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Dom Robinson reviews

ITV Digital

Philips Terrestrial Digital Decoder

Model: Philips DTX 6370

Philips DTX 6370 Decoder

Last updated: October 2nd, 2001.

The ITV Digital platform has now closed down as of May 1st, 2002, but I will leave this review up online to see what was around at the time.

Contents :


1. Introduction.
2. The Benefits of Digital TV.
3. Setting Up.
4. What channels do you get ?
5. ITV Digital's set-top box main menu.
6. The remote control.
7. Rear connections.
8. Subscription costs.
9. Picture and sound quality.
10. Competition in other places...
11. ONmail - email through your TV...
12. What does the future hold for ITV Digital ?
13. Overall.
14. Updates/Corrections. Digital Television - what does it mean to you? A great advance in technology, or another way of selling the same old thing? You can hardly open a newspaper or switch on your existing television without having it shoved down your throat, so now's the time to find out something about it.

First out the trap was Sky with their digital service on October 1st 1998, with ITV Digital following a few weeks later on November 15th 1998. Both offer a number of the same channels, but each also have their exclusives in a bid to attract new customers. While SkyDigital is masterminded by the Murdoch empire that many people are familiar with, ITV Digital is a collaboration between Granada and Carlton.

The Benefits of Digital TV

The main benefit is that you can get access to many more channels than you can with a conventional analogue TV set on its own. This is because of the way the channels are delivered. Instead of a typical channel which consists of a single broadcast in uncompressed form, you can get several channels in the same space, but compressed to a degree such that the end result should still look at least as good as analogue but while allowing extra choice.

The compression method used is known as MPEG 2 (MPEG = Motion Picture Experts Group), the same algorithm that is used for DVD technology which is certainly a step up from MPEG 1 which afflicted the Video CD era, a format that died off quite quickly in this country as the quality was appalling. MPEG 2 compression works by comparing consecutive frames. Anything that doesn't change can stay unchanged, whereas the rest is altered as necessary. Analogue TV would repeatedly send down a lot of the same information in this instance, thus wasting most of it.

Anyone who's seen a well-encoded DVD in action will know that the quality can be stunning. Digital TV isn't always like this however. While a DVD is mastered with care when transfering to a 5-inch disc, the encoding done for digital TV is done on-the-fly (ie. instantly, so the content can be seen as quickly as intended) so imperfections will be noticed at times, but the better the source material, the better the end result.

The channels from ITV Digital are divided up into six "multiplexes". Where you live will depend on which ones you can get. Those in well-populated town areas should be best off, but you can check for yourself by entering your postcode at : www.dtg.org.uk

The channels on each multiplex can vary. For up-to-date info, check www.jaura.freeserve.co.uk

Note that the broadcast from ITV Digital - and SkyDigital for that matter - falls about half-a-second behind that of analogue TV, thanks to the encoding and decoding that has to be done, so that means you'll be celebrating the Millennium a little later than your non-digital counterparts, but don't worry too much as the real Millennium occurred around August 1993.

Setting Up

The brief set-up instructions contained with the digibox make the process look simple and painless and they only go as far as connecting up to a TV and VCR. I have a system comprising of two TV's, three VCR's (two NICAM, one mono) and an analogue Sky decoder, all plumbed together in one way or another. Since the introduction of Channel 5 over two years ago caused me big headaches and lots of cross-channel RF interference this undoubtedly gave me some trepidation. Thankfully, it was as easy to set up as the instructions state.

While the digibox is connected to one of the NICAM VCRs via SCART, it is also connected to the mono VCR by RF lead and tuning it into a spare place on that VCR was made immeasurably easier by simply altering "UHF output channel" in the TV and video settings menu (more of this later).

After getting the ITV Digital setup screen on my TV, which comes in a garish yellow colour and I hope one day that options come along to customise it, I pressed "select" as asked, followed by the "getting started" option from the main menu. It took approximately 15 minutes (the instructions state "up to 20") to find all 37 channels available. I feared it wouldn't work at first since it found all of them after the progress bar got past 50% of its searching time. Next, a quick call to the customer service line effortlessly activated my card for all of the subscription channels.

As of Feb 1st 2000, there are now 43 channels via the Winter Hill transmitter.

What channels do you get ?

Bruce Springsteen sang a song about how there was "57 Channels and Nothin' On", but here we have a current total of 55 channels with a fair bit on to watch and more to come in the future. I'll list each one in order of their appearance on the channel list with their number.

1. BBC One

Auntie Beeb's flagship channel and the place where you're likely to find the most amount of mainstream material from the BBC. Around 25-50% of their output, of which the same goes for their sister channel, is filmed in 16:9 widescreen and most of this is shown during prime-time. Such programmes are available in anamorphic format (see later on for a description of this term) and give an extra 33% picture resolution compared to a standard widescreen broadcast.

Programmes that look damn good in widescreen on this channel: Walking With Dinosaurs, Eastenders, Casualty, Airport, Clive Anderson All Talk, Watchdog, plus many other in-house BBC productions. I'm not quite sure how much pre-school children will appreciate Tweenies being filmed in 16:9 widescreen, but it's a very colourful show and looks good on digital. Sports fans will be pleased to hear that some sports are being shot in 16:9. While analogue viewers will get a cropped 4:3 picture, digital owners will be able to see the Golf World Matchplay in full effect. Many recent films are broadcast in 16:9 widescreen which is a shame if they've been filmed at a wider ratio, but it's still preferable to the fullscreen version showing on analogue. Not-so-good: Roger Roger - pleasing framing, especially with Tina's choice of outfits, but the film stock is a little grainy; and National Lottery Show - do we really need to see more of Dale Winton ?!

