Freeview HD live, but no hardware available

Posted on 7 Dec 2009 at 12:25

HD services are now being transmitted in certain parts of the UK. Currently the service is limited to the Winter Hill (Manchester) and Crystal Palace (London) transmitters. If you're not covered by these, then can see when you will receive Freeview HD by looking at our story from last month, BBC announces timetable for Freeview HD.

The new broadcasts are the first to use the DVB-T2 standard. Unfortunately, there's no commercially available hardware to receive these broadcasts - one downside of being the first to adopt any new technology.

Current Freeview tuners, set-top boxes and TVs can't receive the HD channels. Set-top box manufacturers, such as Humax and Pace, should have hardware available early next year - but there's no firm dates for these yet. PC TV tuner manufacturers, like Hauppauge, haven't committed themselves to launching DVB-T2 products, although say it's likely to be around March or April 2010.

The current channels are BBC HD and ITV 1 HD. The former is identical to its Freesat version, with a selection of prime time HD programming. The latter is a simultaneous broadcast of all ITV 1 programming - any content not available in HD will be upscaled - rather than the red button service available on Freesat at present.

We'll be keeping up to date with any commercial hardware launches, and hope to bring a hands-on test of the new service in the near future.

Author: Seth Barton

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