14 August 2007 – Telewest’s HD service is now available to nearly five million homes in its catchment areas. HD content is not identical to Sky’s. There are none of Sky’s movie or sports channels, while both services have the BBC’s HD channel (including the football World Cup). Telewest has some arts and nature/ wildlife shows and exclusively has Channel 4’s Desperate Housewives and ITV’s World Cup football, though a selection of on-demand movies are expected soon.
And here’s the best news: Telewest’s HDTV content is available at no extra cost to subscribers who opt for the company’s personal video recorder (PVR). Known as the ‘TVDrive’, this will cost £15 per month on top of an existing TV package (£10 per month, if you take Telewest’s top ‘Supreme’ deal).
There are no up-front installation costs, unless you’re an existing subscriber; under such circumstances, you’ll be charged a one off £50. That’s still cheaper than SkyHD, which is £300 for the hardware. The TVDrive is rented so if it goes wrong, Telewest will replace it for free. The TVDrive – a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300DV – includes three tuners, so that you can record two programmes onto its 160GB hard drive while watching another. That third channel can be subjected to ‘live-pausing’ if so desired.
Talking of which, the TVDrive gives you all of the features expected of PVRs like the established Sky, including EPG-driven timer scheduling, the ability to automatically-record complete series, a multiple play-out facility for archiving and various live trick playback modes (including slowmotion and frame advance).
Remaining capacity is displayed in terms of hours, rather than the Sky ‘s less-meaningful percentages. Also welcome are delete-confirmation and the ability to be able to ‘sort’ recorded programmes.
Watch with Auntie
The TVDrive has the same intuitive menu-driven user interface as standard Telewest boxes. To access PVR functionality, there’s a dedicated button on the remote.
The rear, of course, differs markedly from that of a regular Telewest box. As with the SkyHD hardware, there are as-yet unused Serial-ATA and USB ports for adding external storage. We hope that Telewest enables these soon – as you build up a library of your favourite hi-def broadcasts, you might find yourself running out of capacity.
Another similarity with SkyHD is that the TVDrive offers both component and HDMI outputs, which are capable of 720p and 1080i. Standard-definition TV is ‘upscaled’ to HD, too, while ‘downscaled’ SD versions of HDTV broadcasts are available on RGBenabled TV and VCR Scart sockets – sadly, the only way you’ll be able to make external recordings of HD content.
An optical digital audio output will pipe 5.1 soundtracks from standard-def and hi-def content to a home cinema system. In common with all Telewest digital STBs, there’s an Ethernet port that will allow broadband Internet to be offered to customers without a separate cable-modem.
At the time of writing, the only ‘on-demand’ HD content available is around 30hrs of ‘on-demand’ video from the BBC – it’s effectively a highdef version of Telewest’s existing ‘Teleport’ service. Indeed, standard subscribers can see – but not access – a ‘high definition’ option (Sky’s doing much the same thing, as its HD channels can be seen in the programme planners of all Digiboxes).
It’s easy to use: select a programme and it streams to the LiveDrive with no appreciable delay. Some programmes, like Supersense, have been upconverted from standard-def. Others, including Supervolcanoes, Pride and The Magic Flute, were originally made in HD, and are therefore available in that format.
Telewest is also working with Channel 4 to offer hi-def on-demand versions of popular US series like Lost. In addition, Telewest hopes to draw on the relationship it has with movie provider FilmFlex and offer pay-per-view hi-def movies too – an HD Movies option is already shown on the relevant Teleport menu.
These will attract a slight premium over the standard-def ones. Note that Teleport material, hi-def or otherwise, can’t be recorded by the TVDrive – the function only works with broadcast channels (standard and hi-def alike).
Telewest has installed a fibre-optic link from Television Centre to its head end – a development that was independently confirmed by a BBC engineer. This will carry uncompressed 1080i video and audio, which Telewest compresses into the MPEG2 format that the TVDrive can handle.
Simply grabbing the signals off satellite or DTT and transcoding them into MPEG2 would result in a noticeable deterioration in picture quality that quality-conscious HD viewers would notice. However, Telewest’s reliance on MPEG2 – which is also used for HD broadcasting in Japan, the US and Australia – has no effect on subjective pictures.
I demand, you demand
An on-demand episode of Pride, displayed on a Panasonic 42-inch plasma TV, furnished us with stunningly-detailed and richly-coloured visuals. No streaming ‘glitches’ were noted, either. However, that’s not to say MPEG2 doesn’t have its disadvantages.
Those higher bitrates equate to less TVDrive storage capacity. 160GB would only hold 20hrs of hi-def recordings, as opposed to 80hrs of standard-definition TV. The SkyHD box’s capacity is likely to go further when recording hi-def.
Still, Telewest’s TVDrive provides a genuine alternative to Sky’s HD box. The TVDrive is cheaper, has better functionality and has a larger capacity than its rival. The big drawback is the catchment area. It’s advisable to consult the ‘postcode checker’ on Telewest’s website to see if you’re eligible before splashing out any cash. If so, an alternative high-definition experience awaits.
For
* Easy to use
* Cheaper than Sky
Against
* Content’s not quite there yet
Verdict
An excellent service that will only get better with time and content
Specifications
RGB Output Ability Yes
Remote Control Yes
No of Scart Sockets 2
Digital Video Format Mpeg 2 Mpeg 4
Auto Tune Yes
No of Tuners 3
HDD Capacity (GB) 160 GB
AV Connectivity HDMI in
Connectivity HDMI
Digital Radio Reception Yes
Colour Silver
Additional Features – Monthly fee payable
Digital Programme Guide Yes
Digital Text Yes