Previously, there as no regional news items on the BBC via ITV Digital and you would see News 24's replacement, UK Today, but now there are regional news broadcast on there, in 4:3 format, while News 24's output remains 16:9. SkyDigital don't have a full regional service, just variants for England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

Many of the trailers and BBC1 logos will also be shown in widescreen, whereas they are cropped to 4:3 on analogue. The BBC's channels are set up such that when there's a change in picture format, from widescreen to 4:3 or vice versa, if you have a widescreen TV it should tell it automatically to switch to that mode. Even in 4:3 mode, you could zoom such a programme in to fill the screen albeit losing resolution. N.B.: BBC Scotland now get their BBC output correctly formatted in anamorphic widescreen where required and 4:3 when it should be. Previously EVERYTHING was in anamorphic widescreen. See under ITV's heading for why this is a problem.

Why 16:9 ? If you believe what the 'experts' say, they'll say it's more like how we view the world - which is rubbish. If TV looked how we viewed the world, then the programmes would be filmed in Cinerama (for the complete wrap-around effect). Apparently the actual "magic ratio" in which we view what's directly ahead of us is approximately 1.61:1 (a little bit wider than 14:9 - the 'compromise' ratio being used for widescreen programmes on analogue TV), but is that for only those who have perfect 20/20 vision and how much can I see in front of me after a cider frenzy?

There are no regional programmes for the BBC, so when viewers are normally treated to their local newsreader you get UK Today whose colourful logo has plenty of artifacts, or in the case of the Six O'Clock News, more news from the main studio.

For a brief while, BBC1 and BBC2 both carried DOGs. What's a DOG? See the description under Channel 5's heading.

2. BBC Two

The BBC's second foray into the world of the visual medium with an equally-original name as its predecessor. You'll tend to find more of the off-beat programmes on this channel, plus a number of comedy shows that once began life on Radio 4. Post-watershed broadcasts are more likely to either be more risque or have a bit of effing-and-jeffing.

Watch in widescreen: Never Mind The Buzzcocks, The Cops, People Like Us, Have I Got News For You. The Tennis Davis Cup, when shown in its own slot on BBC2 was presented in anamorphic 16:9 widescreen, while the analogue variant was cropped to 4:3. During BBC1's Grandstand, any tennis was shown cropped to 4:3 on both formats. Avoid in widescreen: Clerkson - his ego is big enough for a 4:3 picture, so why give him more room to move around in? Still, at least he admits that road rage is a good thing.

3. ITV 1

The UK's first channel to be funded by adverts with as much mainstream programming as you'll find on BBC1. Bizarrely, Granada have yet to make the transition from 4:3 to 16:9 for their highest-rated show, Coronation Street, but other popular dramas have made the change such as Liverpool 1, Cold Feet, Heartbeat and Peak Practice. For some reason, the now-axed comedy series, Babes in the Wood was also treated to the widescreen expanse, but 33% extra picture didn't benefit the "jokes".

There's only one thing that bugs me about ITV, which also affects ITV2 and Carlton Cinema. They are presented in anamorphic all the time, so regular 4:3 pictures are mostly shown by stretching the picture sideways a little and showing some extra picture info at the sides that would normally be lost to overscan on any TV. I also caught a bit of Sunday Morning, a religious programme, which made me wonder if the controller of ITV was drunk. Analogue TV had a 4:3 image, while the digital version was approximately 15:9, adding some extra picture info at the sides, but also cropping some at the top and bottom (!) The same effect has also lended itself to House of Horrors and Airline.

To watch a 4:3 programme properly with no black bars on a regular TV you'll need to select "normal (4:3)" and "full-screen" as the viewing format. For some strange reason, if you select "normal (4:3)" and "letterbox", while widescreen programmes will be shown properly, any 4:3 material will be broadcast in a "windowbox" with black bars showing all around it, which looks daft. Apparently some regions are taking steps to remedy this, but my region - Granada - haven't sorted it out yet.

I watch a lot of 4:3-filmed TV zoomed in to 14:9 anyway as it gives a more pleasing framing on the screen, partly due to the fact that such footage is shot with a "safe area" in which nothing important is placed at the extreme edges of the picture in case they're lost to overscan. Also, all you tend to lose out on from the top and bottom is the top of someone's head or part of someone's lower torso, making the end result resemble something you'd expect to see in the cinema.

Recent Wednesday night football has been shown in anamorphic widescreen on ITV, while UEFA Champions league football shown at the same time was in 4:3, so will be cropped if that too was filmed in 16:9. The Rugby World Cup has also been shown in widescreen. More films are also getting a screening in 16:9 widescreen such as Twister and the entire James Bond run, recently ending with Tomorrow Never Dies.

As for a particular children's show, Mopatop's Shop, it is shown on analogue TV in 14:9 and the same on digital, but it's set within the 4:3 frame also sent out within a 16:9 anamorphic frame. The end result is a 14:9 window-boxed picture that can't be zoomed in unless you select "4:3" and "fullscreen" from the menu.

