[Inspiration]

Originally Posted by figrin_dan

very much so. Can you find out if your neighbours have freeview HD (As opposed to Sky/freesat HD)

Really? What is the potential issue? Aerial not powerful enough? I'll try to ask around. Thanks for the heads up.

[lbear]

Originally Posted by Inspiration

I've just punched in my postcode on the freeview HD site and apparently since late last year i've been enabled for HD freeview! Had no idea.

Any tips/warnings? Should I just go and buy the cheapest FV HD box at Currys and plug it in and away I go? I'm in a block of apartments using a shared aerial, does that make any difference?

On their web site Currys currently only have the Humax HD Fox T2 for £80
This is a very good price for that box which has a number of internet options including BBC iPlayer and cut down versions of Wikipedia, Youtube and internet radio. It can be converted to a single tuner PVR by adding a USB hard drive larger than 120Gb (You can watch another channel on the same mux while recording but not others. E.g. record BBC 1HD and watch Channel 4HD but you cannot watch E4)

I would suggest you look at two other alternatives. One is the iCan from £30, the other is the Technika STBHDIS2010xx from Tesco. There are a couple of versions listed with A or HD replacing the xx. They are exactly the same, just different batches with very slightly different cartons. Go for the cheaper A model for £35 (plus a £1 HDMI lead from you local cheapo store)

I have both the Humax and the Technika (which I got very cheaply as a refurb from the Tesco Outlet on Ebay, worth checking inc case they have more). Both are very solid machines with good build quality and the Technika has one of the most sensitive tuners around. The iCan has a CI slot for TopUpTV (not sure if this still uses the right card) but no channel display. All will get BBC iPlayer although you need to get hold of the beta software for the Technika (private message me for advice if you get one).

[chrisjr]

Originally Posted by Inspiration

Really? What is the potential issue? Aerial not powerful enough? I'll try to ask around. Thanks for the heads up.

There should be no real issues if you get the other muxes at decent signal strength. There is potential for the HD mux to break up before the other muxes as the signal strength goes down.

But in my set up I routinely get no more than 50% signal strength reading and the HD mux is perfectly OK. In fact I see more issues with some of the SD muxes than HD! Though that could be co-channel interference from distant transmitters during certain atmospheric conditions.

[chrisy]

Originally Posted by chrisjr

There should be no real issues if you get the other muxes at decent signal strength. There is potential for the HD mux to break up before the other muxes as the signal strength goes down.

But in my set up I routinely get no more than 50% signal strength reading and the HD mux is perfectly OK. In fact I see more issues with some of the SD muxes than HD! Though that could be co-channel interference from distant transmitters during certain atmospheric conditions.

ISTR that the HD mux is actually slightly more robust, as DVB-T2 is less susceptible to multi-path interference.

[SimonBlackham]

Originally Posted by chrisy

ISTR that the HD mux is actually slightly more robust, as DVB-T2 is less susceptible to multi-path interference.

My experience is slightly contrary to this - when receiving from Mendip at 50m it was the strongest and most robust MUX.
From Rowridge (now using HP as VP was disastrous) @ 19m (behind a hill) it is one of the weakest and least robust - with real problems with multipath AFAICT.

Unfortunately I have cracked a rib and it will be some time until I can re-site the aerial to eliminate any possibility of reflections and see if the HD MUX is robust when they are eliminated.
There may be different problems here with the H and V signals interacting with phase-shifts but I don't really know

[kasg]

Originally Posted by chrisy

ISTR that the HD mux is actually slightly more robust, as DVB-T2 is less susceptible to multi-path interference.

That's what I thought until http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1670830

[figrin_dan]

Originally Posted by Inspiration

Really? What is the potential issue? Aerial not powerful enough? I'll try to ask around. Thanks for the heads up.

Usually shared aerials are connected to single channels amplifiers - you would get one amplifier for each analogue (and hopefully digital) signal. After switchover these channels will be moved around and so some or all of the system will have needed to be updated. Most transmitters have the HD mux on an old analogue frequency so would use the same amplifier but it depends on how scrupulous your installer and landlord are as to whether they have used the correct equipment.

All thing being equal (which they never are) DVB-T2 should be more robust than DVB-T, but it has a much steeper digital cliff so if the reception is close to the cliff it'll be the first to go.