This is important. Customers will be asking questions. Forewarned is forearmed. On past track record, we can’t rely on Freeview to warn us, so I will.

When Freeview HD receivers go on sale in March, they may suffer from picture break-up in fringe areas – reminiscent of the picture trouble that gave OnDigital a bad name.

This will very likely spark criticism of the new DVB-T2 transmission system on which Freeview’s hi-def service relies. Expect flying accusations that T2 is not what was promised - a plug-in replacement for the existing Freeview DVB-T system.

In fact, there is a very good reason why reception may falter in fringe areas and it is not because of any inherent problem with T2. The new T2 signal in some regions, including London from Crystal Palace, will have to be at half or even less than half the normal Freeview transmission power.

I learnt this purely by chance from the man who is engineering the BBC’s Freeview HD launch – Graham Plumb, acting controller of BBC Distribution Operations Group. We were talking about Plumb’s previously expressed concern that Freeview had not publicised the new Freeview HD logo.

“Even if your existing telly has a Freeview logo and an HD-ready logo, that doesn’t mean it will receive Freeview HD, unless you buy a separate Freeview HD box,” Mr Plumb had warned.

“We said right from the start that T2 had to work with existing transmitter powers and receiver aerials, and be at least 30 per cent more efficient,” he then added.

“In fact, it’s 67 per cent more efficient, giving 40Mbps. But we have yet to see the practical effect of having to reduce the transmitter power for T2 HD”.

I picked up on this and learnt that three transmitters (serving London, Birmingham and Glasgow/Edinburgh) will broadcast Freeview HD at half power or 3dB down (10kW instead of the current 20kW) and one (Leeds/Bradford) will use 4kW instead of 10kW, which is 4dB down.

The HD power cuts will have to continue until analogue shutdown.

Said Mr Plumb: “Generally, at the fringes of coverage at these sites, the Freeview HD reception might be a little worse – but many installations will have been set up not to be close to the point of failure.

“We have yet to see what happens in practice. It will be important to check your postcode. Freeview is upgrading its postcode checker to take HD reception into account.”

So who will publicise the new postcode checker?

“Freeview is responsible for the platform. Freeview has a role to promote the HD logo, with flyers and talking to stores. I am sure this will happen,” he said tactfully.

I think it is time to put things less tactfully.  Freeview did a rotten job of communication on the national retune.

Although a Freeview HD logo exists, Freeview has still done nothing to promote it. The press launch of Freeview HD was a short-change affair that missed a golden opportunity to educate.

And it is only because I bypassed Freeview and sought an interview with BBC engineers that I can now pass on the explanation of why Freeview HD may be flaky in fringe areas until after analogue shutdown allows full-power transmission.

The secret code needed to access the BBC’s iPlayer “catch-up” service by broadband on a Freesat free-to-air satellite receiver is a secret no more. The four-digit number (5483) that the viewer must enter in the text page for BBC1 was officially released only to a few beta triallists, but has now been posted on internet forum sites for all to see.

Rather than change the code, the BBC has warned that the beta system currently works only with Freesat Humax HD and Freesat+ Humax boxes, and offered full instructions on how to set up BBC iPlayer on Freesat HD receivers.(http://BBCiplayerbetatrial09.freesat.co.uk/BBCiplayer).

I tried the system using a Humax Foxsat-HDR high-definition Freesat receiver/recorder and Sky dish. The TV shows the iPlayer menu of BBC programmes from the past seven days that can then be viewed by streaming in real time.

There are two quality grades available, depending on the owner’s broadband speed, but both are SD.
There is no option to record to the receiver’s hard disc.

This is in line with the BBC’s efforts to restrict catch-up viewing and so protect copyright and revenue from subsequent DVD sales of broadcast programmes.

However, anyone who wants to record the iPlayer stream can do so very easily, with no need for any computer equipment or computer skills. Just connect a consumer DVD recorder to the standard-definition analogue TV output of the Humax receiver and press record while the iPlayer stream plays.

The BBC view seems to be that as long as the Corporation is seen to be making some effort to prevent copying, that is enough to keep the talent unions happy. For how long,