ITV is one of a number of channels not yet available on SkyDigital, but it is rumoured to be joining at some point along with ITV2.

ITV and ITV2 are worryingly threatening to carry DOGs soon, apparently at the request, nay, demand of their advertisers. See what a DOG is under Channel 5's heading, but note that for most channels with these, the DOG tends to be removed when the advert break is shown (!)

NOTE 1: S2, the Scottish equivalent of ITV2, has now begun autoswitching properly. How long before the other channels follow suit?

NOTE 2: This channel became ITV1 in August 2001. They maintain it's because ITV is no longer a channel but a brand name, hence all the other ITV-prefixed stuff.

4. Channel 4

Like BBC2, Channel 4 also cater more for the minority interests and something different. Like the other terrestrial channels it too has a long-running soap opera, Brookside set in Liverpool, as well as a more recent offering centered around twenty-somethings in Chester, even if all the studio footage is shot in Liverpool, Hollyoaks. Both were created by Phil "Grange Hill" Redmond and are now being filmed and broadcast in widescreen. Comedy fares well in the form of So Graham Norton, Smack the Pony and Spaced, as does drama in Psychos, Love in the 21st Century and the hit gay soap Queer as Folk which has now made the transition to DVD. Films, too, get the 16:9 widescreen treatment quite often, but there's more of a chance of them showing them in their original ratio if they were filmed wider than 16:9.

Analogue viewers don't always lose out though with this channel as many of the widescreen programmes are broadcast in 16:9 letterbox format, but while they still won't get the benefit of an anamorphic picture, a number of these shows and films are broadcast in PALPlus format. This adds resolution to those few TVs with a suitable PALPlus decoder, but most widescreen TVs will just zoom it in to fill the screen automatically depending on the brand.

On the downside, when I was watching TFI Friday, I thought there was a horrible red rash streaking across the screen, but then I realised it was only Chris Evans :)

For a brief while, Channel 4 carried a DOG. What's a DOG? See the description under Channel 5's heading.

5. Channel 5

The most recently-added channel for terrestrial broadcasts - and the last ever to start life on that platform - began on March 30th, 1997, promising much but not delivering a great deal and still falls way behind the other channels in terms of ratings. It also has its own soap opera, Family Affairs, but has lost its once-regular nightly chat show, The Jack Docherty Show, after the Absolutely star's host got fed up with being shunted around the schedules and dumped in favour of other things. It has had a number of film premieres including Speed, Mrs Doubtfire and Independence Day, as part of a joint film deal signed with the BBC.

The amount of widescreen programming on here is close to zero. Anything that is widescreen is more by luck than judgement. They also once showed an Emmanuelle film in anamorphic widescreen, but presumably in error and I only caught a few minutes of it, testing the anamorphic mode on my TV purely in the interests of er...research, obviously. :)

This is the only terrestrial channel to carry a DOG (a Digitally-Originated Graphic), ie. the "5" you see in the top-left corner of the screen, to identify what channel you're watching. You can't remove it, so you'll forever have to watch this channel (and many others) with such corporate branding.

DOGs are completely pointless in the digital age since the decoder TELLS you what channel you're watching when you select it, but still they insist it stays. Even with analogue equipment, anyone with half a brain should know what channel they're watching and could find out without too much difficulty. On analogue TV, you know where Channel 5 is - it's the 5th button on your TV and it's the one with the exceptionally grainy picture. At least via digital TV (and analogue satellite for this channel), the picture is much more clear.

The head of Channel 5 spoke on Right 2 Reply about their DOG some time ago, stating how necessary it was, but after complaints from the public it toned down the intensity so it looks less obvious - but surely if you want to advertise yourself, you don't tone it down - you shout it from the rooftops! As such, it made the channel look very foolish indeed, since they're clearly embarrased about it, but can't be seen to be backing down 100% over the issue.

6. ITV 2

Another channel not available on Sky, ITV2 broadcasts in the late afternoons and evenings during the week, but from 9.25am at weekends. It contains some original programming such as sport that overflows from ITV and Bedrock, a daily hour of news, reviews and interviews in the world of entertainment. Most of the time though it serves as a useful repeat channel for shows such as Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Cold Feet and Liverpool 1 in case you missed them first time around. Some UEFA Champions League matches also appear here.

ITV2 began life on December 7th last year at 7pm with a programme headed by Billie and "hardman" Vinnie Jones. It attracted 700 viewers.

This channel is not always broadcast in anamorphic widescreen any more.

On the downside, ITV2's DOG has returned! Are ITV Digital trying to drive customers away?

7. BBC Choice

Like ITV2, this also has some original programming in the form of 110% Sport, surprisingly, a sports quiz, Backstage, which features a variety of entertainment and it doesn't take an Einstein to work out what Casualty Revealed and Eastenders Revealed are all about. You'll also see repeats of popular programmes such as People Like Us, The Cops, Eastenders, Film 99 and the continuation of the flop Aussie soap, Breakers, which the BBC thought would take off in the same way that Neighbours did.

BBC Choice have stupidly brought back their DOG on the English variant of the channel, which is the one that ITV Digital carries. Rumours are abound that this is a test which will last for six months, although I have joined in the protest to get them removed. It's very annoying when I've missed something on BBC1 or 2, so have to catch the repeat with the crisp, clear pictures obscured by the DOG.

