IF you’ve been to the pub to watch the Premier League football in 3D, you’ll know how exciting this new technology can be.

But things have moved on since most of the major manufacturers announced they were bringing 3D tellies to our living rooms back in January at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show.

So, to get you slap, bang, up-to-date with the latest news, here’s 9 things you should be aware of.

1) JOHN LEWIS has become the first store to sell 3D televisions in their shops. Well, one shop. The Samsung UE40 C7000 came out on Friday, priced at £1,799. But the 40 incher is only available in the Oxford Street branch or online. Other stores will have some on display though, just so you can check them out. Which does seem a little strange. You can also buy the Samsung 3D Blu-ray Player BD C6900 for £349 and if you do that with the telly, you get two pairs of specs and the 3D Blu-ray Monsters v Aliens DVD for nothing, saving £149.

2) COMET aren’t far behind with Samsung and Panasonic 3D sets already onsale on their websites, priced from £1600 to £2300. Selected stores are also set to get them this weekend, although there’s no news which ones just yet.

3) LG are the people supplying the tellies to pubs across the UK and working with Sky to bring football to life. Their sets will be out in May or June to buy for your home and LG are the only ones to offer both Active and Passive technology to power 3D pictures.

4) PASSIVE basically means all the gubbins to create a 3D image is inside the television. This means the glasses cost just 50p a pair and the TVs are cheaper too. It makes the jump to 3D much more affordable for people and LG’s LD950 — with a 47 inch display — will come with four pairs of polarised glasses out of the box for all the family. It will cost between £1500 and £2500.

5) ACTIVE on the other hand places a lot of the technology in the glasses themselves, meaning they might look a lot cooler, but they’ll cost you upwards of £100 a piece. The active shutter system blacks out each eye without you noticing when needed so the left and right eye see the images meant for them. That means full high definition 1080p pictures can be received by each eye to provide the clearest HD picture available. LG’s LX9900 Active TVs will be in 47 and 55 inch sizes and cost around £2500 and £3600.

6) IT’S not all about watching football though. There’s going to be plenty of 3D games coming out in the next year or two. The likes of Avatar — itself a great 3D movie — are setting the standard for a whole new way of immersing yourself in virtual action.

7) IF you own a PlayStation 3, then you’ll be pleased to know it will be 3D compatible. A free software update to be delivered soon will allow it to spin 3D Blu-ray movies and games without the need to upgrade your hardware. Sony’s own 3D Bravia models will be out in June.

THERE’S also good news for Sky+ HD customers. The box will work with the new 3D channel from Sky and it’s actually operational now. You’ll need to call customer services though to make it live for you but it won’t cost you a penny more. There’s very little content right now but by the autumn Sky plan to have proper 3D shows and movies to tune into.

9) A 3D DVD version of Avatar is on the way for next Spring. That’s according to The Hollywood Reporter which says Fox Home Entertainment is planning the disc. The 2D version sold more than four million Blu-ray copies on its launch day in America and will be massive here too when it comes out next week. But it’s not the same as watching it as James Cameron intended in cinemas and as 3D TVs slowly begin to invade our high street stores, it won’t be long until someone down your road has one and starts selling tickets to their living room.

Combine the latest Sony 3D Blu-ray players with any one of the TV sets on the way to enjoy 3D films in your front room. The memorably tagged BDP-S470 and the BDP-S570 will both upscale your standard definition DVD’s and give you access to loads of BD-Live content via the internet. The 3D Blu-ray discs should start arriving by the end of this year, so then, just don your active shutter specs and enjoy your films with those paying guests. The S570 model has built-in WiFi by the way, apart from that the players are peas-in-a-pod. No word on price yet.

There are different colour cables but on the whole many aerial engineers will use white or black cable depending on the colour of the house,to attach the cable to a wall you will need cable tacks which you should run all the way down at a good 300mm apart, this is to look tidy but most important that it does not fly around in the wind and get caught on anything. you will need good quality cable, double shielded 75 ohm cable is best, examples; made by webro and raydex though there are more manufactures coming on the market all the time. You will need connectors to connect to your aerial and also to your TV, the connectors you will need will depend on the aerial but some aerials will have connectors already on them.

