Should you buy FreeviewHD this Christmas?

With Christmas fast approaching, together with a line-up of televisual treats, like Doctor Who in high definition, a lot of people are probably considering buying a new TV set, or a recorder, and making the move to FreeviewHD for Christmas.

But is that the right thing to do? Will it be cheaper in the new year, will there be better boxes and TVs? Are the current ones any good? That’s the question I’m going to try to answer for you.

What sort of person are you?

Really, there’s no simple answer to this question – it really depends on what sort of person you are, what you enjoy watching on TV, and what you envisage doing in the future – if you’re the sort of person who’s likely to change the way they watch TV, thanks to new technology, like iPlayer.

First, let’s look at what you get on Freeview HD. There are four HD channels; BBC One HD, ITV 1 HD, and Channel 4HD all show exactly the same as their standard-def counterpart, but with a better quality picture – either real HD when the programme’s made that way, or a standard quality picture, electronically improved to give ‘upscaled’ HD. The fourth HD channel is BBC HD, which is a channel that shows only HD programmes, and most of its content is selected from the other three BBC TV channels, with a few repeats from BBC One.

You’ll notice there’s no Channel 5 – so if you’re hoping for CSI and shows like that in HD, then Freeview HD is not for you. It’s possible Channel 5 might appear around 2012, but not certain.

So, first question – do those channels that are on Freeview HD show the sort of things you watch. If they don’t, then you probably won’t benefit from it that much, and due to space considerations, channels from other broadcasters won’t appear for some time, and you’ll be better off waiting until later.

Where do you live?

Next, where do you live? If you live in an area that’s already gone through digital switchover (where the old analogue signals are turned off) then you should get Freeview HD already, or very soon. If you live in some other areas, it may be available to you – you can check on the Freevew HD web site, and more areas will get it next year. But if you’re in the south east of the UK, for example, and outside London, then you probably won’t get a Freeview HD signal until 2012.

Any Freeview HD equipment will also receive the standard definition channels, of course, so you could buy it now and wait until HD starts in your area. But unless you absolutely have to buy new equipment right now, you’re probably best off waiting.

If you do have to buy something right now, then read on and find out whether or not buying Freeview HD is the right thing to do.

Why wait?

Why do I advise some people to wait? Freeview HD only launched a year ago, and equipment didn’t get to the shops until the spring. There’s more and more kit becoming available, and prices are dropping. Kit that comes out next year will have some nice new features, and improvements over some of the first products, and basic products will be cheaper.

So, if you can’t get Freeview HD at the moment in your area, but want to go digital (for example, to get extra channels), then you might be better off just getting a cheap standard def box now, and buying Freeview HD next year, when there will be a wider range of kit, some of it at lower prices, rather than buying a piece of kit right now, which will cost more and won’t give you HD anyway, until sometime next year.

Do you just watch TV?

To decide whether it’s worth buying now or waiting until next year, you need to know a bit about what’s happening with Freeview HD next year, but before I explain that, it’s also worth considering what sort of person you are.

Do you just watch TV, by which I mean, is it just something that’s there, in the corner of the room, maybe with a video recorder, or DVD player, but essentially something you turn on, watch TV through its built in speakers, and that’s it?

Or are you more sophisticated? Do you have the TV sound hooked up to extra speakers, so you can listen to surround sound when you watch DVDs? Do you already use a digital TV recorder, or have the TV connected up so you can watch movies that are stored on the computer? Do you use iPlayer on the computer? Or think that if it was built in to the TV, you’d probably use it to catch up on things that you’ve missed?

If you fall into any of the categories described in that last paragraph, then I think there are probably good reasons to wait until next year before buying Freeview HD. On the other hand, if you don’t, and you are one of the people who ‘just’ watches TV, then go ahead – treat yourself this Christmas.

That said, if you’re buying a new TV, but you also think some of those other things are important, then why not buy a Freeview HD TV now, and add a separate recorder next year, with some of the new features?

Technical improvements

So, just what are those improvements for next year, and who’s going to be interested in them?

Regular readers of this site will know that one of the issues with Freeview HD is that a lot of the equipment on sale now does not handle surround sound very well. Now, there aren’t that many programmes made with surround sound, but some dramas, films, and music shows have it. And it’s a shame if you can’t get surround sound out of your equipment.

The good news is that most FreeviewHD TV sets can feed a surround sound signal to your AV system, if you have one; when it comes to set top boxes, though, far fewer can – I’ve got a partial list here.

The FreeviewHD test requirements are changing, and from next April, supporting surround sound properly will be a mandatory requirement. So, if that’s important to you, your choice is to buy one of the bits of kit now that handles surround sound properly, or wait until next year’s models are released.

Also coming next year, Freeview HD kit will have to support some extensions that will make it possible to deliver extra services, like iPlayer, via the red button (much as they are on Freesat). Again, next year’s models should all support that.

And, finally, next year will also see the launch of YouView. This will be a set of boxes that will support Freeview HD and also have access to catch-up services from all the broadcasters, so you can go backwards in the programme guide and find shows you’ve missed, then watch them via the internet, through the same box. It will also offer some extra pay services too – though it’s worth noting that some boxes out there already offer iPlayer, or will do very soon.

If any of these things is important to you, or you think you might find them useful, then you should probably wait until next year to buy a Freeview HD box. And if you’re after a bargain, when the new kit becomes available, you may find lots of this year’s models discounted – but remember that they may not offer surround sound, or access to online TV.

Summing up

It’s hard to give a definitive answer for everyone. If you have to buy a TV this Christmas, I’d say it’s almost certainly worth buying a Freeview HD one, if you already have the service in your area. If you don’t really need a new TV, or there’s no HD coverage where you are, save your money for now.