9. Digital Text & 10. BBC Text

Two services that have yet to begin on ITV Digital for all decoders, but Philips set-top box owners and some others can now receive it.

Until late last year there were a few beta-test software updates sent out over the air, but now it's official. I've used it a few times but it's too slow compared to regular analogue text which can be received via SkyDigital.

One thing worthy of note though is that when looking at the first couple of menus for BBC Text you can still see the picture of the BBC Channel you're watching and it can be accessed from any of these channels.

For information about when the next updates are rumoured to occur for boxes from other manufacturers, check the newsgroup uk.tech.digital-tv or the ITV Digital mailing list by sending a subscribe message to : or by visiting the Onelist website at www.onelist.com.

11. BBC News 24

A 24-hour rolling news channel presented in anamorphic widescreen all day, but 4:3-shot news footage is generally zoomed in to about 15:9 as per some of the previously-mentioned ITV programmes. It's quite an interesting watch too at times, with a decent entertainment show each weeknight at 12.30am entitled "Zero 30".

This channel also has a DOG onscreen. The only chance of getting it DOG-free is on late-night BBC1 when they've run out of things to show.

12. BBC Parliament

An audio-only version of the daily goings-on from those we may or may not have voted in.

13. BBC Knowledge

The BBC's free-to-air education channel. Always transmits in widescreen, even when showing 4:3 programmes with bizarre patterns where the black bars would have been.

This channel also has a DOG onscreen, but instead of a one that states the channel name, it gives the address of their website - the woefully-obvious www.bbc.co.uk/knowledge

Thanks to a glitch in the software, the green info bar stays on for ages when you tune to BBC Knowledge, although it can be quickly ditched by selecting 'info' and turning that off to get back to normal.

14. FourText

FilmFour's version of Teletext, added as of Feb 1st, 2000, but not yet activated fully.

05.02.00: Watching via the Winter Hill transmitter I've now seen a test transmission which looks very nice. It keeps in style with the channel and provides listings for "today" and "tomorrow" with detailed production notes that are worth a read if you don't know too much about the film.

When you press 'text' to begin the test transmission, you will see the TV picture from FilmFour, complete with sound, move to the top-right of the screen and the options appear next to it.

15. ntl

Another listings channel.

16. itv Text+

Another listings channel.

19. Shop!

ITV Digital's answer to QVC: The Shopping Channel. Previously broadcasting on two channels, this has now moved to 19 only.

20. ITV Sport

ITV's channel for Premiership matches and other football stuff. I'm not the greatest fan of the sport but they have the occasional other bit of sport, highlights shows and quiz show "Do I Not Know That?".

21, 22 & 23. Sky Sports 1, 2 & 3

Premier League football and top rugby games on Sky Sports 1, with more sport on Sky Sports 2 and plenty of other high-profile content. Sky Sports 3 is a bonus channel with even more sport when you subscribe to Sky Sports 1. Premier League football and some cricket test matches have appeared in anamorphic widescreen on SkyDigital, but they're only in 4:3 via ITV Digital.

Sky Sports 2 was the last of the three to be added to the channel line-up, as of Nov 1st, 1999. They've been allowed to have it now after the result of a complex "digital points" system which stops one digital platform from hogging certain channels.

DOGs are to be seen on both of these channels, occasionally with the added word "LIVE" if the sport is.

25. & 24. Sky Premier and Sky Moviemax

Sky's main film channels, the first one mainly reserved for blockbusters such as Titanic, Con Air and Face/Off, while the second is used for the more offbeat and less mainstream films such as Mars Attacks and The Phantom. The one problem these channels - and Sky One - have is that Sky do not have the rights to broadcast output from Universal Pictures via terrestrial signals, so films such as Liar Liar and Dante's Peak have been replaced by less succesful films or repeats of others.

All films are shown 4:3 pan-and-scan, so nothing to take advantage of a widescreen TV here, so I would welcome the chance for ITV Digital to get Sky Premier Widescreen as a number of satellite premieres are getting a screening on both channels at the same time. The picture quality is generally fine, but when I saw Con Air, the encoding had rather a problem with the sandstorm scene causing a number of artifacts on view.

Neither of these channels have DOGs. In their early days, when they went by another name, they carried them, but Sky removed them after viewer complaints demanded this. Makes you wonder why ANY channels have them if enough people got them removed from here.

26. Sky One

Sky's flagship entertainment channel and the home of its biggest ratings hits, The Simpsons, Friends and E.R., the first two of which get repeats being screened almost every day because they still pull in the punters. Other big American imports include The X-Files and Stargate SG-1.

Sadly, as with their film channels, there's no Universal Pictures output, so hit shows such as Seinfeld, Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules are replaced by endless repeats of the dull Guilty! or The Chris Evans Breakfast Show.

For a few years now, this channel has also had a DOG - very annoying as I watch a fair bit of it and a white logo in the corner of the screen while watching a dark - and darkly-lit - episode of The X-Files makes the scene rather less tense.

27. Cartoon Network

24-hr channel for kids, even at times of the day when they should be tucked up in bed. I wonder who's watching The Magic Roundabout at 1.30am? This channel is DOGged too.

