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Consumers dipping their toes in the world of digital free-to-air TV will need to stump up anything from $160 to $650 depending on whether they buy an official Freeview set-top box and need to have a satellite dish installed.
The Freeview consortium has given its seal of approval to just two set-top box makers, Zinwell and Hills Signalmaster. Both will initially sell a single model each through electronics chains like Dick Smith and Noel Leeming for $299, about $100 more than the the Government indicated when plans for Freeview were unveiled.
The two set-top boxes offer fairly basic functionality - digital satellite TV and radio reception, a seven-day electronic programming guide, favourite channel settings, an output for audio streams delivered in Dolby Digital surround sound and widescreen support.
Set-top boxes that include hard-drive-based digital recorders will debut later in the year.
Meanwhile, a thriving market for Freeview equipment has sprung up among set-top box importers left out of the Freeview loop.
Peter Escher, managing director of Satlink, said he had just received 400 set-top boxes from a Chinese manufacturer and had 3000 more arriving next week.
He said Freeview's official set-top boxes were overpriced and his simplest Coship model, which receives the same set of channels but does not allow for receipt of the regionalised advertising Freeview broadcasters will deliver, was selling for $160.
"It's not complicated technology. People just want good-quality TV."
A more advanced set-top box and digital recorder with a 160GB hard drive would sell for $595.
Satlink would go head to head with Freeview, offering viewers the chance to buy a set-top box and new module for their satellite dish for $180, so they could pick up the Freeview channels and more than 20 foreign language and religious channels broadcast unencrypted over the Pacific.
"Freeview, we believe, has slightly lost the plot as it has got nothing going on air like the BBC, just local content. The response from a lot of folk is disinterest, as they can already watch TVOne, 2, 3 and C4," said Escher, who recommended that Freeview converts spend a maximum of $450 for set-top box, satellite dish and installation.
Those with an unused Sky TV satellite dish on their house can simply plug their Freeview digital set-top box into the existing connection to get the satellite feed. That is because Freeview is delivered from the same Optus D1 satellite used by Sky, so the dish's position need not be changed.
More options for Freeview watching will emerge when the official set-top box providers launch their own digital recorders later in the year and a new box capable of receiving high-definition signals will be launched to support the switching on of the terrestrial digital TV service in March.
The terrestrial service will require a UHF rooftop antenna rather than a satellite dish.
TV makers such as Loewe have already released models with built-in Freeview tuners which support digital terrestrial TV services and remove the need for a set-top box.
Computer enthusiasts are also busy building their own digital TV-capable media centres, using PC and satellite tuner cards. While such devices cannot pick up the official Freeview programming guide, the TV listings have been made available unofficially for download on the internet from Openmedia.co.nz.
