Sheffielders must retune their Freeview boxes tomorrow
BBC channels move to make way for HD
Readers in the Sheffield area will tomorrow need to retune their Freeview boxes if they want to carry on watching BBC channels.
Freeview said the change will have been implemented by 6am on the morning of 17 March, after which set-tops and tellies will need to be retuned.
The channels are moving to make room for the transmission of HD channels.
Reception of said broadcasts will take a little longer - you'll have to wait for suitable set-top boxes. Newcomer 3View said late last year that its debut Freeview HD box will be out in March. Established player Humax has one in the works too.
Freeview HD uses the DVB-T2 standard to broadcast the MPEG 4 video streams used for the hi-def content. ®
COMMENTS
What a rod for their back they created
Seems all the more support for my notion that the whole digital television thing was bodged from the start. It was the ideal opportunity to kick out the old analogue paradigms and move to a completely different way of doing things, based far less on this archaic scheme of fixed channels. Freeview should have been implemented as a kind of UDP broadcast IP protocol, with some kind of on-demand bidding scheme for bandwidth, whether on a per-programme or per-broadcaster basis. Would have ended up far more flexible, allowing better image quality in off-peak hours, no more delays to schedules (just perhaps slightly reduced bitrates) when sporting events overrun, more access to smaller broadcasters, etc. But oh no, it had to work basically the same way as it has right from the start, and cause immense upheaval every time someone somewhere decides to change some minute detail.
In reply to...
Get a freesat dish and a Humax Foxsat HDR - you won't regret it.
No you don't!
"you'll have to wait for suitable set-top boxes"
NO you don't.
Freeview HD boxes have been available to buy for a few weeks
Sony TVs already in the shops
Devices are now finally in the shops. I've seen the Sony Freeview HD TV in the shops already. I've also heard that the Humax STB might be on sale but I've not seen it myself.
Longer wait
Not just a wait for HD boxes I'm afraid. They're moving the BBC mux at Sheffield so that they can use the same (or an adjacent) frequency at Emley Moor, the main station of which Sheffield (aka Crosspool) is a relay to launch the HD service early (before DSO).
If your aerial points at Sheffield, you won't be getting HD until 2011 when Emley and its relays go through Digital Switchover and the muxes move to their final frequencies.
