Free HD for the masses
16 May 2008

"...suddenly there's a cost effective way of getting true high definition content onto all those thousands of HD televisions out there"

As with just about every form of technology in recent times, television is no longer a wooden box sitting in the corner with 2 or 3 channels of prime time viewing attracting 28 million viewers to a single programme. With the rapid expansion of available channels and the technological revolution that has hit broadcasting there's now a wealth of options out there.

While for the programme makers this has given them a faster turn around, easier editing and the ability to add jaw dropping Hollywood style special effects, for the consumer we've started to see more choice both in programme delivery options and hardware. More choice means, of course, more confusion for the end user!

As regular readers of this blog will know, I get pretty annoyed when I see someone with a widescreen telly who hasn't bothered (or more likely doesn't know how) to switch their digital set top box to widescreen mode. Utter waste of money buying the new kit, in my opinion. This grumble has now transferred to the many people who've bought an "HD Ready" tv but don't actually watch any HD content on it. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people who fall into this category. Unless you've got an XBox 360 or Playstation 3 or actually subscribe to Sky HD (and only 400,000 people do that at the moment) then you're gaining very little apart from a box that's a little flatter than the one you replaced. Because the contrast ratio is far better on LCDs than old fashioned "big box" CRTs consumers are hoodwinked into thinking that the picture quality is better on their new TV on the wall. It isn't better. Brighter, perhaps, but certainly not better.

I don't want to sound like a scratched record as I've been banging on about this for months. But now things have changed. Last week a new digital platform launched. (Yes, another one.) This one is called "Freesat" (not to be confused with "Freesat from Sky" which is a marketing effort by Sky to try to get more subscribers). The new Freesat service is backed by the BBC and ITV as joint shareholders. Crucially, they don't have to pander to Sky anymore and don't have the bandwidth and distribution restrictions of Freeview. This means that they can offer all of the interactive services they have on Sky plus things that Freeview just can't accommodate such as lots of true (and free) HD channels.

So this means that suddenly there's a cost effective way of getting true high definition content onto all those thousands of HD televisions out there. At the moment only BBC HD is available and this only broadcasts 4 hours a day. However, ITV are launching an HD service soon (controversially exclusive to Freesat) and this will be a "red button" option when an HD programme is available as a simulcast to one of their channels. Nice idea. Channel 4 already run a duplicate Channel 4 HD channel on Sky and hopefully it won't be long before this finds its way onto Freesat. There are currently 80 channels on Freesat with a promise of 30 being added every month until there are over 200 by the end of the year. Of course, most of these will be utter cr*p but hopefully once there are a good dozen or so HD channels, Freesat will become a very tempting (and subscription free) digital alternative to Sky, Virgin Media, Tiscali, BT Vision and Freeview.

You may be wondering why BBC HD only broadcasts 4 hours a day when Channel 4 HD is 24 hour. The reason is simple. Channel 4 have opted to show everything on Channel 4 HD that is also on Channel 4 at the same time. Of course, some of the programmes being shown weren't filmed in HD so this means that Channel 4 need to "upscale" to get improved quality. It isn't always "true" HD but is better than standard definition (SD). The BBC are using BBC HD to showcase programmes that were originally filmed in HD and they don't show anything else (e.g. that has been upscaled). The number of shows in this category is limited (although growing) but there are notable exceptions. For example Doctor Who is filmed in SD as the costs of producing all that CGI in HD are prohibitive.

It's easy to think that Freesat has joined the digital party too late and there are already enough options for consumers. However, Freesat has a unique selling point. It will be able to bring many subscription free high definition channels to the masses. It will be competition for Sky HD (so even people who stick with a subscription service should feel the benefit with competitive pricing) and will continue to drive sales of HD Ready tv sets. For me it offers the only logical route to getting high def. I'm going to wait until there are more HD channels on Freesat then I'll buy an HD Ready box, a Freesat Twin Tuner Digital Recorder (these should be out later in the summer) and then cancel my Sky subscription forever.

New site design
As regular visitors will have already noticed, the Clayton Family web site has undergone a revamp. I've made the pages wider as the days of restricting pages to nicely fit on a 15" monitor are now long gone. I've long considered the home page of my site to need the most work and this design fixes the problems that I think existed with the previous format. I hope you like it.