The recent announcement from Ofcom that High Definition (HD) broadcasts over Freeview may be available as early as 2009 is encouraging, but what will you need to pick up the signals and will everyone be able to receive them?.

High Definition over Freeview has actually been available since early June 2006, but only to 450 trial users in London using temporary spectrum licensed by Ofcom. A special set-top box was supplied (Humax HDCI-2000T) which was based on their satellite set-top box but with a DVB-T tuner replacing the DVB-S tuner.

Advanced compression technology and a reorganisation of the way channels are allocated on Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) spectrum will create space for four Freeview HD TV services. The BBC will have one of these channels while the other three will be open to a competitive bidding process and will be restricted to public service broadcasters - ITV, Channel 4, Channel Five and the Welsh language channel S4C.

Ofcom is proposing to clear one of the six multiplexes (on which digital channels are broadcast) to free up space for the new Freeview HD services. Multiplex B carries BBC Four and CBeebies, BBC Parliament and the Community Channel, the main national radio networks, and four interactive streams. Most of these would need to be squeezed onto Multiplex 1 which is occupied by the BBC.

The first three High Definition Freeview channels will be available in the Granada area (north-west of England) and subsequently extended to other regions from 2009. By 2012, all four HD channels should be available across the country to coincide with the digital switchover

Consumers will need new equipment to pick up HD Freeview signals - namely set-top boxes which can decode the more advanced MPEG-4 codec, rather than the existing MPEG-2.

You may be aware that some TV's - namely the new Sony Bravia W4000 range of LCD TV's have an integrated HD TV Tuner and AVC-HD decoder which sits beside the DVB-T digital tuners. This eliminates the need for set-top box to access terrestrial HDTV programming.

A word of caution however, while Ofcom has been suggesting that the two public service multiplexes maintain their use of MPEG-2 along with DVB-T (to prevent existing equipment from becoming obsolete for non HD viewing) it is also proposing that the HD multiplex will work with H.264 encoded HD signals. The problem is that UK H.264 HD looks likely to use the DVB-T2 standard, which is not compatible with the new tuners in Sony's W4000 series for example.

The point is that the appropriate HD capable set-top box will guarantee access to the new HD Freeview services, but an LCD TV with built-in HD tuner won't necessarily achieve this.

As always, here at HDTVorg we will keep you up to date with any developments.

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