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Ever wondered why after signing up to Freesats mailing list for news on the Freesat launch, nothing ever arrived?

Yes, so are we, but atleast now everyone can stop hunting through their inboxes and junk item filters for an email that never arrived, its been found!!!

Digital Spy member “cisco kid” has pointed us all to the email template, found on their website, http://freesat.co.uk/email/may08/email_web_version.html.

We’d still be interested to find out why it never arrived, and what was done with our email addresses, but I guess we’ll never know

It has been confirmed today that Portugal’s Euro 2008 game against Turkey will be the first publically available HD broadcast from the new ITV HD service.

To access the HD channel, you need to press the ‘red’ button during the SD broadcast on ITV1 (channel 103). ITV HD will not be available on Freeview, Virgin or Sky.

It has also been confirmed that in addition to Portugals game on Saturday 7th (7.30pm), that games on Monday thro Friday of the following week will also be available in HD.

Its been confirmed today that Alba Group Freesat boxes (Grundig, Goodmans & Bush) do have manual tune capabilities, but is yet to be launched as an option in the freesat digital box menu.

The manual tune, which is currently held in an undisclosed hidden menu, allows access to hundreds of FTA channels presently not listed on the Freesat EPG (electronic programme guide). In accordance with European Union legislation, all receivers must allow the consumer to manually tune available FTA channels. At present only the Humax FOXSATHD allows this.

Alba have said manual tuning was “already technically possible via an undisclosed menu”, so we don’t expect the release of this facility to be too far away.

We came across this video report before, which discusses HD in some detail, and makes quite a few references to Freesat, plus Sky (and their new EPG). Whilst most of the report is nothing avid technology fans won’t know already, its worth a watch anyway.

Technofile: Get To Know HD TV

Now that June is upon us, and the launch of Freesat is firmly behind us (just!), what can we expect from Freesat this month? Well here are our expectations and thoughts:

ITV HD - Should only be a couple of week away now, testing has been carried out and completed, the access route has been sorted (via the red button), they have a line up of programmes, albeit limited, so all systems are go. Fingers crossed it’s a better effort than BBC HD, which is still showing only a very limited amount of new HD programmes.

ITV Regions - As you may have noticed, not all ITV regions are available at present, with many receiving ITV London, despite what postcode you type in at initial Freesat Digital Box setup. The other regions should be available the second week of June, we make that the 9th, so we shall see. Read the previous blog post on ITV regions here.

Additional Channels - At present there are so many FTA (free-to-air) channels not showing on the Freesat EPG (electronic programme guide) that we expect some to become available this month. As the individual television channels/networks must pay for a EPG slot (suggested to be around £30k) many are likely to have waited to see what the initial take of Freesat was. Now that this is growing, we should start seeing additions very quickly. Freesat have suggested 200 channels by the end of this year, so by our reckoning, that’s around 18 per month average. So which can we expect? Well all ITV regions are certainly going to be the first, plus ITV HD although can that be classed as a channel when its not individually listed on the EPG? Other than that, we’ve had no further confirmation yet!

IDTV - The IDTV (integrated digital television) are due this month from Panasonic, definatly in sizes 42in and 46in; with 50in maybe reaching us by the end of the month. These are expected to sell well, and might surprise everyone with the quality they offer in comparison to the existing stand-alone Freesat digital boxes. A PVR version is also being hinted, but not in the first 3 models. We’re just wondering where our sample unit is, come on Panasonic

Freesat availability - Stock levels seem to have been brought under control now from the major retailers; after weeks of ‘out of stock’ messages appearing on the websites. Hopefully now, Freesat units will be available from the independent retailers, as many of the distributors who supply to the independents have been unable to gain reasonable quantities.

PVR - Our poll suggests 70% of you are waiting on this unit, whether it be from Humax or one of the Alba Group models, unfortunately it seems that they won’t be rushed, and with the fiasco of limited stock that plagued the Freesat official launch, this might take even longer to ensure enough quantities are ready. Don’t expect anything to happen this month

C4 HD - Not much chance here either, C4’s recent official statement to us suggests no intention on bring their HD channel to Freesat, not in the foreseeable future anyway. We are more of the opinion that this is just being said because of the agreement they have signed into with Sky, but we can’t see movement this month.

We see the months of June thro August as an important time for Freesat, its a good time to develop their service and products, whilst the summer months bring a drop in television viewing, ready for the big spending months of winter.

There seems to have been a big ho-ha recently regarding broadcasters wanting to protect their shows by restricting the use of component connections, unfortunatly this fuss has now reached Freesat digital boxes carrying the component connection.

What it means is that a broadcaster has the ability to ‘flag’ a show they wish to protect from piracy which in turn disables the use of the component connection on your Freesat digital box. In these instances the only way to view certain shows would be via HDMI, which some televisions don’t carry.

The change will also prevent the use of some external devices to record the HD content. HDMI, unlike component, supports HDCP (high bandwidth digital content protection), a standard designed to make copying HD content more difficult.

Sky made similar changes a few months back by requesting Thomson to stop manufacturing their Sky HD Digiboxes with component connections.

