Home Cinema

Will there be any hardware available by then?

how long untill we  see more hd channels.

PVR is even better if it includes series link - are there any plans? That will give Sky+ a un for their money!

Will Channel 4 HD be broadcast on Freesat when it's deal with Sky runs out in September 2008? Also, is the signal going to be more reliable than Freeview??

I guess we should have the answers to all these, and many more questions, after the launch next week.

so do you need hdfree view equipment ? or will work through hd tvs i.e pana th42pz85?

I split my freeview through an 8 way amp that has two inputs (fFM/Freeview). Could I use the FM input to distribute freesat?I dont want to get rid of freeview as freesat wont have all the channels and I dont want to buy several new decoders

I'll try and answer some of these from the info thats around on the Join Freesat website but I'm not guaranteeing accuracy so suggest you investigate further before relying on any of these answers - consider them rumours not fact!

1. Doesn't appear to be any PVR's at launch but receiver only by Humax, Panasonic, Grundig and Bush, Goodmans with prices from possibly £49.99 - 149.99 (box only). ( There are rumours Humax will launch one in July.

2. HD line up appears poor at launch only 1 channel to my knowledge BBC HD.

3. According to the same website, this is the channel line up:

101 BBC 1

102 BBC 2

103 ITV1

104 Channel 4

106 BBC Three

107 BBC Four

108 BBC HD

113 ITV2

115 ITV3

116 ITV3+1

117 ITV4

120 S4C Digidol

122 E4 (presently encypted)

124 More4 (presently encrypted)

135 Zone Romantica

138 Zone Thriller

200 BBC News

201 BBC Parliament

202 S4C2

203 Al Jazeera Eng

204 Euronews

300 FilmFour

302 True Movies

303 True Movies 2

304 Movies4Men

306 Movies4Men2

402 Wedding TV

411 O’seasproperty

450 Men and Motors

500 Chart Show TV

501 The Vault

502 Scuzz

503 Bubble Hits

504 B4U Music

600 CBBC Channel

601 CBeebies

602 CITV

603 POP

604 POPGirl

605 Tiny POP

650 Teachers TV

700 BBC Radio 1

701 1Xtra BBC

702 BBC Radio 2

703 BBC Radio 3

704 BBC Radio 4 FM

705 BBC Redio 4 LW

706 BBC R 5 Live

707 BBCR5LiveSport

708 BBCR 6 Music

709 BBC 7

710 BBC Asian Net

711 BBC World Sv

712 BBC R Scotland

713 BBC RnGaidheal

714 BBC R Wales

715 BBC R Cymru

716 BBC R Ulster

718 BBC London94.9

800 QVC

801 price-drop tv

802 bid tv

803 Pitch TV

810 JML Lifestyle

951 BBC 1 Cl

954 BBC 1 East (W)

957 BBC 1 NI

960 BBC 1 Scotland

964 BBC 1 Wales

969 BBC 2 NI

970 BBC 2 Scotland

971 BBC 2 W

4. Bullit, to my knowledge, Freesat needs a new receiver you can't pick up FreeSat with Freeview equipment - the encoding standard is entirely different. (Allegedly higher quality with Dolby Digital sound on movies). Freesat and Freeview are 2 entirely different things so even a HD Freeview receiver won't receive Freesat .

Biggest disappointments to me in the channel lineup are:

1. No HD dedicated Natural History channel such as National Geographic / Natural History Channel or similar - nature always looks great in HD which is why most instore HDTV demo discs seem to be bluray HD natural history recordings.

2. No dedicated extreme sports channel

3. No dedicated HD sport channel - who here doesn't want to watch football, rugby, etc in HD?

4. General lack of HD programming. It makes far more sense to me to broadcast everything in HD then downscale to SD for SD only users than to broadcast in 2 seperate formats.

Its the industry holding HD back in my opinion. The rumours I've heard around say broadcasters are slow to HD becuase they say there isn't enough demand. However, on the street the people I know who don't have HD sets say they'll get one when there's more HD programming. So everyones waiting for everyone else. In my opinion, only the tv companies can kickstart HD by broadcasting widely in HD thus making it worthwhile for consumers to invest in the new equipment.

Well like they say nothing is free and infact ironically it will cost me money to get freesat for what  basically looks like bbc channels which we already paid for i.e tv liscence.Just shows you only get what you pay for!

It's worth remembering that , pre-HD, Freesat's main objective was merely to deliver better-quality Freeview to those viewers who couldn't/can't get a decent digital signal. (Or none at all).

The arrival of HD has skewed things somewhat! However, once Freeview HD comes along, those channels will also be available on Freesat.

As for sport - well once ITV goes HD, that'll be on Freesat, so you'll get Champion's League football at least....

For all the nature channels, much more sport and tons of movies and HD drama, Sky HD remains by far the best bet - if also the priciest.

Sorry if this exposes me as a n00b, but question for anyone who can help..

I have an existing Freesat by Sky setup.   If I want to switch to Freesat HD, do you think my existing connections (inc Sky mini-dish) will be sufficient to allow me to simply swap the Sky box with a Freesat HD box?

Can we hope this will encourage Sky to do away with

the £10.00 charge for HD which seems to be a major

gripe with Sky HD viewers.

Neil, this is what the official Freesat web site says - www.freesat.co.uk:

"If you already have a satellite dish and use it to watch channels like BBC Three and ITV2, your existing dish is probably fine for receiving freesat as well. In this case you could buy a digital box without an installation package and try it at home - once freesat launches you might like to contact your local installer to see if this will work for you."

bullitt, you will need a external decoder box to plug the Sat dish into before it goes into the TV, Panasonic are releasing a FreeSat TV Come end of June, this set will be able to use Freeview via DVB-T and Freesat via DVB-S2

hammill, you will need a satellite distribution amp and a different form of LNB on the dish to pipe it around the house.

As Clare had said, the main reason for Freesat was to let those who have poor signals or those like my self who cant get freeview to be able to get all the same channels as the rest of you. Currently My repeater isnt set to change over until 2010 ish so Freesat or sky would be my only option.

Having said that Ive been able to get BBC HD on my computer through the use of a SAT card for quite some time now, but it would be nice to put it on a big tele ;)

In a couple of months we will be moving to France and will have a SD LCD TV, a new HD LCD TV and a DVD hard drive recorder. I have only ever had Freeview and don't understand anything to do with satellite!

We will want to have the new HD TV in our lounge and be able to record one programme and watch another at the same time and the same in our bedroom with the SD TV.  

Will I be able to record using the existing DVD recorder in the bedroom? and if I can then I guess that I will need a quod LNB satellite, a SD Freesat receiver and a Humax Freesat HD PVR (once it becomes available)

Am I on the right lines here please?