Look for the logo: If it’s not T2, it’s not HD!

Looking through various forums, once again it seems that there are people out there spending money in the hope of getting Freeview HD, and being disappointed. I spotted someone on Digital Spy this morning who had bought an Emtec Movie Cube S800H, which boasted an “HD Digital Tuner.”

Unfortunately, it’s not a tuner that’s compatible with the UK’s HD broadcasts, and so won’t pick up the Freeview HD channels. But it’s any easy mistake to make – a look for some of the sites that sell it and similar products reveals statements like

“this media-player hard drive boasts a digital tuner for instant access to high definition TV channels”

“just what you need to watch and record digital TV in Full HD”

and

“contains a HD digital tuner to access all the HD DVB-T channels”

All those quotes come from sites that price in pounds sterling and are UK-based or the UK branch of a large international company. In short, they’re selling to UK users. The casual buyer could be forgiven, then, for assuming that they’ll get the channels broadcast in HD, including BBC One HD, launching next week.

But they won’t. Only the very last of those three descriptions comes close at all to giving a hint at what’s wrong. I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating – in the UK, we use a system called DVB-T2 for Freeview HD channels. Some other countries do use DVB-T (note the missing 2) for HD, but here we only use it for the standard def channels. There’s no way to upgrade a box from T to T2, and if you want HD in the UK, you must have a T2 tuner.

In my view, selling a product in the UK that doesn’t have a DVB-T2 tuner, and saying that it gives access to high definition channels is misleading. It might well give access in other countries, but who takes their set top box on holiday? I think any ordinary person seeing those descriptions would be reasonably entitled to take the view that they will receive the UK’s HD channels.

What to look for

So, how do you make sure you don’t get caught out?

There are two things to look for; first, in the specs, always look for DVB-T2, not just DVB-T. If you don’t see that, don’t even think about buying.

Second, look for the FreeviewHD logo. While I’ve previously said that just a T2 tuner is ok, I think it’s worth revisiting that advice. Now, I’d advise people to buy only a box that has the FreeviewHD logo on it.

That guarantees that it’s been tested and certified; it has to have a DVB-T2 tuner to meet the specs, and it will work properly with Freeview and Freeview HD.

Don’t pay any attention to site that use phrases like the ones quoted above – if a product doesn’t have the Freeview HD logo on it, then you should assume that it won’t work with Freeview HD.

Freeview HD - if a box doesn't have the logo, don't buy it. Some boxes are being sold that will only work with HD in other countries, not the UK

With this one product, it took me only a few minutes to find three misleading statements, ready to trap the unwary – and I’m sure there will be plenty more out there; I don’t want to single out Emtec, as I know nothing about their product, other than that it works in other countries, but will not give you access to Freeview HD channels here; their own site has a  warning about HD coverage, which is sensible.

It’s the UK vendors who are at fault here, for not paying enough attention to the description of products they’re selling to make sure they don’t mislead about what a product priced in £ and sold via a UK-based store will offer to UK buyers.

So, if you’re looking for an HD box to watch the Christmas telly on, don’t get caught out. Look for the logo, and don’t fall for online bargains with misleading descriptions.

eBook pricing update: where have my favourite authors gone?

Price wars are great, aren’t they? Consumers always win, apparently. So, the launch of Kindle in the UK should have heralded a new dawn for eBooks, with prices falling thanks to greater competition, and everyone happy with their lovely new Sony models, or the latest version of the Kindle.

The world of publishing and bookselling, it seems, has other ideas. I wrote not that long ago about the new version of the WH Smith eBook store, and when Kindle launched I compared the prices of a selection of books – essentially looking at those I’ve bought, and comparing what the price would be to buy the whole collection again for Kindle, or just to buy them all now, if I were starting from scratch. Essentially, a year’s worth of book buying from Amazon would save me enough to buy a Kindle too.

Surprisingly, prices appeared to have gone up. At the end of August, I did a quick comparison of prices, with just a few books. A couple of months on, and I thought I’d repeat the comparison, looking at the prices of the same collection of thirty six books in electronic format that I originally compared at Amazon UK, Waterstones and WH Smith.

That turned out to be an impossible task; I’ll be going into the reasons in more detail in an article for Register Hardware, but essentially a lot of the books are no longer available to UK readers in electronic format. For example, none of the Iain M Banks culture books can be bought as ePub at the moment, though you’ll still find them on Kindle. Nor is there anything by Qui Xiaolong, Ian Rankin, or Stephen Baxter. Of the thirty six books I used in my previous price comparison, only twenty one are now available regardless of which of the three stores you use. One title is not available at all now, but the bulk of what’s gone missing is common to Waterstones and WH Smith with Amazon so far unaffected.