28. Carlton Cinema

An eclectic mix of films dating back further than I can remember. Since films from the studios Sony/Columbia and Universal can't be shown terrestrially due to issues with rights, Carlton have bought some of the Universal output to be screened here. It's not easy to take this channel too seriously though as there's a great big DOG on the right-hand side just off the centre of the screen.

While most of the widescreen films are correctly-proportioned, eg. screenings I've seen of Fantastic Voyage and 1961's Flame in the Streets, both of which were anamorphic 2.35:1, it took me a while to figure what was going on with An Affair To Remember (1957) as it had taken anamorphic one step further...

The 2.35:1 image compressed all the way to 4:3 so when presented in anamorphic format, it had a ratio of 16:9 but still appeared squashed, albeit less so. The only way to watch it properly was to put the digibox into 4:3 mode and "full screen", then on a widescreen TV view it as an anamorphic image. Of course, due to the messing about with the digibox, you'll miss the start of the film when you try to get it appearing properly on the screen.

Keep the aspirin handy in case another film is broadcast in the same way.

Some of the UEFA Champions League matches have appeared on this channel, but most are on channel 99. Despite the fact that you can see channel 99's matches for no extra cost as long as you subscribe to six primary channels, you can only see those on here as long as you subscribe to Carlton Cinema.

29. British Eurosport

Analogue satellite viewers will already know of this channel in its generic form, but this version is said to gear itself more towards Britain, as you'd expect. This channel is DOGged too.

30. Granada Plus

Labelled The Home of TV Hits, this channels allows you to view plenty of old shows such as Hawaii Five-O, The Sweeney, Rising Damp, The Professionals, The Saint and Classic Coronation Street. The DOG on this channel has recently doubled in size.

31. Granada Breeze / Men and Motors

By day it's a lifestyle channel featuring such gems as Susan Brookes' Family Recipes, Julia Carling's Style Guide and The Montel Williams Show. By night, cars get an occasional mention inbetween Jordan's Tasty Bits, Lady Lust's Lovelies and there's bound to be something featuring top Page 3-totty, Jo Guest. This channel is also DOGged.

32. UK Gold

A well-known channel, there's stacks of classic - and not-so-classic - shows broadcast on here: Minder, Kiss Me Kate, The Bill, Blackadder, Red Dwarf, Eastenders, Neighbours, Bottom and they once saw sense to repeat Eldorado. This channel is also DOGged.

33. MTV

24-hr music channel. Usually it can be relied upon for an entertaining watch but it occasionally tends to get too bogged down in "trendy" politics. You can tune in to see many VJ's such as the well-known Cat Deeley and Richard Blackwood. The DOG is here to stay too - and sometimes it's animated.

There's no widescreen output on this channel, but occasionally you'll find an anamorphic pop video. It's not something that ITV Digital have done themselves, but there are a few which, when appearing on screen, look a little squashed and can be treated as an anamorphic broadcast, since they've been compressed by the same ratio. Examples include: Geri Halliwell's "Bag It Up", Oasis' "Cigarettes and Alcohol", Janet Jackson's "Together Again", Shaggy's "Boombastic" and (heaven help us!) Cliff Richard's "Millennium Prayer".

35. Taste CFN

The rename of what was renamed "Carlton Food" from what was originally called "CFN". It's the channel which Anthea Turner recently started her new show, but the viewing figures were slightly criticised to say the least. The channel is DOGged.

36. Discovery Kids / Wings

Part kids and part aerial interest, this is a new primary channel, although on initial experience, it doesn't seem a lot to shout about. Most of the kids output is American rubbish.

Note that these channels are DOGged.

37. Play UK

An off-shoot of UK Gold, this 24-hr channel is mainly a mix of comedy and music programmes such as Game On, Mark and Lard's Pop Upstairs Downstairs and used to contain original programming by Mark Lamarr's bestest friend, The Chris Moyles Show.

A DOG is in use on this channel, using the same style as UK Gold's. Some programmes also have additional DOGs, in case you're so thick you don't even know which programme you're watching, let alone which channel.

38. UK Style

This used to be another lifestyle channel split between two disciplines, but now gets airtime to itself for seven days a week while UK Horizons is on channel 43.

39. Nickelodeon / Paramount

Before 7pm it's the children's channel and afterwards it's the comedy channel with American favourites such as Fraiser, Cybill, Ellen and Seinfeld.

41. Film Four

Channel 4's first dedicated film service. On the one hand, this provides a large amount of filmic viewing for a month's subscription, many of it in anamorphic widescreen and includes great films such as The Big Blue: Version Longue, Betty Blue: Version Longue, Leon, Dead Man Walking, Caligula and From Dusk Till Dawn. On the other hand, not all films are presented in their original widescreen ratio if they're shot wider than 16:9 - although The Big Blue and Thelma and Louise have been shown correctly - and when they refer to all films being shown as uncut, they still have to abide by the decisions of the BBFC.

Thankfully, this channel is DOG-free, but sadly, you still get continuity announcers talking over the end credits. On the odd occasion you will see 4Extra, giving more Channel 4 choice. Having begun life on November 1st last year, this channel has now reached its first anniversary.

Note that during the weekends in December 1999, FilmFour will start at 2pm, not 6pm.

42. E4

Channel 4's offshoot channel, used for premiering Ally McBeal, Trigger Happy TV, The West Wing, ER, Friends and near-24hr coverage of Big Brother.

