Yesterday, BT Vision finally launched, at least to any existing BT Broadband customers with at least a 2Mbps connection and who pre-registered.

BT claim that their box - made by Philips and based on Microsoft's IPTV platform - is future-proof. It has an HDMI output so is happy to connect up to your HD TV or projector. They've also said that it's perfectly possible to download high definition content, though didn't give a date when this would be available.

A report at The Inquirer suggests that next-generation satellite decoders, whilst having hard drives up to 300Gb, will only allow the user to access around 140Gb.

Their 'Sky source' suggests reasoning for this:

• Free Viewpoiint TV - where a viewer can select various shots and angles on the same programme
• Broadband modems - Sky boxes may come with broadband modems built-in, both for interactivity and fraud prevention (they'll always be connected to the Net so Sky can keep tabs on where they are and what they're doing)  I've heard this probability before.

So, quite apart from the big brother aspect, extra interactivity and choice may eat up any new recording space made available.

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Selective trials of HDTV over aerial are set to begin tomorrow by a consortium representing the four terrestrial broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Channel4, and Five)

As we've reported before, only 450 viewers, who have picked up specially adapted HD set-top boxes this week, will be allowed to take part in the closed trials to see whether HD is a viable option to broadcast to Freeview once the UK's analgoue service has been switched off by 2012.

"We calculate that there could be room for up to six high-definition channels in the freed-up spectrum," a BBC spokeswoman said.

The transition to High Definition in Europe has already met with some customer confusion; in the States the technology evolved much more fluidly, but here in Europe I feel that it is being crowbarred in before all the new services and disc formats arrive. Making it simple to understand what HDTV means, where to get it and the equipment you’ll need is probably a real pain for those involved in educating the average consumer. The latest solution is a new logo (pictured) which matches up with the existing HD Ready stickers.

From now on the HD Ready logo signifies a TV set as “capable of processing displaying” high def signals, whilst the new HD TV logo means that the device (such as a DVD player or set-top-box) can “receive and process” HD content. So basically the idea is: buying an HD Ready TV plus and an HDTV device means that they absolutely will work together. Now if only they could find away to explain the 720p/1080i/1080p issue with a nice simple logo...

via Reg Hardware

Thomson has been earmarked as the key supplier for Sky’s HD services in the UK, but that hasn't stopped other manufacturers hoping to get a toe-hold with HD set top boxes. According to IDTV at the recent IBC show in Amsterdam Philips unveiled its HDTV box which will be used to partner the first mainstream, European HD services which will be launched by Premiere in Germany next month. Philips said that its boxes could be ordered by UK companies if they required them., However it insisted that it was not going to launch a free to air HDTV product. Philips also confirmed it was working on HD boxes with integrated hard disk based video recorders.