How much?

Taking these twenty one books, the cost at Waterstones (reasonable search engine, reliably high prices) is £130.43. WH Smiths (better pricing, truly horrible web site) is £108.26, while Amazon’s UK Kindle store would charge you £84.30, leaving plenty of cash left over to buy all the books that the other stores don’t even have at the moment.

Going back to the August prices, to buy those twenty one books at WH Smiths would have cost £110.95, so they are a little cheaper now, as are Amazon, where they’d have cost £87.16 while Waterstones ploughs their own furrow, defying logic by increasing the price – you could have bought those twenty books for £113.10 in August.

That’s a 3.2% fall at Amazon across these twenty titles as a whole, 2.4% at WH Smiths while – bless their little capitalist socks – Waterstones have put prices up by 15.3%.

Some price war, eh?

Friendly fire

Of course, some of the blame for this is certainly not the bookshops. It’s the publishers, who resolutely refuse to understand digital media; the absence of major authors like Ian Rankin and Iain M Banks in ePub format is most likely the result of the imposition of ‘agency terms’ by some big publishers. Essentially, if you’re going to sell their books, they want you to sell them at the prices they set. Can’t have eBooks getting too cheap and affordable, can we?

Hopefully, the absence of some major authors from eBook stores will be temporary – but in the meantime, you could be forgiven for thinking that publishers really do want to hand all the cards to Amazon – they’re the cheapest and, for whatever reason, they are now the ones with the biggest range of books, some of which UK readers cannot, right now, buy electronically in a format compatible with their own devices.

If I were an executive at Sony or any other maker of ePub readers, I’d be asking my PA where to find voodoo dolls of publishing execs round about now.

Update: 26th November. Just checked the spreadsheet, and it’s 21 books, not 20. But since I’m not working out average prices, it makes no real difference.

PVR software beta for Icecrypt T2200 Freeview HD box

When I first reviewed the Icecrypt T2200 Freeview HD box for RegHardware, one of the promised features was an update to enable recording to USB hard drives. And now, I’ve managed to get my hands on a beta version of the firmware that makes it possible.

You’ll need a USB stick or external hard drive, and though the T2200 can play back from FAT-formatted devices, it can only record to those formatted using NTFS. While it can format a drive via the Installation menu (System Recovery / Format Hard Disk) it won’t do that if it doesn’t recognise the partitoning – in fact, the drive won’t even show up as available.

So, to re-use a drive that had been formatted using the Digital Stream PVR, for example, I had to delete the partitions and recreate them in Windows, before the T2200 would recognise the drive – but considering many other PVRs want drives formatted in Linux, that’s not a major worry.

Recording

Setting a recording is a simple matter; just highlight a programme in the EPG and press Record, or press OK twice (the first press sets a ‘pre-select’, which changes to the channel, but doesn’t record).

You can also do an instant record – just press the record button while watching TV, and it will run for the time specified in the Recordings menu. Press the button again and a pop-up allows you to specify a duration, or ‘after this programme’ or ‘after next programme.’

Press Record a second time and you can easily alter the duration of an instant recording

There’s no series linking or automatic tracking of start and stop times at the moment, but you can set repeat recordings with options for every day, every weekday, every weekend, or weekly, and you can adjust start time and duration to give you a bit of leeway in case the schedules slip.

There's no series link, but there is a comprehensive range of repeat settings

The Recording menu in the settings section also allows you to turn on buffering, so you can rewind live tv for 30 minutes, 1 hours, or even up to five hours.

Timeshift can be switched off, or enabled - for up to five hours

Two other points worth mentioning: first, while recording you can watch another channel on the same multiplex, and second the box will record from standby, and then go back to sleep afterwards.

Watch one channel while recording another - the channels in white are available, others are on a different mux so can't be watched during recording

Playback features

During playback, you’ll find some useful features in common with Topfield’s PVRs. For example, type a two digit number, like 75, on the keypad, and playback jumps to the 75% position.

Pressing the play button brings up the on-screen progress bar. While this is displayed, you can use the |< and >| keys to jump to the start or end.

The progress bar shows bookmarks; it's easy to navigate around a recording

Whether the progress bar is displayed or not, press green to set a bookmark, and yellow to jump to the next bookmark. If no bookmarks are set, then the yellow button will jump forwards 30 seconds. Fast forward doubles each time you press the button, up to 64x.

There’s a reasonable file browser – you can create folders, and move files to them, though the on-screen keyboard isn’t the easiest to use.

