Radio / TV

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Last updated on 14-Jul-2010 17:02

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TV & Radio Page 8

Digital TV (No subscription costs once set up costs paid)

Digital UK switchover dates See when your part of the country switches from analogue to digital Tweets Latest news on Freeview TV

1. Freeview Official website Click here for what channels (TV and radio) you can get (roughly 100! but they are SD - Standard Definition) Read about Freeview HD High Definition now available; BBC, ITV1, Channel 4, S4C, (BBC1 - due Autumn 2010) Check Radio&Telly too for info

2. FreeSat Read about the free digital TV service which requires no subscription, just a satellite dish, cable and Freesat box Buy a £30 Standard Definition box from Argos Comes in HD too but only 2 channels so far, BBC and ITV1 (BBC1 - due Autumn 2010) See Freesat channel list Iplayer on FreeSat now

3. FreeSat from Sky Read about the free digital TV service from Sky - 240 channels for £175

Set top digital boxes from around £18 - click Pricerunner to see what boxes are available, or click Radio&Telly for set top boxes - a great source of up to date info.

The TV market has been, and still is, very confusing and requires a lot of homework. Check this table to see a selection of what PVRs are available with 2 or more tuners.

Personally I would buy an LCD TV, then buy a box offering 1) HD - High Definition, 2) HD Freeview &/or HD Freesat, 3) HDMI connectors, 4) Ethernet for broadband connection for Internet TV, &/or 5) Wi-Fi to connect to your home network media and 6) PVR capability with storage of a least 500GB. Trouble is it doesn't exist yet with all those options. However the 3view box comes close - but no Wi-Fi. DVD and Blu-ray may become superfluous because of these developments.

VideoOnDemand news from Digital Spy also check here for forum discussions of the latest PVR boxes - scroll down the page

Another option is to buy a Media box e.g. Sony Playstation 3 which will stream media content from your PC to display on TV and play 'On-Demand TV' (see below). Click Pricerunner for available media centres

Video On-Demand (Catch-up) TV

Future of TV which lists one of them as....................On-Demand TV (IPTV) List available services - "tailor made television piped into your home'

Video On-Demand (Catch-up) TV on PC (IPTV)

1. TV Catch-up 29 channels to choose from (Requires registration)

2. SeeSaw (was Project Kangaroo) Showing BBC, 4OD and Five

3. MSN Player Same as BBC iPlayer

4. Project Canvas (YouView?) (official) (not quite ready - yet) Project Canvas (un-official) A project to create a player that brings together all the services listed below Read more on this subject from BBC

5. CBS TV.com US Channel currently only showing Channel 5 content (below) but more to follow apparently

6. Hulu (not quite ready for UK - yet!) Last but by no means least. Hulu is the massive VideoOnDemand (VoD) service in the US and may be imminent in UK - message pops up after 15secs and you can register your interest Read here on T3 for the latest news

7. BBC iPlayer BBC Player enabling catch-up on the last 7 days of BBC TV... on your computer Multicast Higher quality radio and TV but must be right ISP

8. ITV Catch-up Same as BBC iPlayer

9. 4OD (Channel4) Catch-up Same as BBC iPlayer

10. Channel Five Catch-up Same as BBC iPlayer

11. Sky Catch-up Same as BBC iPlayer - but requires registration

hbbTV Read about 'Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV' a pan-European initiative

Video On-Demand (Catch-up) TV on TV

1. BT Vision Available with BT Total broadband package - not free

2. Freeview 'TopUpTV' Add extra channels, if you have a Freeview set top box, (STB) for around £12/month. Click here for more useful info on compatible boxes and also read about what TopUpTV has to offer

3. FreeSat On-Demand Not available yet but worth reading this update

4. Virgin Media Digital TV through Cable from Virgin - 65 Channels

5. Tiscali (was Homechoice) Uses broadband internet service to pipe TV into your home for about £20/month

6. Boxee One of many solutions for watching internet media on your telly

7. S ony Location Free TV Allows you to watch your TV (located at home) from wherever you are in the world using a slingbox!

SimplifyDigital Click here to find the right package for telephone, digital TV and broadband

8. Google TV Not much known yet but have a look at TechRadar for more info. and also BBC

OntheBox Very good TV listings Radio Times What's On TV?

Blinkx 35 million hours of TV and video - Amazing site Worldwide TV 3000 stations ChooseANDwatch BBC TV TV Past Beware as this site is very addictive - all your favourite TV programmes from the past British News Pathe (Archive - requires registration) 3500 hours of archive footage between 1896 and 1970

TV links below are .ram files that play on RealOne Player

Click here for links to watch BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4, BBC News, BBC Parliament, CBBC and CBeebies

Digital Radio

1. Want to listen to Digital Radio? Click BBC for more info. including a postcode checker for UK digital radio coverage. Find radios for sale at Radio Now

For more in depth and up to date news, and a very honest opinion of DAB quality in the UK, plus a list of all radios for sale try Digital Radio Tech (scroll down for all the news with his personal opinions - he's not impressed!) Also read about wireless free internet radios from £50

Radio

RadioPlayer Coming soon from the BBC

BBC Radio on demand Latest BBC Programmes (on BBC IPlayer) Radio Fail Snippets of radio when it goes wrong

Podcasts BBC podcasts (listening to radio shows on mobile device) See here for more worldwide Podcast content

BBC Radio 1 Listen live!

(BBC Radio 1 - Webcam Image)