43. UK Horizons

The other home for the lifestyle channel. UK Style is on channel 38.

44. TV Travel Shop

Open a bit longer, 6am until midday, the name of this channel speaks for itself.

46. Two Way TV

The new name for the interactive games. At the last count, the games were Ski Bob - a not very good maze game - and Aqueduct, a version of Pipemania.

47. Wellbeing

Paid for by Boots, this channel is another lifestyle one and full of women chatting for most of its 9am-9pm screen time.

48. ITN

A 24hr news channel, but only runs from 5.30am-9am via ITV Digital due to lack of bandwidth.

50-55. ITV Select info, ITV Select 1-5

These are ITV Digital's PPV channels.

Some will be broadcast in widescreen at selected times (occasionally the original ratio, not always cropped to 16:9 like SkyDigital usually do), but most screenings are fullscreen. I hope more screenings are presented in widescreen in the future. After all, why not all of them like FilmFour and U>Direct ?

All of the films will also be copy-protected with Macrovision, at the request of the film distributors, but this can be overridden with a Copymate device from Lektropacks, although as I write I haven't been able to try this yet.

Is it illegal? Who knows? It isn't illegal to record programmes from un-copy-protected TV, but using a Copymate will actually break the protection which may well be.

56 & 57. Adults Only 1 & 2

PPV adult movies, but nothing more adult than the BBFC-censored tripe shown via the subscription ones. At least the homegrown stuff looks at the items from certain angles to get around the problematic shots, but.. well, see for yourself.

88. ITV Digital

Another listings channel, this one being the official ITV Digital one.

90. The Adult Channel

Added from April 3rd 2000, The Adult Channel is four hours of soft-core porn from midnight each night for £6.99 monthly. SkyDigital charges a pound more but you also get the Playboy Channel from 8pm until midnight. However, if you can wank for eight hours non-stop, tell me and I'll order a guide dog for you!

91. Television X: The Fantasy Channel

Added from July 1st 2000, this is more of the same of the above and again you are charged monthly with an extra initial admin charge of £12. Why? Who knows. Some people will pay anything. Oh, and this channel has a huge red X in the top-right corner.

98. ITV Sport Select

PPV football.

99. ITV Sport Plus

And more sport, including some non-football action, but it doesn't broadcast often.

What we could really do with here is an alternative to SkyDigital's Sky Sports Extra which allows you instant access to replays and match statistics that are controlled by you and not the broadcaster.

ITV Digital set-top box main menu

The menu has seven main options, most of which have submenus. I'll describe each one in turn in a moment, but I have to state that on pressing the buttons to change channel or access the menu, you don't get an instant response. It takes a second or two before your request is actioned which can be a pain at times.

1. Setting the Timer

On the face of it, this seems simple enough to use. There's eight separate timer events and you type in the start and end times, the channel number. However, for those without the Beta-test teletext software as mentioned earlier, the timers start five minutes before the start time and end five minutes after the end time. This makes it useless if you're recording consecutive programmes on different channels, but fine if you're only taping one - in which case you wouldn't need to set the timer at all. If you do have the new software, the timer stops and starts when it's meant to, just as a VCR's timer would work.

2. Choosing Favourite Channels

If you don't subscribe to everything, you'll want to skip past some of those in the channel line-up if you're prone to using the up/down channel selection buttons and can't remember the actual numbers the channels are assigned to. This option allows you to do exactly that.

3. Parental Lock

As the name suggests, this allows you to prevent access to certain channels that you may not want your children to see. I tried it locking a couple of channels, then tried to access them. Yes, I saw the 'lock' symbol as the channel name appeared, but no, it didn't work as the channels still came through in the clear.

4. Viewing preferences

One of the biggest sub-menus, this allows you to change plenty of options with respect to how you view.

5. Getting Started

6. ITV Digital updates

Rather confusing this as this option has nothing to do with software updates.

7. Technical Information

The Remote Control

The remote is quite an easy-to-use affair, but many of the buttons are too small. Like a Philips TV remote, it too has a "VCR" button on the left-hand side for instant use with a Philips VCR, not to mention controls to operate a Philips TV set. Not got either of those? Use the manual to find the brand of your choice and programme it as necessary.

Of the buttons not fully described already...

  • Text: Will be used when it becomes available.
  • Coloured buttons: At certain times in certain menus, these will be necessary.
  • Info: "Now and next" on the channel you're watching. Then press the blue up/down buttons to see what's "now and next" on other channels.
  • Guide: Presumably, a TV Guide onscreen, but this is not in use yet.
  • Select: When watching a TV programme, this brings up a separate list offering you a different way of going to another channel without flicking through them one by one.
  • AV: Selects channel 0 on the digibox, which isn't in use. So not much point (yet) then.

    Rear Connections

    At a glance, it's easy to see what's on the front of the box - an on/off switch and menu-selection buttons, but what about the prospects of rear entry? The back of the box is more interesting though. As well as the standard RF aerial input/outputs, there's a SCART connection apiece for the TV and VCR, a modem connection port, stereo audio outputs and a "common interface" for later add-on developments.

    Subscription costs

    While there are a few "free to view" channels, it will cost you the following for the rest :

    Just to summarise, the free channels are :

    The primary channels are : The Pay-per-view channels are :

    And finally, the premium channels are :

    Picture and Sound Quality

    I'd say the average picture quality is worth between half-marks and full marks. Some channels appear to be better at compression than others and some have less chance of break-up than others. I understand each channel has an average bitrate of 4 to 5Mb/s like an average DVD so when the picture is good, it can appear very good indeed.

    One thing is important - the overall quality of your picture will be dependent on your aerial. If, like me, you currently get good analogue reception then the digital variant may look the same. If you don't and need an aerial upgrade, then for those who have taken up the offer of the free ITV Digital box (having paid their subscriptions of course) can get one for £40.

    If the picture isn't all it could be, you will get artifacts which are imperfections in the picture. The screen is divided up into blocks and if it gets worse you'll notice them. If things go even worse still, you'll see a red dot appearing on the screen as the box tries to sort itself out, which I've seen a few times. If a programme contains screen-disolves between pictures, you may get some pixellation but it's only brief so is not a major distraction.

    Personally, I've had break-ups a few times a week on ITV, with less on BBC, but the Sky and "UK..." channels also have their fair share. In an absolute worse-case scenario, a badly-compressed picture could break-up to resemble a ZX Spectrum crashing. The following describes such an event.

    One of ITV Digital's downfalls is that the picture and sound are very susceptible to electrical interference. In some cases, even switching a light or TV on or off can cause brief picture break-up - a pain if you're recording something you want to keep. Others have reported similar problems when lorries or trains go past their house.

    If you've never seen this for yourself, an example can be found when watching Formula 1 racing from the cars' in-car cameras. As soon as they drive under a bridge, the signal is briefly lost and the picture breaks up and could die altogether if they were to drive under a tunnel. Apparently SkyDigital broadcasts in a different way so isn't affected this way, although it does suffer when there's heavy rain outside.

    I understand that the picture is set to improve when more bandwidth is available as a result of the analogue systems are switched off. However, this is likely to be as far off as 2006 to 2013, according to Culture Secretary, Chris Smith M.P.

    The better the source material, the better the compression, the better the picture. News reports of the Ryder Cup suffered a fair amount of pixellation, watching the golfers in outside shots. News from abroad, such as the violence in East Timor and the earthquake in Taiwan, may now be shot on Digital Video cameras so the footage can quickly and easily be sent back to the studio, so there can be an amount of artifacts which can be visible on analogue TV as the same footage is shown.

    As mentioned earlier, Anamorphic widescreen describes a picture that is generally in a ratio of 16:9 or wider (the latter mainly for films) that has the same full-height resolution on a widescreen TV. Typically, a standard 16:9 broadcast (which the digibox describes as "4:3 letterbox") would start life on a widescreen TV as a windowboxed image. Zooming that in to fill the screen would result in lost resolution and intensity of the picture.

    An anamorphic image appears to take what is within the 16:9 section and stretch it vertically, whilst retaining the resolution. Viewing this on a regular TV, or a widescreen TV in "4:3 mode", has you looking at people who are very tall or thin. Using your widescreen TV's anamorphic mode (my Philips' is called "Wide Screen"), or a 4:3 TV's "wide mode", restores the geometry of the picture and everything should look normal. If it doesn't, consult your local optician.

    I find that most 4:3 programmes (eg. The Royle Family) can comfortably be zoomed in to 14:9, if your widescreen TV has such a zoom mode, or occasionally 16:9. Most programmes will be shot with a small 'safe area' all the way around so whether you zoom in a 4:3 show to 14:9 or your TV overscans too much, you shouldn't lose any important picture information. Overscanning is a process that almost all TVs suffer from. In short, the extreme edges of the picture are lost and covered up by the TV casing (my 32" TV screen measures approximately 30.7" diagonally) and it stops you from seeing the fuzzyness that surrounds some TV pictures if you were to view absolutely everything that's broadcast, since it's not something that's intended for public consumption.

    Overscan can be reduced, since a number of TVs will be manufactured with geometry that's badly set up, by the use of its service menu if it has one and certainly most modern widescreen TVs will do. Whether you can gain access to it is a different matter - each manufacturer's TVs are different and they certainly won't tell you since they don't want the average Joe Punter screwing it up.

    As for sound, it isn't NICAM that you hear as with conventional analogue TV, but MPEG2 stereo sound which can also provide the equivalent of Dolby ProLogic. To these ears it doesn't sound much different and it loses a point from full marks because the greatest advance that could have happened was to bring us Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, as can be found on most DVDs released today. Not only would that give you a clearer soundfield all round, but also stereo surround coming from your rear speakers unlike Dolby ProLogic which only provides mono sound behind you.

    Dolby Digital 5.1 for digital technology hasn't been ruled out yet - and it certainly shouldn't as the Americans already have ti - but it's not top of the list and the chances are that the decoder you currently have, like the Philips DTX6370 that I'm reviewing here, doesn't have such an output for those with the requisite hardware.

    Personally, even when Dolby Digital 5.1 is an option, I still think that there should be two sound channels carried, one of which will NOT have the whining, droning noise of a continuity announcer as they talk over the end credits of a programme or film. Such an option would be much welcolmed in drowning out the chatter of Clare Sturgess on Sky One.

    Competition in other places...

