Digital Set Top Boxes

Welcome to the Digital Set Top Boxes page, this is our guide to buying digital set top boxes for your television online including the Freeview and Sky set top boxes from brands such as Sony, Philips, Goodmans, Pace, JVC, Panasonic, Toshiba and many others.

Set top boxes allow viewers to access digital television, digital television is much better than terrestrial television as it has many more channels and better picture and sound quality. The digital set top boxes are small electronic devices like DVD players and simply tune into the digital signal, there are three ways that set top boxes can tune into the digital signal and they are Freeview, satellite and cable. There are also many manufacturers who offer set top boxes such as Sony, Goodmans, Philips, Pace, Panasonic, JVC, Toshiba and many others. If you are thinking of buying a new television then you can also get new televisions with a digital tuner built in, this means that there will be no need for a set top box and you will only need one remote control.

Digital TV has many advantages over the old style terrestrial television, firstly the picture and sound quality are very high quality as they are in digital format. This means that the picture quality is comparable to that of a DVD and the sound quality to that of a CD, also because it is digital there is no loss of quality with poor reception (although some extreme weather conditions can cause problems with digital TV). With Digital TV you also get access to the interactive services offered by many channels, all you need to do is press the red button and you have access to all of the interactive services, these interactive services are similar to the old teletext but offer multimedia to enhance the experience. These interactive services vary but some channels offer extensive content on their interactive service, for example the BBC has a huge selection of content to choose from as do the other main channels.

One of the great things about digital television is the choice of channels, for example the BBC has lots of channels that are only available on digital TV, these include BBC3, BBC4, BBC News 24, BBC Parliament, The CBBC channel, CBeebies and others. There are also other ITV channels such as ITV2, ITV3 and ITV News, then there are lots of other independent channels available like UKTV, Challenge, MTV, The Hits, TMF, Discovery and many others.

The most popular type of set top box is the Freeview option, this is because the Freeview set top boxes are cheap and you do not have to pay a subscription to watch the channels. There are over 30 free channels available with Freeview with more being added all of the time, the channels include entertainment, news, documentaries, music, children's and lots more. The best thing about Freeview is that it is free, once you have purchased the Freeview set top box you have nothing more to pay and can view more than 30 free channels without any costs. There are also many brands that make Freeview set top boxes and they include Sony, JVC, Philips, Panasonic, Goodmans, Toshiba and many more. Freeview uses the standard TV ariel to receive the digital signal so it is just a matter of connecting the set top box to your TV and TV ariel and then plugging it in, you will then have to tune the set top box into the television although some televisions will do this automatically, you are then ready to choose which channel to watch!

Sky is the second choice for digital television, they offer access to digital TV using satellite technology. With Sky you get allot more channels than with Freeview but you have to pay a subscription, this depends on which package you choose but generally it's the premium channels that cost the most such as movies and sports. The basic package is quite cheap and offers hundreds of channels, this package offers far more choice then the Freeview service. With Sky you also get access to the Sky channels such as Sky One, Sky News, Sky Sports, Sky Movies and many others, Sky One usually has popular programs like The Simpsons, 24 and lots of others way before they are shown on other channels. With Sky you also have the option of Sky Plus, a Sky Plus set top box is able to record TV programs and play them back at any time, this is without and blank media such as tapes or DVD's as it uses an internal hard disc to record the programs. Sky plus is great as it makes recording things very easy, it also has some other very cool features such as the ability to pause live television.

So when buying digital television there are a few things to think about, Freeview is a great choice as it is free and simple to set up, all you have to do is buy the box and plug it in. There are many manufacturers that make Freeview set top boxes and they include Sony, Pace, JVC, Philips, Goodmans, Toshiba, Panasonic and many others. But Freeview does not offer the amount of channels available through Sky, Sky has hundreds of channels including lots of premium channels showing films and programs like the Simpsons and 24 way before they are shown on other free channels. If you are looking for a cheap set top box for Freeview then have a shop around, the Freeview set top boxes are cheap but there are many manufacturers making them so you can still save money by looking for the cheapest deals, many of the shops also run cheap special offers (see the links at the top of the page).

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