Receiving HDTV in the UK

[Jimmy Macintosh]

My old man has just bought himself an HD tv and is now awaiting delivery. I was wondering whether he needs to do anything to start receiving an HD tv signal?

Over here I needed to subscribe to a specific HD side of my cable operator, and a colleague had to buy a "free over the air HD antenna". Is it the same for the UK? Would he need to buy a separate aerial? internal or external? subscribe to a different part of sky or whatever cable operator is available? Is the "free over the air broadcast HD" any good when received through a dedicated aerial? Any recommendations for any of the above?

Thanks in advance.

JM.

[ORAC]

There are only currently 2 ways to receive HD in the UK, Sky on satellite and Telewest on cable.

Sky have 8 HD channels, Telewest have ppv movies and whatever the BBC and ITV put out in HD, which isn´t much. Neither are free to air and need their receiver boxes and monthly subscriptions.

A trial of HD terrestrial transmission (http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/news.phtml/5618/6642/broadcaster-HDTV-UK-trial-success.phtml)in London has been declared a success, and Freeview HD may be expected in a few years. But I wouldn´t expect it to be any time soon.

[BEagle]

Bearing in mind the fact that Sky's bandwidth is now so limited that it is causing artefacts on even decent RGB CRT TVs, whereas DVD quality should be the norm, methinks that 'HD TV' is an utter con. A good 625 line RGB picture should be possible of displaying much better pictures than Murdochvision is currently achieving!

[Coconutty]

This from UK NTL ( recently merged with Telewest )
We are currently testing a new set top box that will support HDTV.

This box will also have a built in hard disc drive and three tuners so
you can watch one program and record up to two others. It will be
available early in the New Year.

Regards,

NTL Customer Concern

No idea of costs and what will be available to watch, but at least the market is starting to open up,
and NTL HD should be cheaper than SKY, which may prompt them to look at their pricing :

( If SKY would drop the extortionate £299 purchase price for their HD box, + £60 installation then I might go for it ).

SKY HD minimum monthly cost is £35 - made up of £15 for 2 channel "mixes" plus £10 for SKY + ( apparantly you can't have SKY HD without SKY + ), then add another £10 for the SKY HD subscription :ooh:
If you want Sports or Movies in HD it'll cost even more :bored:

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d129/coconut11/Coconutty.jpg