We thought this was worthy of a mention. Comet have had the forsight to think about the future of Freesat and the soon to be released Freesat DTR/PVR. The new DTR is a digital recorder which to utilise the record functionality to the fullist requires you to have two cables from your satellite dish.

The problem so far is that all the major retailers participating in Freesat have been selling single cable installations, which suit the current SD and HD Freesat boxes only.

What Comet have done is include a Quad LNB instead of a Single LNB and the additional cable required, for just £20 more than the standard install. A small price to pay to future-proof your satellite installation. This will mean when the time comes you literally just have to plug the additional satellite cable into the new DTR box and away you go, rather than paying out for a return engineer visit at significant cost.

FREESAT DTR INSTALLATION TO 1 TV POINT - £99.95

We highly recommend this purchase to anyone requiring satellite installation, even if you don’t fancy a DTR in the future, you may want Freesat in more than one room and this setup will make things much easier.

Well done Comet.

You and Yours, a programme on BBC Radio 4 today discussed the new Freesat service, and paid particular attention to the way Currys’ have been misleading customers on requiring installation when purchasing a Freesat digital receiver.

The feature started with the radio presenters talking about how a number of listeners had been in touch to say how Currys’, up and down the country, have been misleading customers regarding the installation requirements of Freesat. The main issue has been staff advising customers that they must take installation, no matter whether they have a satellite dish in place already or not.

No one from Currys’ was willing to take part in the show, but did give an official statement saying that they are aware of the misunderstanding and are working to resolve. They claim that 80% of Freesat Digital Boxes have been purchased without installation, and that installation is by no means mandatory if you already have the required equipment in place.

This however goes against an email JamesE (a member of DigitalSpy) received from Currys’ a couple of weeks ago, which said:

Dear Mr ******,

Thank you for your email dated 14th May 2008. I am concerned to learn that you are unhappy that we include installation with the new receivers. The receivers do not work from a Sky dish and as they are HD, installation needs to be done with the correct receiver and aligned for an optimum signal.

Thank you for taking the time to contact us. We do value your custom and hope that you will continue to use our stores in the future.

Kind regards,

Stephanie Patterson
Currys Support

Richard Lindsay-Davies, a spokeman for Freesat took part in the show and explained that the way in which Freesat communicated with the major retailers may have back-fired somewhat, and measures are in place to resolve this, with 150 trainers from Freesat currently out at Currys’ stores educating the staff.

Richard went on to explain that Freesat is a platform setup to service the areas that Freeview doesn’t cover, and it has the added advantage of a much wider coverage area, as well as free HD channels. Also mentioned was that Freesat is the only satellite service to provide a free service for a one-off payment, although not restrictly true, Sky do offer such a service.

Its good that these matters are being addressed, and that Freesat are working to resolve these issues.

You can use BBC’s “listen again” service to listen to the show for yourself, http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours.

Maybe a few weeks late, but finally all the current Freesat Digital Boxes are available to purchase from all the major retailers. After weeks of “in stock / out of stock” notices, it seems stock is now flowing and much easier to obtain. Even Freesat themselves make reference to availability on their website:

Humax and now Goodmans, Grundig and Bush HD digital boxes are available to buy this weekend. Order online now or check availability in your local store via the links below. Remember, to view HDTV you need an HDMI cable.

The Humax HD has made a return to Comet too, but still Northern Ireland have to rely on Argos, their only means of purchasing the new Freesat service.

Question is, has the service and advice being offered by the retailers improved? Maybe it has, we certainly haven’t had as many readers contact us with their stories, but we are still hearing of customers being turned away from Currys’ for refusing “compulsory” installation (not true!).

Argos also like to make things interesting; we’ve had a number of you tell us that despite the online price of £119.99 for the Bush HD Receiver, in-store they are trying to charge £129.99, using the “includes a free HDMI cable” as the sweetener. Some have managed to argue the price down, others have gone for it despite this, assuming that a HDMI cable would have cost more than £10 anyway (they don’t, they cost around £5, don’t pay more than you should for a cable, they are all the same!!!).

Certainly inaccuracies are always likely at the beginning of a new product, some more excusable than others, but things are finally starting to improve. We just hope that lessons have been learnt, to ensure that when the new IDTV and DTR/PVR’s appear, that there is high availability, expert knowledge, and good product!

Panasonic’s Freesat IDTV Plasma’s are about to launch, and we know a number of you have been holding back on a plasma purchase until these units become available.

The 42″ and 46″ will be the first to launch in early June, followed by the 50″ early July.

We have noticed that Flattelly are now taking pre-orders (maybe a good idea to avoid shortages like the stand-alone receivers!). Prices are:

42″ Panasonic TH-42PZ81 Plasma Freesat TV Full 1080p HD - £1649
46″ Panasonic TH-46PZ81 Plasma Freesat TV Full 1080p HD - £1829
50″ Panasonic TH-50PZ81 Plasma Freesat TV Full 1080p HD - £2599

These prices sound about right for what we had initially been told by Panasonic, plus not much difference in price between the 42″ and 46″. Very tempting!