Plug and Play (ITV Digital)

Member Name: Retron

Product:	ITV Digital
Date:	14/08/01 (260 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to set up, Good all round channel selection, Good customer support

Disadvantages: Impulse interferance, Some channels not availavle on ITV Digital

ITV Digital is a much maligned service. Most people look at it any laugh at the small array of channels compared to Sky, or moan at poor reception.

My experience with ITV Digital started a couple of years ago when QXL.com started selling cheap ONDigital boxes via auctions on its site. Before then, we'd decided that we wanted more channels, and that Sky offered by far the best variety of channels. However, the chance of getting an ONDigital subscription for £36 was too good to miss - so we ended up with ONDigital after all.

Before I go any further, I'll just mention the basics of UK digital terrestrial TV (DTT). In the UK, there are 6 multiplexes (groups of channels) available for DTT.

Multiplex One belongs to the BBC, and carries BBC 1 and 2, Choice, News 24, Parliament (in audio only) and digital text services.

Multiplex Two is owned by ITV and Channel 4. It carries ITV1 and 2, Channel 4, FilmFour, two ITV sports channels and text services.

Multiplex A is run by SDN, and includes no fewer than 6 pay-per-view channels (plus an info channel), in addition to Channel 5, Shop, TV Travel Shop, BBC Knowledge, the ITN News channel and Television X (soft pornography). Apart from Channel 5, the information channel and Shop, the other channels are all part time - only 5 others will be running at any given time.

ITV Digital owns the other three multiplexes, which carry the following channels:

Free to air: ITV Digital Info, Two Way TV.
Primary channels: UK Horizons, UK Style, UK Gold, UK Play, MTV, E4, British Eurosport, Cartoon Network, Carlton Cinema, Taste, Wellbeing, Granada Plus, Sky One. There are more, but they share a channel - Granada Breeze shares with Men and Motors, Discovery Kids shares with Discovery Wings and Nickelodeon shares with the Paramount comedy channel.
Premium: FilmFour, ITV Sport / +, Sky Sports 1, 2 and 3, Sky Premier and Sky MovieMax, Television X and the Adult Channel.

Pay-per-view: ITV Sport Select, ITV Select 1-5 and Adults Only 1.

There are differences in Wales and Scotland (for example, Wales gets S4C and S4C2 in place of Shop, while Scotland gets the Gaelic Tele-g), but the ITV Digital run channels remain the same, with the exception of one of the pay-per-view ITV Select channels in Wales.

Overall, the channel choice represents a microcosm of Sky and cable - all the main channels are there, with the possible exception of the main Discovery channel, currently prohibited contractually from joining ITV digital. This is great for the vast majority of people - when it comes to it, there's no real *need* to have 4 different MTV channels, or half-a-dozen Discovery spinoffs. Lots of channels are prevented from joining due to contracts with Sky, or lack of space, but the overall selection contains something for everyone, from comedy (Paramount), to documentaries (UK Horizons) to general entertainment (UK Gold), to sport (all the Sky Sports channels). There are some odd things, such as the way some channels (e.g. BBC Knowledge at the weekends) get cut off, due to other channels using their space, but this is due to lack of space.

There are two main ways to view DTT channels - buy using a set top box or by getting an integrated digital TV (with a DVB logo). If you can get hold of a non-contract box, you can view the same channels for free as you can with a DVB TV - all of the BBC channels, ITV 1 and 2, Channels 4 and 5, as well as Shop, the ITN news channel and the TV Travel Shop plus the info channel. Sadly, non-contract boxes are very hard to come by - the major electrical chain stores will sell them for about £400 if pushed. DVB TVs are good in terms of being easy to set up (no cabling), but carry the disadvantage of being hard to upgrade should standards change in the future. Similarly, if you own your box you don't have to pay anything to ITV Digital, but you have to bear the full cost if i
t breaks - much like Sky subscribers after a year.

By far the most common option is to pay a monthly fee to ITV Digital, which includes access to the channels on the other 3 multiplexes, together with a loan of a set top box during your subscription.

