seen, even now I'm amazed by it. It's as you can guess a twin tuner HD recorder. There are others but I've found this one more than adequate.

It's super easy to operate, uses 4tv's 14day epg, records in excellent quality and you can, as I do, easily archive recordings to DVD or VHS. IMO anyone who says removing analogue is a bad need to look at this. It makes TV much more watchable, on a Sunday I go through the listings note any programmes I want to watch, set it up to record them, then watch at my leisure, and as some people say, simply fast forwards through ads.

It's also very useful when watching films. I always time shift when watching films, by about 20mins or so, meaning I can simply fast forward though the ads or other annoyances *entertainment news update*

I got rid of the "main" VCR long ago, it's in my bedroom now, but the lack of one has never caused any problems. Admittedly when we fire got freeview (Pace DTVA) we did have a few weeks of fiddling with our new super huge ariel but since then it's been plain sailing, never any quality/drop-out issues.

If the move to digital means, in time to come more channels reach freeview, so much the better. Just as long as it isn't along the likes of QuizTV.

Useful links:
http://www.qed-uk.com/q?i=13aJs-1OrDfU&vp=5&bg=276&bp=4000s&bi=0
http://dtt.opennet.co.uk/thomson.htm
http://www.dttboxes.co.uk/pvrs/thdhd4000.html

If your VHS machine is still working at switch off and you want to carry on using it, you can always buy another freeview box for it.

Don't forget a 32-way adaptor for all the plugs you'll need by then.

There is going to come a time when all TVs, VCRs etc are going to have to have a DTT tuner in-built into them as standard. The only real reason we haven't seen this already is cost; devices have become so cheap that the replacement of an analogue tuner with a digital one makes a significant difference to the cost of the set.

It is a constant source of amusement to me that people go out and buy analogue kit, then complain that their digital add-ons only allow recording of one programme and not allow you to watch the other.

If you buy a television with digital tuner, and VCR with digital tuner, you have exactly the same setup as now, but all-digital.

By the time 2012 or whenever comes along, if manufacturers haven't started to do this they want shooting quite frankly.

Indeed.

How much do you reckon a freeview box will cost in 2012? They were about £100-120 three years ago, £60 two years ago and £40-50 last year, now we're talking £30 and I've seen one or two for £25. By the time 2012 comes along these boxes will probably be a fiver and be the size of a 13A plug.

In fact the chances are you'll be able to get devices which fit directly into the aerial socket of the TV and convert the digital signals directly into a series of analogue ones which you tune into in the normal way through your analogue tuner, so they'll be virtually invisible.

Something like this would be very straightforward. There are already DTT receivers on a single chip; all that needs to be done is to mount 16 such devices into a single IC, and a 16-channel tuner wouldn't be too difficult to miniaturise. Very possible we could see something like this for <£50 in the not-too distant future.

There was a man on Matthew Bannister's programme on Five Live this morning, apparently he's heading the government's digital switchover.

This is worrying as he didn't know the answers to a number of the straightforward questions listeners phoned in with, which he should have done.

On the subject of cost won't businesses take advantage of the situation and jack up the price knowing that if people want television they are going to have to buy the digital box regardless? There will be a lot of money to be made with the analogue switch off and I've got a feeling the prices could shoot up again.

As for the actual switch-off, I was wondering if someone would be kind enough as to explain why we need to switch off in the first place. Isn't it all right as it is?

And finally one thing with the Sky that I've got is that the aspect ratios are completely wrong. Everything is stretched in height and cramped up in width making one think of a 14:9 aspect ratio. However I've set the Sky box up so that the output is 16:9 and that my widescreen television is in 16:9 also yet it is still stretched. Is there anything I can do?