If you’re thinking of buying a set top box, I’d suggest waiting until next year, if you want to take advantage of lower prices, or newer features that you think you will use.

If you absolutely want to get HD for Christmas, I’d personally recommend the Humax set top box or PVR right now, as they will give you surround sound, and should get iPlayer too, in the New Year. But if you just enjoy a bit of TV and aren’t too fussed about those things, there are some bargains to be had, like the Vestel Freeview HD boxes.

Freeview – who makes what, and why it matters

Following on from my recent post about the various names of the Vestel T8300 HD receiver, Marc over at PVR Junction has helpfully sent a list of some of the other brands that have rebadged Vestel equipment for the UK, together with a link to an unofficial web site with more information.

So, these are the brands that have sold Vestel Freeview PVRs under their own name in the UK:

• Akura
• Alba
• Bush
• Digihome
• Dual
• Durabrand
• Evesham
• Ferguson
• Goodmans
• Grundig
• Hitachi
• Linsar
• Logik
• Luxor
• Maplin
• ONN
• Proline
• Sharp
• Technika
• Techwood
• Wharfedale

As again, note that this doesn’t mean that everything with that badge on was made by Vestel; check the label on the bottom and see if any part of the model number corresponds to one of the Vestel ‘T’ numbers listed on the Futaura site.

Some companies will simply buy in what looks best at the time. For example, there has also been a Wharfedale PVR that was a rebadged TVonics, and while Goodmans and Grundig have used Vestel kit in the past, their current Freeview HD boxes are made by someone else, as far as I can tell – they certainly aren’t the Vestel T8300.

A big boy did it and ran away

On the subject of rebadging, you might think it’s just the second and third tier brands who do this sort of thing, while the big well known global companies diligently create shiny new products in their test labs.

That’s not the case. Sony’s SVR-S500 Freeview PVR wasn’t really a Sony product at all. It was a twin tuner recorder, with a miserly 80GB hard drive – though to be fair, it was released around four years ago.

Rather than being a Sony design, it was really a re-badged Digifusion FVRT200. And this is where things start to become curiouser and curiouser. The Digifusion was one of a few products that didn’t use the main Freeview programme guide. Instead, it relied on a channel which some people might remember, called 4TV. This was a data channel that seemed to do nothing most of the time, and if you watched it, you would think it was a waste of space.

What it actually did was broadcast a fourteen day programme guide in the middle of the night, which was stored by various devices, including the Digifusion models. Sony, for whatever strange reason of their own, cut the programme guide down to seven days on the SVR-S500, effectively meaning that you paid extra money to get a Sony badge on a Digifusion recorder, and had only eight days of EPG, rather than fourteen.

Fast forward to this year; 4TV is now InView, and they’ve announced that since the contract hasn’t been renewed for them to broadcast the programme guide, they’re stopping. So, if you have a Digifusion recorder, or the Sony clone (both were made by Beko, another Turkish firm), you’ll find that there isn’t a programme guide any more, making it much harder to schedule recordings.

Of course, a four year old Freeview recorder that can only record one thing at a time, and has just an 80GB hard drive sounds like pretty ancient technology now. But wouldn’t you think that if you paid for a big brand name like Sony, you wouldn’t be left with something that had vastly reduced functionality, just four years later?

What’s in your FreeviewHD box?

There are quite a lot of Freeview HD boxes around these days, but did you realise quite how many of them are the same? And that one company is responsible for a huge number of the budget boxes?

Step forward Vestel, a large Turkish company that makes just about everything electrical that you can think of, even though you’ve probably never heard of them. They’ve been making boxes for Freeview for years, including plenty of Freeview+ recorders, and were also one of the first companies to pass the FreeviewHD certification tests, with their T8300 receiver. They work with Cabot Communications, a UK company that creates some of the software, like the interactive engine, so it’s not entirely a foreign affair.

You won’t find Vestel boxes on UK shelves under their own name, though. They manufacture kit that’s branded by other companies, often for their in-store brands, and sometimes even with the suggestion of Britishness. So, the Bush DVB-680, far from being the product of a once well-known UK brand is actually the Argos version of the Vestel T8300. The same is true of the Linsar FHDF1 sold by John Lewis. When Linsar says on their site “Linsar is a British company, manufacturing affordable technology” it really means “paying Vestel to make it for us.”

You’ll also find Vestel kit in stores like Tesco, Asda, and plenty of other places too. Many of the budget Freeview HD boxes around at the moment, including some on eBay, are the Vestel T8300, with each brand having a slightly different front panel.

How can you tell? One way is to look at the sticker on the bottom, with the model number, where you’ll see ‘T8300’ as part of the designation; another give-away is the on-screen displays, which all look like the Bush – you can see the EPG in my gallery here – and the only-its-mother-could-love-it remote control.

The other way you can find out which boxes are the Vestel T8300 is by keeping an eye on the software update page of the DTG website. As I write this, it lists a firmware update for the T8300, and helpfully lists all the models that covers. So here’s a handy list for you.

The Vestel T8300 is currently also known as:

• Antiference HDSB
• Bush DVB680
• Digihome Freeview HD Box
• Ferguson F02HD
• ISIS ISI-DVBT2
• Krystel DVBT2
• Linsar FHDF1
• Lowry GSHDTB1001
• Luxor LUX-DVBT2-690
• Metronic T2HD
• Xenius DVB100HD
• Finlux DVBT2665
• Technika STVHDV2010

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying that the T8300 is a bad box; it’s affordable, and also one of the very few that will produce a Dolby Digital output, though it lacks polish in other areas. But don’t be fooled by the marketing people into thinking that you’re somehow supporting a plucky British company against the big Japanese and Korean electronics giants.

It’s also worth pointing out that, just because some products under a particular brand are made by Vestel, that doesn’t mean they all are. Quite often a company will have different products in their range made by different people.