Like Sky, ITV Digital offer a variety of channel packages, ranging from £7 a month for one primary channel, to £10 a month for 6 (or you can rent a box for £120 a year with this option), to £13 a month for all primary channels. Primary channels include all the non-premium channels on ITV Digital, meaning that for £13 a month, you'll have access to 16 channels, plus the free to air stations. The premium channels range from £6 a month for FilmFour, to £7 for the ITV Sport channel (or £10 including any pay-per-view matches they show), to £13 for the Sky movie and sports channels. As you'd expect, you get discounts for ordering multiple premium channels, but they can cost a lot more than the basic monthly subscription fee. The pay-per-view channels show mostly films (for £2 a pop), but have been known to show major Front Row or Sky Box Office events (usually £7 and up). There's currently a deal running in conjunction with BT that provides access to all the primary channels plus the ITV sports channels for £20 a month.

ITV Digital does have a few channels that Sky doesn't, the main one being ITV Sport, which shows league and UEFA football matches, plus tennis, snooker and other sports. ITV 1 and 2 aren't on Sky either, and although they're technically not broadcast by ITV Digital themselves, they can be received with any DTT equipment.

The main terrestrial channels broadcast in widescreen, but most of the ITV Digital channels don't. For example, the Sky premium channels are non-widescreen, although ITV's sports channels are. FilmFour, E4 and the pay-per-view channels also show some widescreen material. For users of non-widescreen TVs, there is an option to c
hop off the extra parts of the picture, plus there are lots of options regarding subtitling, language selection, UHF channel output (for VCRs) and other such things.

Technically, the service is pretty good - I live 20 miles away from my nearest transmitter, yet with only a cheap aerial, I receive all channels well - apart from when a car with a poorly shielded alternator goes past, when the picture will break up momentarily. I'm using a Nokia box - there are plenty of others, with the Pioneer and Pace generally regarded as the best. Unless you pick your own box out by buying a prepay kit, it's down to the luck of the draw which one you'll get. There have been reports of people getting second hand boxes - so bear in mind you might not get a brand spanking new box. Setting the system up is easy enough - involving attaching the box to your existing setup with Scart and RF cabling. All the boxes are capable of outputting an RGB signal (although they don't pass through RGB signals), meaning you'll get a superb picture if you set it up properly and have an RGB capable TV.

Channel subscription info is beamed from the transmitters, on the ITV Digital multiplexes, meaning you'll have to tune to a channel on one of those multiplexes if you change your channel selections. Getting through to customer services is generally quick, and my experiences have all been good - the staff are knowledgeable and friendly in the main.

There *are* downsides with ITV Digital, though - leaving aside the channel selection issues, the main gripe for people is impulse interference, causing a spluttering sound and mosaicing of the picture. For some people, only badly tuned engines and close lightning cause trouble, while for others even a flick of the light switch causes breakup. Some places are incapable of receiving ITV Digital (if your aerial is pointing at a local relay transmitter due to hills or whatever, you're unlikely to be able to r
eceive it), while others report problems with new channel selections being activated. ITV Digital offers an aerial upgrade for a fixed fee of £40 to those experiencing reception problems in areas which should receive the signal. Piracy is another large problem - ITV Digital chose a poor encryption method for their channels, and cards that allow you to get the channels for free are readily available. ITV Digital has been fighting a losing battle against the pirates, sadly.

On the plus side, heavy rain and snow doesn't cause breakup (as you get with Sky Digital), and you don't need to wait for an installer to come round if you buy a prepay box and your aerial / coverage is up to scratch. Another good point is that the cards aren't tied to a box like Sky's are - so you could take your card to a friend's house and view the channels you've subscribed to. You can take the whole box on holiday in the UK fairly easily, too - as well as being able to rent several boxes for the same house, switching cards around if necessary. The software in the boxes is also pretty robust now (although it's taken a while!), so lockups and crashes are rare. Also, the customer service is good, the channel choice is more than adequate for most, and there are some channels that you can't get on Sky. Digital cable does carry these channels, though - so people in cabled areas would probably be better off with cable. Those hankering for Sky exclusive channels (Sky Sports Extra, Discovery, History, Sci-Fi etc) would obviously be better off with Sky, as would those who care about having pay-per-view films starting every 15 minutes, but if you can receive it, ITV Digital offers a perfectly adequate service. Bear in mind that the Government's preferred scheme is DTT for when analogue is eventually turned off, and it looks like the future's good for ITV Digital.

Overall, then, for the average person, ITV Digital is great - a cut down version of
Sky, in effect, for a reasonable fee, with channels covering most interests.

Summary: