Is freeview worth having?

[Bigtallfatbloke]

we are probably the only household left with just the 5 terrestial stations. We really arn't interested in a cable or sattelite hook up, but this freeview lark...is that any good?

 

[Noodley]

Well, it's free.

Depends what you want I suppose.

 

[Noodley]

we are probably the only household left with just the 5 terrestial stations.

And there are some parts where there are only 4 channels.

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

well...the lines froma pink floyd tune come to mind...

" I've got 13 channels of shoot on the tv to choose from"


that's what I dont want.

To be honest I dont even know whats on freeview...maybe I should go and read the tv times or something first

 

[Fab Foodie]

Yes. For the money it's worth it.

 

[Elmer Fudd]

well...the lines from a pink floyd tune come to mind...

" I've got 13 channels of shoot on the TV to choose from"


that's what I don't want.

To be honest I don't even know whats on freeview...maybe I should go and read the TV times or something first

Pink Floyd were right BTFB. There's only so many programmes being made, so the thinner on the ground the good ones get.

 

[Noodley]

I mainly use digital freeview to access radio channels I cannae get otherwise - or sometimes to watch cycling on ITV3 or 4. I suppose it accesses some not too bad channels, and although I do not watch them on a regular basis I do sometimes find the odd programme which makes it worthwhile.

Overall, for the intial outlay it is not really too great a burden. The freeview boxes must be about £0.03 by now...

 

[redfox]

I can only get 4 channels and freeview doesn't work where I live. I am half hoping the situation doesn't improve so that, when the analogue switch off comes, it will inspire me to ditch the tv altogether.

 

[zimzum42]

It's definitely worth it, if just for the '+1' channels, and just those occasional shows you really love which show up on wierd channles. For example, I love the Wonder Years, and it's on TMF every now and then......

We will all need one anyways for when they switch off the analogue signal, so the naysayers will have to stick to watching the radio after that.....

 

[marinyork]

Yes it's worth it. Freeview has improved a lot the last few years with channels like e4, more 4, film4, Five US, Five Life and UKTV History. There are a couple of 24 hr news channels (probably not for much longer), couple of music channels, shedloads of radio stations.

However freeview is under a lot of change at the moment. Virgin have just launched Virgin 1 channel on it. UKTVG2 is about to go on freeview badged as "Dave".

There's also a lot of other goings on. There's currently a public consultation on DTT on whether Sky should be able to bugger off and use it's space for pay tv called "Picnic". As well as that the BBC and Ofcom are pondering whether to launch High Definition on freeview pretty much straight away or to wait for switchoff with various options.

If you want to be pretty much guaranteed a perfect signal then get FreeSat next year.

The best freeview checker is http://www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/tvd.exe?

You may not be able to get all muxes.

This is a list of freeview channels by multiplex http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/terrestrial/mux/

You're pretty much guaranteed 1. C and D tend to be dodgy in quite a lot of areas.

 

[Joe]

Filmfour has some great films on (though I never watch it....pesky internet is too distracting!). And, if you like football, it's great to have a choice of Champions League games on a Tuesday.

 

[TVC]

Given the price of the boxes these days it's got to be worth a punt. As suggested above why not trawl through the Radio Times and see if anything takes your fancy. ITV4 do occasionally shown cycling - particularly the spring classics.
Sometime over the next four years you're going to have to make the change anyway.

 

[BentMikey]

" I've got 13 channels of shoot on the tv to choose from"

I thinkt that's the case even with paid services like Sky. If you get Sky+ or some other form of PVR then you can eliminate this problem and catch the good programmes for when you want to watch them.

We have a TiVo, bought it when it first came out in the UK. It's got to be one of my top 5 toys of all time, it turns the TV into your slave so that you don't have to watch whatever shite is on at the time. Instead the box time-shifts the programs you like so that you can FF through the adverts and watch what you like when you want. And you can pause live tv to talk/get a cuppa/answer the doorbell, etc.

Actually that last might be a disadvantage, sometimes I'm at a mates house and then I discover I can't rewind something I just missed through not paying enough attention.

 

[simoncc]

Yes, because the analogue signal is being switched off round here in 2009. For £20 the main benefits are more football on channels like ITV4 and digital teletext is much faster. On the downside, reception can be a bit iffy for many more people than the old analogue system, and the digibox uses electricity, so TV watching is more expensive and less green than before.

 

[Globalti]

We have recently gone Freeview, though we don't pay anything for it so we only get 30 channels or so. Most of them are pure garbage. The change has been a disaster as far as I'm concerned; we sit like morons all evening flicking from channel to channel because there's always something you can watch. We are less fit and we are achieveing less work on the house than when we only had 4 or 5 channels.