Setting up with HDTV in Germany

I have an HDTV ready TV and would like to see some shows in HDTV. What is the best way to go on this? I would prefer to see HDTV in English shows of course. Has someone gone to the local electronic stores like Saturn and asked about HDTV options or has anyone done this yet?

I saw a topic for this on Toytown but it was back in 2006, so I am seeing if things have improved or changed or what the latest options are.

Thanks!

I'll tell you all about it once my useless technician finally shows up to hook up my dish and HD sat receiver and gets me BBC anf ITV with HD.

All HD Channels in Germany (If there are any) are in... GERMAN

If you want English HDTV then your going to need a SkyHD Setup, so contact Bavaria Satellite.

You don't need SkyHD for English HD, but it will give you the biggest choice. You can get BBC-HD with almost any HD capable digital satellite receiver and correctly sized and aligne dish. If you buy a "Freesat" (unique to the UK) receiver you can also get ITV-HD on the same dish setup. Everything else needs SkyHD and a Sky subscription, which is very good for Sports and Movies content in HD. On the German front Pro7 and Sat-1 actually stopped their HD transmissions recently although the subscriber service Premiere has (like Sky) quite a number of sports and movies transmitted in HD

Quick question, how old is your HD ready TV, I had this the other day a friend also wanted to use his HDTV to watch HD unfortunatly it is an old set without HDMI (only composite). It's worth noting as Sky will be stopping produciton of HD boxes with composite due to the lack of HDCP content protection.

For the freetards:
Humax are releasing a Freesat HD box with PVR in November, so if you are not wanting to pay for Sky services this should be a good option.
Else you can get a Freesat box without PVR for under 150GBP from the UK.

Incorrect...Premiere HD show movies in 'ZweiKanalton' which in the majority of cases means the original version will be in English.
Not sure if the 'ZweiKanalton' on HD means Dolby Digital would also be available in English though.

Whether its worth buying/renting a Premiere HD set-top box and paying subscription for 2 or 3 year old movies is another issue entirely.
Earlier this year they were showing series like Battlestar Galactica on Premiere HD but now it just seems movies, which is why I would not subscribe at the moment.

I'm assuming you mean component here, as composite will not carry an HD signal. I believe Premiere also uses HDCP.

Only HD Free-to-air German channel on 19,2°E is Anixe, which is not so great in terms of what programms are shown. As has already been said, both pro7 and sat1 stopped transmitting HD in February, although ARD and another channel(I forget which) is due to start transmitting HD sometime in 2010.

BBC-HD is the current Free-To-Air offering on the 28,2°E although you can also get ITV-HD on some HD Receiver with some fidling (so far not managed it on my skyplus 2000HD though, but is possible through manually setting the transponder and PIDs apparently). On the freesat boxes, it is accessed via a red button service whilst on normal ITV...

HD programms are gorgeous though. Can't wait for more channels

I was talking about actual TV channels with US shows, news, home improvement, movies, sports, etc. etc. not just 1-2 dedicated movie channels
that happen to have English as a 2nd audio channel. The only way to get a good HD line-up in FULL (Not as a 2nd thought) English setup is with a
sky box/subscription. The FTA channels that are avail in HD suck ass. And correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Premiere a Cable TV only service?
Do they even offer their entire line-up via Satt.?

Update: Ok, it looks like they do. But according to this Web Site the Satt. Decoder box costs 1100 GBP.. F***k that. For that price I'd rather go with SkyHD.
Atleast the Sky box has a built-in DVR...

nah, you can get HD receivers that will take premier cards for about 200€. Philips do a nice range.

But yes, Free-to-air sucks pretty much in both UK and Germany presently and SkyHD via skynow.tv is 699€...gulp.