A few weeks ago, I was approached by my friend Mauricio. The team at Freeview wanted to know if we were interested in trialling some MyFreeview|HD approved DTR devices.
 
Freeview is New Zealand’s free-to-air digital television and radio service. It is designed as a replacement service for the current analogue TV transmissions, that are going to be switched off nationwide in a few years (at which point you will NEED a set top box to receive either Freeview, or the transmissions of another provider, such as SKY's satellite service or TelstraClear's cable tv service).
 
No more snowy/ghosty TV1 and TV2 via bunny ears!
 
The platform currently has 19 television and radio channels, with more being added from time to time (including the recent welcome addition of Prime television). You can see a full list of Freeview channels here. Note that some channels are exclusive to the satellite service, the terrestrial service, or particular regions.
 
A DTR is a "Digitial Television Recorder". Similar to a PVR, DVR, MySKY, DVD Recorder, HTPC and other products.
 
I jumped at the chance to be part of this trial, as previously I have owned three Windows-based Home Theatre PCs (HTPCs), two different hard-drive based DVD recorders, and always really liked to have a PVR.
 
Previous HTPCs have been sidelined due to poor acceptance factor from non-geek household members (HTPCs can sometimes be difficult to deal with when things go wrong).
 
A few months ago I tried a Panasonic DVD Recorder, but with no HD capability and no EPG (program guide) to make recordings easy, the time and effort required to set a recording up was just not attractive - to name and set a recording was up to 30 - 60 button presses (Really! By the time you set date, hour, minute, channel, picture quality, name the recording, set any repeat flag, it really is that many buttons to push), and the end result was still only a mushy picture quality from the analogue tuner.
 
I disconnected my Sky Tv service early this year, as it was a luxury I just was not prepared to continue paying for, considering the bulk of my viewing was free to air ("FTA") channels anyway (TV2, TV3, C4 & Prime mainly), I felt a bit miffed at the prospect of paying per month to activate the HD capability in the reciever, and much of SKYs SD content appears to be of worse picture quality than the same SD content broadcast on the Freeview platform.
 
Currently my setup includes a Panasonic 50" High Definition plasma TV and a Sony 5.1 Home Theatre System.

So what do I hope to gain from moving up to a DTR unit?
 
Currently I watch hardly any TV. In fact, I watch less than I actually want to. I am a busy working single parent, and when most of the programs I wish to view are on, I am simply too busy to watch them - either spending the time with my children, or meeting other commitments.
 
With a DTR, I will be able to get back to watching "my programs" at a time that suits me - generally late at night, after 10pm.
 
I will be able to watch those recordings in HD, and hopefully it will be as easy to use as the MySKY I once had, AND maybe even have a few less annoyances (with the MySKY, if you activated the onscreen EPG, your picture and sound both disappeared - making browsing the EPG impossible whilst trying to watch a program, as well as a few other issues.
 
The DTR has arrived while I write this, so I look forward to having some time tonight to unpack it, and set it up. I believe they have sent me a Homecast HT9200DTR, and the Freeview crew (say "Freeview Crew" ten times fast!) phoned me yesterday to let me know it was on its way, and also to arrange an aerial install for me (not required, as I had a new UHF aerial put up before). Freeview seem to be paying good attention to detail - thats always a good sign.
 
I will run through the full setup later on, and discover how easy (or otherwise) it will be to get up and running. 

I also have a Logitech Harmony 525 programmable remote control and hopefully the Homecast works well with it too.
 
And remember, aside from the cost of the box (and any cable, dish or aerial which you may or may not need), thats it! Freeview is exactly that - free to view. No sign up, no subscription, no payments. Just your regular free TV channels (plus many you cannot get via analogue) in high quality digital format.
 
About the author: Tony Hughes is a self-employed financial & IT consultant, based in Hawkes Bay. As a busy, working parent of young children, I am enjoying the family & child oriented content available on Freeview, as well as the odd Sci-Fi series as well (Primeval for starters!). I often find I miss shows, as I do not glue myself to the tv every night, so I am looking forward to trying out the Homecast PVR from Freeview.

Welcome to MyFreeview|HD Review! It’s almost like a “reality show” online. For the next four weeks we are going to follow three people experiencing high-definition digital TV, recording (no pun intended) their experiences with three different MyFreeview|HD devices.

This blog is sponsored by Freeview but the blog posts are by no means influenced by the company. Here is how it works: I had to chose three people from the Geekzone community to try and report their experiences with the devices, broadcast quality and anything else related to using the service.

So I found my three candidates (Tony Hughes, Scott Palmer, Suzi Heath) and each received a different model, courtesy of Freeview. Where needed their home was fitted with an external antenna. They already have HD ready TVs so to experience the full service. And they have to write about it.

I will receive their posts and stick them into this blog so you can find out what experience to expect from the service from start.

Freeview is the way of the future digital TV broadcast in New Zealand. At some time in the not far future Freeview will replace the current analogue broadcast – like in other countries analogue TV broadcast will be switched off and digital TV will take over.

To enjoy digital TV broadcast now you can use your existing TV (any TV will do) and a set-top box that you can buy from many consumer electronics retailers.  Already some new TV models come with built-in decoders so the set-top box is not always needed.

The MyFreeview|HD DTR (Digital TV Recorder) is a different kind of set-top box. They have the ability to record the digital TV signal on internal hard drives, pretty much like the old VCR used to do on tapes, but with a lot more “intelligence”. For example you can pause live TV while you go to the kitchen to get a drink, or you can program the recording of a TV series – regardless of the broadcaster changing date or time. Even though you can watch Freeview on any existing TV set, to fully enjoy high digital TV a high-definition TV is recommended.

One last note: there are two types of Freeview services in New Zealand: satellite (DVB-S) and terrestrial (DVB-T). Both services are digital, but only DVB-T provides high definition. There are lots of technical reasons for that, but this is what you need to know. That’s why in this blog we will always refer to Freeview|HD.

Subscribe to the MyFreeview|HD Review RSS feed to keep yourself informed of new posts on this blog, and remember to visit the Geekzone Freeview forums for discussions with our community.