If you were previously able to get Setanta Sports on Freeview, then you should be able to get ESPN – You’ll just need to get your old Top Up TV or Setanta subscription card activated by calling 08444 15 20 20.

If you’re looking for full details on how this works, please see the following summary of the ways to get ESPN: http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/espn.html , or listen to our 12 August update

In our regular online radio show, we discuss all that’s new with digital TV and technology. Here’s what we cover in this show:

• News Updates: Plans for Freeview HD in doubt, all change for the charts, new content for Top Up, and odd news for H2G2 fans
• Focus: What’s new with wi-fi wireless technology.
• Hands-on: We plan with the world’s most sophisticated pen.
• Your questions on BT Vision, Virgin Media HD, plus your feedback on the Top Up TV failure in May.

You can download Show 40 direct to your MP3 player or listen online at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html. If you have an iPod or iPhone, get shows faster by signing up via iTunes.

Now and then, we release special audio “updates” to cover breaking stories, and so far there’s been a bunch of stories this month already.

So, we’re just out of the studio with a 16 minute audio update looking at Quest‘s failure to launch, the Top Up TV problems that hit last week, Tiscali takeover news, plus TomTom FM.

Download our 16 minute update now from http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html

Got an iPod or iPhone? Get shows and updates first via iTunes: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=142899029

It seems that over the Bank Holiday weekend, something happened that affected users of a number of Thomson Top Up TV Anytime boxes.

The Thomson DTI 6300 hard-disk recorders appear to be failing to start up – showing an orange light. Attempts to reboot the boxes don’t seem to resolve the problem.

It seems that there was a problem with the EPG download on the morning of Sunday 3rd of May.

Top Up TV’s site offers some advice on the problem, but their suggested fix is to format the hard drive, losing all previously recorded programmes. This is obviously not an ideal solution.

You’ll find discussion on this problem on our sister site’s forum at http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.pl?board=topuptv

Check out our mid-May podcast for the latest on this story (link below)

Carl (suffering from a bout of scurvy), sits in a studio with Pete and looks closely at the new INQ1 phone from 3, better known as The Facebook Phone.

Slick integration of Contacts, Instant Messaging and Social Networking, this is a surprisingly powerful little phone. Listen to our 9 minute audio review of this low-priced, high-spec phone.

More details on our INQ Review page.

The INQ1 is available free on a contract, or £79.95 on Pay-as-you-go at www.three.co.uk.

Their boxes have been hit by the recent Freeview transmitter updates, which created a problem for users who performed a channel rescan.

v2.93 has to be downloaded manually, via Menu > 4 > 6. Then press 1397 and scroll down to option 17 “Force next OAD”. The download should get to you within an hour

Here at FrequencyCast, we suspect the cards are to support a different encryption system, as the cards have a NAGRAVISION logo on them. To use the new card, you remove the old one, insert the new (chip down), then leave your Top Up TV Anytime box tuned to channel 5 for an hour. We’ll cover this in the next show, due out in April 08

The new box costs £129.99 (£30 up on the previous version, which is still available). More on our TUTV Anytime page.

We reviewed Top Up TV in Show 10 – See http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/topuptv.html for more.

www.frequencycast.co.uk/topuptv.html

v2.81 is being pushed over-the-air from 4th July

New Features: Series Link, Child Lock and display of programme synopsis information in the guide screen.

Fixes: Fix to Saved Items being deleted, Fix to Radio Services breaking up. Fixes been added to reduce the number of times that a DTR fails to make Top Up TV Anytime recordings. Improvements to Download Playback. Performance improvements to reduce the times when the box will need to be rebooted. Fixes to reduce loss of Video/Black Screen. Library now shows the actual start and duration.

UKTV Gold (4pm – 1am)
UKTV Style (1pm – 4pm)
British Eurosport (7.30am – 10am)
TCM (7pm – 1am)

It’s rumoured that this is to make room for subscription sport channel Setanta. TUTV has also stopped selling the basic £7.99 service to new customers, making Top Up TV Anytime their only product.

We would like to get your questions on Anytime, so we can include them in the next FrequencyCast show. Please use the Comments section here to ask your questions…

There’s a prerecorded message on Top Up TV’s number, 08700 543210, stating the following:

“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.

Latest news in the last couple of days is that they’ve announced a new service, Picture Box, which will add a movie service to Anytime. There’ll be seven movies available (downloaded to your new Anytime box), and the movies will only be from Universal Pictures. To get to the movies, you’ll need to pay £5 a month, on top of your £9.99 subscription. More details at www.topuptv.com

Also worth noting, is that there’s now a preview showing on Freeview Channel 41, showing what TopUp TV Anytime’s all about, plus showing more of the box and screen.

Remember, there’s more on this on our TUTV Anytime page, and we covered TopUp in Show 06. We’re also keen to get one or two calls from our visitors on this subject, so be brave and call 0208 133 4567 to leave message for inclusion on our next show.

It seems that the current subscription service will be reducing its output to make way for a new service. Top Up TV Anytime will cost an additional £2, there are some changes to the lineup, and the service needs a PVR (digital recorder) to capture programmes. The set-top box is being manufactured by Thomson (model DTI 6300-16), and it has a twin tuner plus 160gig hard-drive (for 120 hours of TV). Boxes will be available from October 2006, priced £180 to new customers or £100 to existing customers.

FrequencyCast will be sticking with this story and featuring it in the next show. You can find more details on this at www.frequencycast.co.uk/topuptv.html