    The main competition ITV Digital have is that from SkyDigital, who are planning to switch-off their analogue service at the end of 2002 or maybe earlier depending on the take-up rate of their digital service.

    While ITV Digital have their exclusive channels, Sky have retaliated by screening some of their Ryder Cup golf coverage on Sky Box Office (for free). They won't admit it, but it was rumoured to have been a swipe at ITV Digital who don't have access to this service yet and for the fact that ITV Digital have exclusive rights to the UEFA Champions League football.

    It's been rumoured that ITV may join Sky's package in the near future. ITV Digital are unlikely to want to let their jewel-in-the-crown go, especially as its major shareholders are Granada and Carlton.

    Will they ever find common ground? If they did, then that could negate the whole point of the competition, but then not everyone can get access to Sky if, for example, they live in a tower block and aren't allowed to put up a satellite dish, which means that ITV Digital is their only option via the communal aerial. Similarly, others state categorically that they do not want to see an "ugly" dish on their wall outside. However, I wouldn't refer to a standard television aerial as the most aesthetically-pleasing items I've ever seen attached to my house. Hence, there could still be room for both.

    Digital cable is on the horizon too from companies such as Cable and Wireless and NTL. How those services compare remain to be seen as they are only starting to come to light now.

    ONmail - email through your TV...

    Sending email through any other means than the PC is the in-thing these days and ITV Digital have launched their service: ONmail.

    When you have an email an icon will appear onscreen but you will have to log on via the usual phone line to download new emails to read and upload messages to send.

    File attachments are apparently available from ITV Digital's website if you get them. Call costs are at local rate.

    I've just received the ONmail keyboard remote. It's a nice shape, like one of those mobile phones that open up to reveal a keyboard.

    Overall, it's comparable to sending text messages on a mobile phone - and easier with the keyboard remote instead of pressing the same key on a mobile several times to get the required letter - but more complicated than a mobile in having to connect up various bits and pieces first and negotiating the tricky menus.

    So far, the good points are

    The bad points?

    What does the future hold for ITV Digital ?

    Channels that may come to ITV Digital in the future are :

    Other possible advancements on the way include an electronic programme guide, a full teletext service and internet website access.

    Miscellaneous ITV Digital news

    BBC3 rejected

    The BBC's plans to change BBC Choice into BBC3 were turned down, but they got the go-ahead for BBC4 (a revamp of BBC Knowledge) plus a dedicated children's channel and other radio channels.

    Overall

    Overall, when the picture can be good it's very good indeed. However, there are a few things that still need sorting out that have been mentioned such as the impulsive interference that affects the picture and sound when a light switch is flicked, the overdue games and teletext services need to be released as soon as possible and we could use more entertainment channels instead of those just containing 'lifestyle' programming.

    ITV Digital has the capacity to be a viable alternative for those who cannot have Sky or cable for one reason or another. It still has a long way to go to keep up in the marketplace and I shall be looking forward to seeing what's to come with great interest. If I had a say though I'd get rid of the BBC's (and other channels do this) MHEG teletext - an always-on layer of text which stops some functions working such as seeing the channel number onscreen when you type it in.

    CONTENT
    PICTURE QUALITY
    SOUND QUALITY
    EXTRAS


    OVERALL

    Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999-2001.

    First published: November 2nd, 1999.
    Last updated: October 2nd, 2001.

    Updates/corrections :

    Nov 3rd, 1999: BBC Regional channels only exist for BBC1 and BBC Choice on SkyDigital.
    Nov 6th, 1999: BBC Scotland's widescreen autoswitching now working correctly.
    Nov 8th, 1999: Teletext officially launched for Philips set-top boxes.
    Nov 22nd, 1999: S2 (Scottish ITV2) now autoswitches correctly.
    Dec 5th, 1999: Two more pop videos added to the anamorphic list (under MTV): Shaggy's "Boombastic" and (heaven help us!) Cliff Richard's "Millennium Prayer".
    Dec 22nd, 1999: The BBC ditch the digital telly tax and ITV Digital ditch their free magazine for subscribers.
    Feb 1st, 2000: New channels added: FourText, Discovery Kids/Wings, ONgames 2, ONoffer, ONrequest, some taken away: Carlton Kids/World, some hours extended: Carlton Food Network and some renamed: ONgames 1, ONsports 1. Also, Sky Sports 2 & 3 have swapped multiplexes and Sky Sports 2 has swapped its numerical position with Sky Premier.
    Feb 2nd, 2000: ONoffer description added. Forthcoming/wanted channels updated.
    Feb 5th, 2000: FourText Test Transmission witnessed...
    Mar 8th, 2000: ITV2: Return of the DOG.
    Mar 17th, 2000: Another pop video added to the anamorphic list (under MTV): Geri Halliwell's "Bag It Up".
    Apr 5th, 2000: The Adult Channel (90) added to the line-up, a brief overview of ONmail and a mention for ntl (15). Descriptions changed for Carlton Cinema (28) and Carlton Food (35).
    May 1st, 2000: ONmail brief review and ONrequest begins.
    June 8th, 2000: Regional news now broadcast via ITV Digital.
    July 7th, 2000: Added descriptions for ONgames 2, plus new channels Simply Money, TV Travel Shop and Television X.
    October 2nd, 2001: Long-needed update of channel listings.

    For further information, check out the official Philips and ITV Digital websites.

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