Goodmans-Grundig intros identical Freeview HD set-tops
As does Grundig-Goodmans...
Grundig and Goodmans. Goodmans and Grundig. Whichever way round you prefer the names, they have both introduced the same Freeview HD receivers.
No great surprise, that - they're the same company. The Goodmans-branded box is the GDB300HD; the Grundig one is the GUD300HD.
Both pick up Freeview and Freeview HD programming and will output to standard-definition and HD TVs at resolutions of up to 1080p via HDMI and Scart portage.
The greener among you may be impressed by the boxes' sub-1W stand-by power consumption. Grundig/Goodmans certainly is - it mentions the point twice in the boxes' spec list.
It also mentions the presence of an Ethernet port for "future internet services". These, it added, include the anticipated wide roll-out of BBC iPlayer on Freeview HD boxes.
The Grundig and Goodmans boxes will shortly be available from the likes of Argos, Tesco, and Comet for around £150. ®
COMMENTS
Technology
It's the technology...
A standard def box for Freeview uses MPEG2 chips which have been around for years, and for which the development costs have probably been recouped many times over by now.
An HD box uses two new technologies - MPEG4 decoders, which have been around for a little while, but nowhere near as long as MPEG2, and DVB-T2 which is brand new, and only just available. It also mandates other things that aren't on SD boxes, like ethernet and HDMI, and some of these extra things require licence fees.
It's a bit like building a PC - if you insist on using the latest generation of Intel CPUs, it's going to cost you a lot more to put together a system, with all the support chips and so on, than if you create one around a processor that's getting a bit long in the tooth.
early adoptor tax
a grundig/Goodmans freeview box is around £30.
this is 5 times more!??!?!?!?