This is the offical release from the BBC about the plan for Freeview HD.

The plan is still to launch Freeview HD on December 2nd at the Winter Hill transmitter serving Manchester and Liverpool. The plan has always been to roll Freeview HD out around the country following switchover and Winter Hill was selected as the first achievable transmitter. There will need to be a retrospective upgrade of regions that have already switched.

The originally mentioned date of November came from the fact that Winter Hill starts to switch over in November. But it was quickly realised that the BBC’s second Multiplex (Mux B) that is being converted for Freeview HD actually switches over on 2nd December at Winter Hill.

The March 2010 date in the Ofcom document is simply the last backstop date by when Winter Hill has to be on air to comply with our licence conditions. They’ve built in a contingency (as already happens in switchover licences).

The BBC has been working on plans to deliver early upgrades to some stations (serving high populations) that are late in the switchover programme and would otherwise have to wait long for Freeview HD.

One example is London that switches over in 2012 but we’re planning to upgrade its Crystal Palace transmitter in December this year. There are another four main transmitters that we plan to upgrade in the first half of 2010. We can give the names and dates of these transmitters in a little while when plans are a bit firmer. We are also planning an upgrade to the Digital UK postcode database, which will tell viewers when they can expect their transmitter to be upgraded to Freeview HD.

Although everything is still on track against plans, there are significant technical and contractual challenges – not least to get transmission and domestic receiver equipment through design, development and delivery stages within an ambitious timescale. As with any major technical project, there is always a risk of slippage due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control. However, there is industry-wide commitment to rolling out Freeview HD as soon as possible, and good progress is being made on all fronts.

Graham Plumb is the Head of Distribution Technology, BBC Operations Group.

Does it mention you need another box?

An aerial can be put onto your chimney, the side of your building or in the loft. If you are going to install your aerial on the chimney it is best to use a lashing kit so that the aerial is stable and secure,but if you live in a low ground area you will need as much height as you can so a long pole will be needed.If it is going on the side of the building then you will need a bracket plus pole but this pole could be longer than the pole on the chimney,if it is to go into your loft you will need loft a bracket plus pole, one of the disadvantages of having an aerial in the loft is that the signal will not be as strong

You need a transmitter for your aerial so how do you know which one.To find your nearest go on-line and type in www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/tvd.exe?, on this site all you need to do is put your postcode in and a grid will come up with the transmitters nearest to you, it will also suggest an aerial (antenna).the position of the aerial(pol), group of aerial (gp) and many more details.

Aerial transmitter

What you watch on tv is received through your aerial from a transmitter. Around the country you will find over 1.100 and from 2008-2012 one by one the transmitters will be changing over to digital, your tv aerial is pointing to one of these transmitters so you need to know which one you are receiving from as this will determine the date you will be switching over and will also depend on how many channels you receive because of the signal strength. you may actually have a choice of transmitters as their signals may overlap but if you do change it could mean a change in how many channels you receive and also could lead to needing a new aerial as your current one may not have enough elements.

This is a very important decision as you need to know the signal strength and also which transmitter your on.

if you are in a recessed area this will reduce your field strength and you will need an aerial which is high gain, the aerial would probably be a 18 element or more. There are so many aerials on the market and you want to pick the right one.

to name a few you could use are:

YAGI – TCX UHF TV Aerials.

This is a Medium to high gain aerial for primary and secondary reception areas and is  Suitable for digital and analogue TV reception Designed to reduce noise pick-up Individually boxed.

High Gain – DX8 UHF TV Aerials.

This aerial is designed for digital  transmissions High forward gain, increased signal level fringe reception Impulse noise reduction – impedance matching balun Narrow acceptance angle – reduces multi-path signals.

Extra Gain – XG UHF TV Aerials.

this aerial is packed with features to improve reception of digital TV Full range for local through to fringe reception areas, its unique design increases signal strength and themassive reflector reduces noise pick-up.

FM & DAB Radio.

This range includes Omni-directional or high gain directional Unique Trumatch dipole on directional aerials Fold down into compact pack Easy assembly.