I feel very sorry for any consumer who is trying to buy a new TV to watch the World Cup in HD. More accurately, I feel sorry for anyone who buys it from one of the sheds.
 
One large store I visited was plastered with World Cup promotions and a bewildering jumble of offers on Sky, Freesat and Freeview.

A large - and obviously old - wall chart helpfully compared the basics and boldly proclaimed that Freeview does NOT offer HD.
 
Underneath the "No HD from Freeview" sign at least three TV sets (from Sony, LG and Panasonic) had Freeview HD labels.

Out of several colour brochures, one listed Samsung and Panasonic sets as having "Freeview HD tuner built-in"; another promoted five sets from Samsung with Freeview HD, four from LG, five from Panasonic, four from Sony, one from Toshiba, and three from Sharp.
 
And this was on the Sussex South Coast where there will be no Freeview HD until digital switchover in 2012.

Only half the population, in areas served by the ‘early roll out transmitters’ for main population centres such as London Crystal Palace and Winter Hill in the North West, will get Freeview HD for the World Cup. But it looks like the same point of sale material is being used all over.
 
Some of the Freeview HD receivers seem to have been rushed on the market, too. I tried the Pace/Philips box. It found no channels at all, SD or HD – until I did a factory re-set. (Because it had previously been used in a different area).

The box asks for a post code. Although the remote control has keys with phone-style numbers and letters, they can't be used to enter the post code. This has to be done with up/down cursors.
 
The Quick Start Guide did not give a default PIN. Setting a PIN rejects 0000 (because it is in fact the default) but allows 1234 which is no more secure.
 
When the Electronic Programme Guide is used to find a programme, pressing OK throws up the question “Do you want to record?”

Pressing OK locks the box into “Rec” mode and locks the selected channel too. Even unplugging the box won't release it. The trick is to hit Exit and then very quickly hit OK.
 
Pace/Philips admits these issues have been immediately picked up by other users. So how could Pace, with such a long track record of making user-friendly boxes, make something so user-unfriendly?
 
Because the user interface was designed by the Philips team in France, where they use EPGs in different ways, and company politics meant there was inadequate checking on how it would work in the UK.

Now it's the same old story. The next version of the software will fix the problems.
 
But at least Pace/Philips will offer an over the-air-upgrade. When Verbatim launched a Freeview (but not labelled Freeview) PVR in the UK a few months ago, reviewers immediately complained about the hostile user interface. It had been designed in Germany, without UK input, Verbatim admitted.
 
Rather than admit mistakes, learn from criticism and make changes, Verbatim has now simply withdrawn the product from the UK market. 

Barry Fox