To receive all 15 Freeview channels, along with the Freeview EPG, households will be able to purchase digital set-top boxes to work with their existing analogue television sets. These boxes will be badged with the Freeview logo and available in stores next year.

Alternatively, people will be able to buy a Freeview branded integrated flat screen plasma or LCD digital television.  Freeview is – and will remain – a free-to-view service. Once you have the digital equipment there is no contract and no subscription fees or ongoing costs.

Freeview Website

Tuning Your Existing Set Top Box

The SBS digital TV transmission parameters are as follows, and may be required when attempting to manually program a Set Top Box to receive SBS digital TV:

 
Note that the bandwidth for SBS TV services is 7 MHz (Megahertz).  Carrier channels 28  and above are UHF (Ultra High Frequency) channels.  Channels below 28 are VHF (Very High Frequency).  

Carrier channels are the channels used to tune your Set Top Box (STB) or digital TV to a particular broadcaster, and contain all the digital channels for that broadcaster.  Logical channels are the channels you view a particular channel on.  For example, the SBS (digital) carrier channel for Darwin is 29.  The logical channel for the SBS World News Channel is 33.  The logical channel numbers for SBS are the same for all Set Top Boxes and digital TVs.   

SD v HD

Our Standard Definition service is 576 x 720i (interlaced).  With the interlaced format, half the information is sent, then the second half is sent.  Our High Definition format is 576 x 720p (progressive).  With the progressive format, all the information is sent together.  Our High Definition service, or HD, is an upconverted version of our Standard Definition or SD service.  As our HD is upconverted, everything on our HD channel is in HD.