**Introduction**

However, its not all that scary. Digital Television is not about confusing buttons, dialogues and hefty remotes; in fact there is no need to be scared - Digital Television can truly be as simple, if not simpler than your current analogue television. For a one of payment, usually from as little as £30 you can purchase a Freeview receiver which will connect to your current TV as long as it has a scart socket and a good analogue reception. Freeview can currently be received by an estimated 74% percent of UK homes and this figure is the maximum capacity which can be achieved until DSO is complete in 2012 when the government estimates that 98.5% of UK homes should be able to receive Freeview. The best way to determine whether or not you should be able to receive Freeview is checking whether or not you have a decent analogue reception on channel 5 and by typing in your postcode on freeview.co.uk . You can purchase Freeview receivers from all good electrical retailers and hardware stores. I found that setting up Freeview was quick and hassle free, connect to the TV and aerial and the box will automatically scan for and tune the reasonably sized selection of free to air channels.

** What channels are available?**

I'm sure you'll agree that this is a fairly impressive offering and best of all its free. With so much choice over your standard analogue TV, there are a number of channels which I'd recommend. My personal favourites include E4 - showcasing top entertainment programmes including Friends, My Name Is Earl and Lost. Film 4 is also another strong offering showcasing some of the best films from both independent film makers and blockbusters too. If your into the paranormal then you'll love FTN which airs the hugely successful Most Haunted featuring Derek Acorah & Yvette Fielding. Occasionally Most Haunted Live is simulcast from Living TV which is not to be missed. Another of my personal favourites is Five US broadcasting some of the most successful US series including Pimp My Ride and CSI.

As well as the larger range of channels you'll be able to access some interactive services. These include games, digital subtitles, digital teletext and multi-screen news casts from the BBC. Not all boxes are "digitally interactive" - it should tell you on the box before purchasing. However it most likely will be as this feature is becoming increasingly standardised. Another bonus of being digitally interactive is that you'll be able to to use the "pay as you go" services such as live SPL football from Setanta Sports for around £11 a match. If your into sport you'll be pleased to know that Setanta Sports has recently signed a deal to go live on a pay monthly basis on DTT using all boxes with a card slot - and it'll be 24 hours a day.

But what about the disadvantages? To be honest, its hard to discredit a service which is free other than the standard TV License and one of fee. Some people may niggle at the timeshared broadcasts of certain channels: i.e. BBC 3 doesn't air until CBBC ends. But with the limited bandwidth available on DTT what can we realistically expect? The main disadvantage for most people is probably the slightly limited coverage meaning that those out of range may still have to go out and pay for Sky, Cable or the increasing video on demand services over a broadband Internet connection.

Freeview offers over 30 of the best free to air channels and over 20 digital radio stations. Freesat, in the red corner offers a deceptively large choice at over 120 digital channels and 80 radio stations. Through first glance it may look like Sky's Freesat is the best offering. But then we must consider the quality of the offerings. With Freeview we have access to some of the best free to air offerings including E4, More 4, Film 4, FTN, The Hits & TMF. Freesat has a larger range, however in order to view Freesat content, including Channel 4 and Channel 5 you are required to purchase a Freesat viewing card for £20.

Installation of both kits are easy. Freesat is installed free of charge by an engineer so you shouldn't incur any problems. Freeview is as simple as hooking up your standard aerial and connecting the scart lead to your TV then performing an auto scan for channels.

Yes! The Freeview technology is available in a number of forms.

My personal guess is that until DSO the line up probably wont change tremendously - perhaps the addition of a E4 music channel (pure speculation), UKTV offering (again speculation) and quite possibly more radio stations. Hopefully some of the quiz channels will be replaced in the process. By 2012 their will be more bandwidth and hopefully an influx of new digital channels (just maybe), and perhaps the free to air services from BBC HD will become available as well as a free video on demand service from the BBC. This will probably, at a guess, mean further TV license increases though.