Recordings can be saved to an NTFS disk, and organised into folders - but they are encrypted

It’s worth noting that although the files are saved as .rec (which is the format used on Topfield PVRs), you won’t be able to play them on your PC. You can see them, but they’re encrypted, to comply with the Freeview HD content controls. Even SD recordings are protected at the moment, though perhaps that may change in future.

Installing the update

If you want to have a play, you can download the zip file for the update below. Note that it’s a beta test, so use at your own risk. Unzip the file and copy the TFD file onto a USB stick. Plug it into the T2200, and you should see an on-screen message telling you that a device has been connected – if not, try another USB stick; it worked for me with one formatted as FAT-16, but not as FAT-32.

When the stick has been detected, go to the main menu, select Installation, then Firmware Upgrade, and USB Firmware upgrade. The screen will show a file browser, and you should see the firmware file; select it and press OK to begin the update.

Click here for the T2200 beta firmware (zip)

BBC One HD launches 3rd November, BBC HD changes channel no

The BBC has confirmed that BBC One HD will launch at 7pm on Wednesday 3rd November, across all the digital TV services where the current BBC HD channel is available.

You’ll find the new channel – which will be a simultaneous broadcast of the main BBC One – at Freeview channel 50, Freesat 108, Sky channel 143 and Virgin Media channel 108.

The exisiting BBC HD channel will move to Freeview channel 54, Freesat 109, Sky channel 169, and Virgin Media channel 187.

Eastenders in HD? Not yet!

While the recent burning of the Queen Vic in EastEnders has heralded a new set, ready for HD production, the show won’t actually be in HD until Christmas Day, according to the BBC. So while you’ll get to see the new Vic next week, you won’t see it in all its glory until then.

Wednesday the 3rd will see a raft of programming in HD, starting with The One Show, followed by Wallace and Gromit: World of Inventions. Programmes that aren’t yet made in HD will be upscaled.

The existing BBC HD channel will showcase the best HD material from the BBC’s other TV channels.

Gone Digital’s original announcement is here.

Update: Here’s some comment from the head of BBC HD, regarding the launch.

BBC ONE HD - The Apprentice, part of the launch night line-up. Thanks to the BBC for this image

John Lewis bargain price on Digital Stream PVR

If you’re in the market for a Freeview HD recorder, it’s worth considering the Digital Stream DHR8205, which is the 500GB version of the unit that I reviewed here for RegHardware.

Although it doesn’t have network media playback facilities like the Humax (though some suspect that may come later), it’s a very capable unit and well worth a look – and one of the few that has support for surround sound.

It’s listed at the moment on the John Lewis web site for just £199, which is a much more competitive price than many other Freeview HD recorders, so well worth considering. Thanks to the guys on AV Forums for pointing out this offer.

Gay is not a noun, and other bugbears

It’s not easy being a grumpy lefty fag. I have to be alert all the time for people lapsing from the ways of political correctness and vigilant with my proselytizing. It’s almost a full time job; one that leaves me barely enough free time for clubbing (something, I imagine, for which the baby seals are tremendously grateful).

So, in an attempt to save more of my time, and yours, and since I’ve been annoyed twice in twelve hours by thoughtless stupid comments, the like of which belong back in the 1970s along with Mr Humphries, rather than in the 21^st century, here are a few handy tips to help us all get along.

Gay is not a noun

I’m well aware that some people will think this nitpicking, but language does matter. To quote an example from a long long time ago, in a newsgroup far far away, “Bar the doors Martha, the Gays are coming!” is just a horrid way to use the word.

We are not “gays”, we are gay men, gay women, gay people. Notwithstanding Little Britain, being gay is not the sole defining aspect of our lives. Gay people aren’t the only minority that is referred to this way, and there are plenty of other groups that are turned into nouns in ways even more distasteful – the way some people refer to “ethnics” or “illegals,” for instance, is repulsive.

Stop and think why this is so annoying. It’s because it’s dehumanising; controlling language is something that has often been a feature of attacks upon groups of people; a common first step in victimising is to make them “other.” Take away the fact that they’re a person, as much as you can, and it’s a lot easier to cast aspersions, to scapegoat and to smear.

They’re not people, like you and me, they’re “illegals” or “muslims” or “blacks” or “the Jew.” It might seem a small thing, but I really do think this is an area where language is important, and it does matter. Refer to people as people, not as some amorphous “other” and I think you’re keeping the door open to realising that, actually, we’re not all that different.

