SillyDog701

[DJGM]

Digital Terrestrial Television . . .

Expensive setup box or expensive new HDTV.

Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) is not expensive. I don't know how much it costs in Australia,
but in the UK, we have a DTT service known as Freeview. To get this service, you purchase a
small set top box from about £40 from most high street electrical retailers, and get 30 extra
channels of TV and radio services, all without the need to pay any subscription fees.

I don't require an ugly satellite dish bolted to the side of your house as you'd expect if you
subscribe to Sky Digital, nor does it require the possibilty of your front lawn being dug up
to lay new fibre optic cabling, to receive digital cable services from NTL or Telewest.

You simply plug in the existing RF cable from your rooftop TV aerial that would normally be
plugged into the back of your TV set, into the DTT box, then one additional RF cable from
the DTT box, to the back of your TV set. This method of receiving digital television is also
portable, as the DTT box can be connected up to any suitable telly in any room.

For better picture and sound quality, it's generally recommended to use a SCART lead
connection from the DTT box to the telly, instead of the old fashioned RF connection.

The only way DTT can be expensive, is if you purchase an integrated digital TV set, which
has the set top box technology built in, so there's no need to purchase a seperate box.
These IDTV sets are usually widescreen, and can cost a few hundred pounds each.

Earlier this year, an extra DTT service started in the UK called Top Up TV. This offers all
the existing Freeview services, plus a few extra channels, all for £8 per month. Unlike
other subscription based TV services, there is no 12 month minimum contract, so if
you don't like what's on offer, you can phone up and cancel, and you're not stuck
with paying a years worth of monthly subs for something you don't want!

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[Ron Williams]

I understood what digital terrestrial footage was but all the sites that you listed were in the U.K. Well HDTV which I think is the same as digital terrestrial footage. Is HDTV over the air. Although you have to put out quite a bit of money for the original box you can recieve channels from any network that carries it that are substations of a station. For example network channel 24 TV might be showing a football game but with HDTV you can see the network channel as 24-1 and channel 24-2 might have news and weather channel 24-3 might have childrens entertainment. The only thing is your Network television provider must be broadcasting the show in HDTV otherwise you will not get the network channel in HDTV but you will get the substations. For more information goto http://www.myfreehdtv.com . As I said above the box is expensive $150-$1200 depending on features. Some HDTV receivers are even terrestrial receivers like sony's HD 100. And after you buy the box there is no monthly fee

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[DJGM]

HDTV stands for High Definition Television, and is not the same as DTT, but is definitely expensive
in terms of both the equipment required to view, and possibly also the necessary subscription fees.

DTT is a form of digital TV service receivable via a standard TV aerial, rather than satellite or cable.

As I said, here in the UK, our main DTT service is called Freeview, since there's no subscription
fees to pay. Meanwhile, TopUp TV is a lo-cost, no frills, subscription based add-on service that
runs alongside the channels and services available on Freeview, but is operated by a smaller
company than the consortium that operates the Freeview service. DTT viewers in the UK
that opt for Freeview are under no obligation to purchase a subscription to TopUp TV.

I don't know if there are any DTT services available in Australia, the USA, or any other country
outside the UK, but AFAIK, there was a DTT service in Spain that was . . . less than successful.

As for HDTV, BSkyB are planning a HDTV service for the UK to start sometime next year..
And the BBC have been running some HDTV tests on some European satellite that's not
easily receivable on any standard satellite TV reception equipment here in the UK.

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[Ron Williams]

As I stated in my above post HDTV is now broadcast over the airways on many major and minor stations for free. As for the equipment you can use your current analog TV and still use the HDTV box though with not as good of a picture but you can still see the extra channels. But the price varies for the boxes but they are still expesive but this is a great way to get free HDTV especially since in my area for 15 HDTV without sub-channels it cost 175 a month and that also includes other analog channels

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[Antony]

I don't know if there are any DTT services available in Australia, the USA, or any other country
outside the UK, but AFAIK, there was a DTT service in Spain that was . . . less than successful.

From Digital Broadcasting Australia,
Australia government is moving to digital signals and the current analogue signal will be last until end of 2008.

There are two types of digital television SD pictures and HD pictures. It is clearly that the HDTV (tv set) would cost a lot more than then SD.

Prices for digital television set top boxes range from $200 to $1,099.  Prices of integrated digital televisions start at $3,000. (AUD)

Not cheap.

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[Ron Williams]

Although HDTV receivers are not cheap you get your money out of them because Direct TV as stated above charges $175 a month. It is just an idea for people who have to have HDTV.

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