How the heck did we miss the launch of this? The oono MiniDAB One MP3 Player is a pretty powerful little gadget, which fits in with our remit to cover neat little gadgets.

This is a combined DAB radio / MP3 player / Voice Recorder / FM radio. It’s small (10cm tall), has a built-in spreaker, unlike many DAB radios, and can record in the MP3 format (pretty unique). It also has a “Line in” socket, which copes with recording in from a hi-fi or from a mic (supplied). Recorded radio, voice or music are all encoded to MP3 (so there’s no need for conversion). It’s powered by a rechargeable battery, and takes SD cards.

Impressive, and we’ve found a supplier offering a free 2Gig SD card too. More at www.radioandtelly.co.uk/oonominidab.html

As of Christmas Day 2006, the UK now has a national digital jazz station, called “thejazz”.

The station is available on DAB Digital Radio as well as on Sky Digital channel 0113, NTL cable channel 961 and online at www.thejazz.com.

NHS Direct Interactive TV service has launched on Freeview, offering 150 pages of interactive content.

To access NHS Direct TV, go to Freeview channel 108, and press the red Interactive button, then scroll to ‘NHS Direct Interactive. More.

The Radio & Telly Team has now uploaded its review of the Top Up TV Anytime service, and the Thomson DTI-6300 set-top box. We’ll be updating this review with extra information and answers to our regular’s questions in the coming days.

For our first impressions, and some screenshots, please see www.radioandtelly.co.uk/topuptvanytime.html

The ninth Frequencycast podcast has just gone online. This latest show features the following:

• BT Vision – At the start of December 2006, full details of BT’s new home TV service were released. We take a look at what BT Vision has to offer
• Top Up TV – Boxes now beginning to ship.
• DAB Radio – News of a new DAB radio format coming soon, and a possible new range of national digital radio stations
• BT Home Hub – For our focus section, we look at BT’s Home Hub wireless broadband router, and whether your house can live without one.
• Loc8tor – We look at a new gadget to solve the age-old problems… where did I leave my keys (and where’s the cat…)
• Tea Dunking – We also dunk a garibaldi

All this, plus a summary of news, and a stack of our listener’s questions answered.

You can listen to show 09 online, or download it to your MP3 player from www.frequencycast.co.uk/cast09.html

Share and enjoy!

Today (4th December 2006), details of the BT Vision home TV service have finally been released.

BT Vision provides you with a special set-top box, called a V-Box that connects to the BT Home Hub and BT Total Broadband, to offer the following:

• Freeview – Over 35 TV channels and over 20 radio stations
• On-demand content over the Internet, including a huge library of blockbuster movies and classic films, TV shows, kids TV shows and music videos
• The BT Vision V-Box set-top box lets you pause and rewind live TV, record up to 80 hours on the built-in hard-disk and select live and on-demand content via the easy-to-use on-screen 14-day programme guide. You can also set the box to record your favourite series without missing an episode, just like with Sky+’s Series Link

There’s no subscription for BT Vision, and all you pay for is the one-off installation/connection fee. You do need a BT Total Broadband account. For the downloadable content, you can pay in two ways:

• Per-item: Films from £1.99, music videos from 29p, TV shows from 79p and kids programmes from 49p
• Packages: You can subscribe to special packages, such as the TV Shows, Kids and Music packages, each one costing £6 a month. There’s no annual contract, so you’re not tied in

The BT Vision V-box (worth £199) is being supplied FREE to
BT Total Broadband customers. There’s a connection fee of £30, and as the installation requires an engineer’s visit, there’s an installation fee of £60 – including V-Box, Home Hub and PC/laptop adapter setup.

More details: Sign up to BT Total Broadband , BT Vision information, our BT Vision Mailing List.

News is out that BT Vision is officially due to launch on Monday 4th December 2006.

BT Vision is a combined Freeview, digital hard-disk recorder, and on-demand TV service from BT. It will use a BT Broadband connection to download TV programmes and movies, and provide access to extra services via a set-top box and BT Home Hub. More details at radioandtelly.co.uk/btvision.html. You can also join our special BT Vision mailing list by clicking here

Teletext Games channel has appeared on Freeview channel 103 in November 2006. The service is displaying the on-screen message stating “Coming in the new year: Keno, Roulette and Face-Up Hold’em”.

Dixons are running a special offer on Slingbox – the magic box that connects to your home broadband, and lets you watch your home TV from around the world.

To get £20 off, order from dixons.co.uk , and at the checkout, enter the discount code NOW35 to get the Slingbox for £129.99.

Quiz Call is set to be replaced with Film 4 + 1 on Freeview channel 32 from 16th November 2006. Source.

Two new radio stations have joined the Freeview Lineup – Heart FM (London) on 728 and RadioMusicShop on 729. It’s not clear if these are temporary, or for testing reasons. No official announcement has been made.

The latest release of our TV podcast, FrequencyCast Show 08 has been released this evening. This latest show features the following:

We also look at your questions on HomePlugs, TopUp, DigiGuide, Five US, TV remotes, anti-virus, DAB, Telewest and more.

You can listen to show 08 online, or download it to your MP3 player from frequencycast.co.uk/cast08.html

Share and Enjoy!

Announcements continue to come thick and fast regarding the new TV and video-on-demand service from BT – BT Vision. Still billed for “Autumn 2006″, this combines Freeview TV, and TV/film content downloaded over BT Broadband. Most recent addition to the lineup, is Disney / Buena Vista TV, with their huge range of TV and films.

BT Vision is set to be a very exciting offering. More on our BT Vision page

Sky has announced that it’s extending the half-price subscription offer into November 2006 – so if you’re thinking of getting Sky for Christmas, this is the offer for you. You get half-price Sky Digital subscription for the first 3 months as well as a £10 credit off your first bill. Prices from £7.50 a month (then £15 a month). The offer includes free installation and a free dish and digibox. Offer only applies when ordered online, and ends 30th November 2006.

Details at: www.sky.com/skycom.

BBC Parliament is set to go full-screen from 13 November 2006. Source

Top Up TV Anytime‘s new digital PVR set-top boxes, from Thomson, seems to have been delayed by a couple of months.

Calling Top Up TV’s number, 08700 543210, gives a message stating:

“Boxes will start to be dispatched towards end of November, with delivery completed by early-to-mid December. Orders placed before 31st October will be received before Christmas” (2006?)

If you’re having second thoughts, and wish to cancel, call 08712 712 712. You may want to consider going elsewhere for your digital telly.

Setanta Sport is coming to Top Up TV as a subscription channel in 2007. Source.

At the start of October 2006, channel numbers for Film 4, E4+1, ITV4, ITV Play and Quiz Call changes. Also, Five US (ch.35) and Five Life (ch.36) have been added. New Freeview lineup.

The Digital TV and Technology FrequencyCast has released its latest show. Show 7 covers the following:

• More on the Top Up TV changes and how this affects customers.
• Launch details of the Nintendo Wii console and the TV service from BT Vision launch.
• Some changes to the Freeview channel lineup, and new national Jazz radio station on the way
• Going Digital: UK TV services get switched off in a few years. What does the Digital Switch mean?
• Lobster 700TV: A new mobile phone that has digital TV and DAB radio onboard

You can listen to show 07 online, or download it to your MP3 player, from www.frequencycast.co.uk/cast07.html

A small number of Freeview channels have been renumbered. Affected are: Film 4, ITV4, E4+1, ITV Play and Quiz Call. Also Five US (ch.35) and Five Life (ch.36) have now been added to the channel list. Current Lineup.

You may need to get your box to rescan to get the new channels.