Gay is a synonym

But only for “festive” or “joyous.” I try to be as festive as the next man (and sometimes with the next man, if he’s amenable), but it really does annoy me when people use the word “gay” as a synonym for rubbish, weak, and similar terms. Like the PR person who tweeted last night “Wish I wasn’t so gay and had stayed out.” I’ll spare their blushes, for now.

Is it really so difficult, even on Twitter, to find another word, like “lightweight” or “lazy” or “feeble”, rather than using “gay” to mean those things? And is it really so difficult for people to comprehend that some of the people reading what you say might actually be gay, and might consider that using the word like that is pretty offensive (not least because I can drink a lot of people under the table)?

To their credit, the PR responsible has deleted the tweet, but I wasn’t the only one who noticed. And I have a long memory.

Again, some think this is trivial; I think it matters – and it matters because a lot of people do get teased, and bullied; the suicides of six gay teenagers in a short space of time over in the US ought to remind us of that.

Being a teenager can be hard enough for anyone; when you realise your feelings aren’t the same as everyone else, it can be hell. And that’s not going to be made any easier by people deciding that “gay” is a handy shorthand for everything bad.

The Gay Agenda

I was originally just going to ignore the silly PR tweet from last night; and then I wandered into the Digital Spy forums, where someone thoughtfully asked whether or not there’s a gay agenda in The Sarah Jane Adventures. Yes, really.

They’re written by Russell T Davies, and he’s gay, so there must be one. Obviously. Just like there was in Doctor Who when he wrote that.

Obviously, we’ve been unmasked, so it’s time confess the truth.

Of course we have an agenda. We want to recruit your children, destroy your marriages, and introduce in schools compulsory teaching of the arm movements to every Bananarama song.

Seriously, what is it with some people? The mere mention that gay people exist, and we must have an agenda. Someone in the office once asked me what I did at the weekend, and I told them I’d gone out to the cinema with my then boyfriend.

That, it seems, was too much information. Always going on about being gay.

Ramming. It. Down. Their. Throat.

Ahem. Suspect Freudian metaphors aside, why is it ok for straight people to mention their partners, but not gay ones? Why must there be an ‘agenda’ if a TV programme has a gay character, in amongst the incredible multitude of straight ones?

Frankly, I suspect that this is really a way of people saying that they simply don’t like us being around; as long as we’re quiet and don’t actually mention we’re gay, that’s fine (because then you can pretend). But we do exist. We’re not going to go away, and we have just as much of a right to hold hands in the street, or on TV, as you do.

Often, it seems, the people who complain about this with their “Unnecessary! Children might be watching!” moans seem to hold two contradictory views at the same time.

The first is that what gay people do (why they spend so much time thinking about the mechanics is beyond me) is so horrible and disgusting that no right thinking person could ever countenance doing it.

But, at the same time, the “gay lifestyle” is so incredibly alluring and enticing, that the merest mention of it in even slightly favourable terms will have teenage boys banging away at each other’s arses like steam hammers.

I’ve never quite worked that one out, and I’m not sure I ever will.

If there really is a gay agenda, it’s surely this:

Don’t use us as shorthand for “rubbish.” Don’t bully and belittle. Don’t obsess about what we do in bed; we don’t care what you get up to.

Treat us – and other minorities – as equals.

And remember recognising differences isn’t “special rights.” It’s the only sort of equality that actually makes any sense.

Calling time on Sky Sports via a CAM?

When Sky Sports was launched as an add-on to Freeview by TopUpTV and BT Vision, quite a few people wondered if they’d be able to use a CAM – the module into which a subscription card fits, which itself slides into the slot on most digital TVs and a fair number of recorders.

At the time, I wrote that it was possible, but I’d been told by TopUpTV that CAMs would stop working for Sky Sports later this year, though they’ll continue to work for EPSN.

It looks like that time is almost here. I’ve been sent a copy of a letter – see the attached PDF – posted to subscribers who receive Sky Sports via TopUpTV. From the letter, it looks like this is going mostly to those customers where the company isn’t entirely sure which equipment they’re using.

(TUTVletter)

Essentially, subscribers are asked to indicate which box they use to watch Sky Sports, and whether it’s a TopUpTV model, one of two Sagem models, or anything else. You’re supposed to provide this information by Monday (18^th October), “to ensure there are no interruptions to your viewing.”

I’m awaiting a comment from TopUpTV on this, but since they’ve previously confirmed that CAMs will stop working, then it’s very likely that this is the start of an update to their systems that will make that happen.

If you do use a CAM for Sky Sports, and you’ve not received a letter, it might be a good idea to call them on 08444 124 898 and have a chat.