Steve asked

9th June 2010

I have an HD ready 37" Panasonic LCD television (TXL37G10). Recently I had a wall mounted freesat satellite receiver installed and I can now receive Freesat programmes. Can I now access HD programs on Freesat, if so which ones, or do I need anything else? Also what do I need to access Freeview hd?

You should be able to receive BBC HD on channel 108 and ITV HD on channel 119 with your existing set up and you shouldn't need anything else other than perhaps a channel rescan if you're not seeing them in your channel lineup.

For Freeview HD you need to live in an area of the country where digital switchover has already take place and have a high-definition capable Freeview receiver, probably in the form of a new set-top box. Digital switchover frees up broadcasting space to make room for high-definition programming on the Freeview platform but the HD broadcasts are not compatible with standard-definition Freeview decoders such as the one built in to your TV.

Alex asked

9th June 2010

Hope you can help. I have just bought a Panasonic built in HD TV. Im strugling to pick up all the BBC channels plus a few others, though I can get BBC HD no prob (this is on freeview).

My old tv was connected with a Freeview box, andI never had any problems with reception at all. Although it was connected to a different aeirial socket in the room. I dont think its the arieal socket as some days i can pick up BBC fine. Other days nothing!

If you can I would try the other aerial socket you have as that may eliminate the current one as the source of the problem.

Otherwise it sounds to me like your received signal strength is a little marginal to the extent that you're seeing occasional picture dropouts on the channels you can receive and you're not able to receive others.

If your aerial socket isn't the problem, you can try adjusting your aerial in small increments to see if that helps but you need to be able to go back to the starting position if things don't improve. The signal strength meter in your TV can help with this process.

Your other option, particularly if you have a few TVs or other devices connected to the same aerial is to consider a pre-amplifier or distribution amplifier to maintain the signal you do receive as it is split/passes throughout your home.

Marion asked

9th June 2010

Do I need to take the dish into a satellite specialist or can I fit the LNB myself? Getting it lined up to the appropriate satellite is another story, haven't done that before but hey can try anything!

Swapping the LNB isn't tricky if you know which you want to buy and how many outputs you need (depending on the number of decoders you will feed from it).

A long time ago I moved a Sky Digital dish with reactively little hassle but I already had a Sky box and used the inbuilt signal meter positioned so I could see it though the window. It's not hard but does take a bit of faffing about and a compass so you may well conclude it's easier to get someone else to help!

Russell asked

6th June 2010

I have a new Sony KDL-EX403 tv with a built in DVB-T2 (Freeview HD) tuner and I have direct line of sight on the horizon of the Blackhill transmitter (some 10 miles away).

A check indicates that I can receive HD broadcasts and there is no work in progress on this transmitter

Signal quality is 100% and signal strength is 98%. I have carried out a full digital scan a number of times but cannot find any HD channels- I get the standard Freeview channels no problem.

I have also tried connecting a 12dB attenuator in line on the co-axial connection and rescanning but again no difference (other than the signal strength is now reduced to 48%) - the idea behind this was that the digital signal may have been getting swamped by the analogue signal.

Any other ideas I could try please?

I'm sorry to say you're going to have to wait a little longer to watch Freeview in high-definition as digital switch-over isn't happening in your area until next year. This needs to happen in order to free up some of the broadcasting space to accommodate the Freeview HD channels.

The Black Hill transmitter is switching switching over in two stages in June 2011 so from that date once you've rescanned it sounds like you should have no problems receiving Freeview HD. Sorry you have to wait a little longer but keep an eye on this page to find out the exact dates and what you need to do:

http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/when_do_i_switch/stv_central/black_hill

Julie asked

6th June 2010

I Have a Samsung 32" 1080p TV connected via HDMI cable to a Virgin V+ box. I have set the V+ box output to Hi-Def HDMI and the resolution to 1080. This seems to cause the picture size to shrink on some channels on the TV to something similar to 4:3 no matter what display setting I change the TV to (although all adverts seem to work in widescreen). I understand only the HD channels will work in HD and that not all programs on those are actually broadcast in high def.

If I change the display settings to Widescreen RGB on the V+ box . Is this something to do with the original broadcast format of the program or something similar. Any ideas of the best settings to use.

Sadly not all broadcast content produced today is the widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio that matches your television screen and that's the cause of the black bars you can see on either side of the screen. You'll tend to find this 4:3 aspect ratio content particularly with older programming which was originally recorded before the widesceen format was popularised.

There isn't a great deal you can do to fix the problem but it it's bothering you regularly you may be able to mitigate the the problem by using the 'picture-size' or equivalent control on your television to to zoom the picture when you come across 4:3 content. Just beware however that in order to fill the screen you will lose some of the top and bottom of the picture, and you will want to swap back to 16:9 or 'screen fit' once the programs over, so for me at least I don't bother and tend to not notice the bars at the side after a few seconds.

Phil asked

1st June 2010

I live at ST7 4PR, if i get a Freeview HD tuner built in to my TV will I get Freeview HD? I think Winter Hill will be my transmiter. How will I know it is a Freeview HD picture I am recieving it?

From your postcode it looks like Winter Hill is your local televtion transmitter and you are in the Granda TV region where digial switchover has already take place.

Consequently according to the checked at:

http://www.freeview.co.uk/HD

you should be able to receive BBC HD, ITV1 HD and Channel 4 HD with either a high-definition Freeview decoder set top box or with a HD Freeview tuner built in to a new televisions.

Each of the HD channels has a different channel number standard-definition equivalents where they exist and hopefully the picture improvement should also be pretty noticeable too.

Helen asked

1st June 2010

I have a freeview HD ready TV, how do I make it HD? Do I need an upgrade or something else if so where and how do I go about getting it?

If your TV is relatively new and has an in built Freeview HD tuner you don't need to do much other than wait for digital switchover to complete in your area if it has not happened already. You can find out the date your television region switches on the Digital UK website at:

http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/when_do_i_switch

If your TV only has a standard-definition Freeview tuner built in, the when digital switchover comes around you will need to get a high-definition set top decoder box in order to be able to watch in high-definition as standard-definition are not compatible with the new HD broadcasts.

Marion asked

1st June 2010

I have an old satellite dish with presumably an old LNB attached, would it be possible to change the LNB to a digital one, or would it be wiser to buy a new dish wih digital cabability?

Thanks for your question. You old dish will work fine with a digital LNB so it will probably come down to a decision based on cost and whether you're happy with the lager dish size, but as I say in principle there's no need for a new dish unless you want one.