[Brekkie]

A good blog here with some screenshots of ONDigital and ITV Digital EPGs and interactive services. Thought the main one was quite ugly myself.

drew1440.com 

ONdigital User Interface | Drew1440: Blog
Switch On.... ONdigital was the first Digital Terrestrial platform in the world,…
  Source: drew1440.com

And some screenshots of other services at the time.

drew1440.com 

Digital TV Screenshots | Drew1440: Blog
ONdigital (1998) Nokia OnDigital Nokia OnDigital Nokia OnDigital Cable & Wir…
  Source: drew1440.com

[Pete]

I had a range of third party Freeview set top boxes for one reason or another before I bought a TV that had Freeview built in.
It soon became obvious to me they were all running the same software, including the software for the Freeview in the TV, so it had the same options, the same look, the same everything - the only difference was the choice of colours and how responsive the box was (or wasn't as the case may be).

Can't comment on ITV Digital / On Digital look though, as I never had one.

was it the alba/bush software? I remember there being great excitement at them releasing an update that did make things better, and if you schmoozed the right person on digital spy they'd send you the superior remote from the version 3

A simpler time before the horrors of software updates on tvs these days

[cable]

A good blog here with some screenshots of ONDigital and ITV Digital EPGs and interactive services. Thought the main one was quite ugly myself.

www.jimsaerials.co.uk 

drew1440.com 

And some screenshots of other services at the time.

drew1440.com 

www.jimsaerials.co.uk 

www.jimsaerials.co.uk  - a good example here of early era Freeview box software. The transparency and colours of the ON menus (yellow, green, purple) were no comparison in my mind.

Jim's Aerials - Freeview
tv aerials and satellite services for torbay and south devon
  Source: www.jimsaerials.co.uk

There was a few updates to say MATSUI/Astratec boxes that enabled the teletext extra EPG which gave it a modern appearance, if you liked adverts.

[cable]

informitv.com  which looked ok for something added after.

[WillPS]

I thought the aesthetic of the ONdigital EPG was great, but the boxes were somewhere between dog slow and woeful. ISTR the Pioneer box, which you could only get as part of a prepaid deal, were supposed to be the speediest. The Sony ones were also sought after but I'm not sure if that's just because of the brand prestige.

Mad looking back that there was so many STB manufacturers for such a shortlived service - Pace, Nokia, Sony, Philips, Pioneer... who have I missed? Was there an Alba/Bush one at some point, or was that just IDTVs?

I'd be interested to know how far along, if at all, an updated EPG with ITV Digital branding was when the company sank. There was forever talk of updates coming along to help out ONdigital box users, but I think in the end the only one that eventually materialised was something minor to do with Top Up TV. In fact, thinking of it, that might have only been for IDTVs/CAMs.

[Neil Jones]

Mad looking back that there was so many STB manufacturers for such a shortlived service - Pace, Nokia, Sony, Philips, Pioneer... who have I missed? Was there an Alba/Bush one at some point, or was that just IDTVs?

There were Alba/Bush boxes, though both being Argos brands they were probably repackaged something else anyway.

STB boxes were so cheap at the peak they were practically giving them away. Think it was somewhere around 2010 Freeview was standard in TV sets. An archive post from Digital Spy in 2008 suggests Asda were knocking Freeview STB's out for £10...

[Pete]

Wasn’t Will referring to onDigital rather than freeview?

Virgin Media’s V+ was similar in that there was the scientific Atlanta box and the Samsung. The latter being speedy and solid. The former being an absolute pig. You had to beg the engineers to try and get a Samsung.

[Neil Jones]

Wasn’t Will referring to onDigital rather than freeview?

Most likely, but post ITV Digital the STB boom was great, and almost certainly higher and faster than the whole On/ITV Digital period was overall.

[James2001]

I think until the Pace box came out (in the dying weeks of ITV Digital), it was virtually impossible to get a DTT box without subscribing to On/ITV Digital. There were a couple of IDTV models around, but they were expensive and not very common (in fact they weren't common until several years after Freeview launched) and I think even some of them required subscriptions as well.

Can anyone else remember ITV Digital's administrators wanting people's boxes back and one of their representatives on Radio 5 rather pathetically crying "I want my box back"? In the end, Carlton and Granada paid them so people could keep their boxes (as it would have wiped out the majority of people with Freeview access at the time if they had to be returned).

[Neil Jones]

Can anyone else remember ITV Digital's administrators wanting people's boxes back and one of their representatives on Radio 5 rather pathetically crying "I want my box back"? In the end, Carlton and Granada paid them so people could keep their boxes (as it would have wiped out the majority of people with Freeview access at the time if they had to be returned).

IIRC the boxes were on loan, so the administrators were within their rights to ask people to send them back.

Although that being said, the story goes that although they shifted a lot of stock, they didn't have a clue where most of the boxes were. For all the platform and later administrators knew the boxes could be on the moon. It was a bit of a non starter really as it was either pay £40 or send the box back but if you don't know where most of the boxes are in the first place, who exactly are you going to invoice £40 to?

It was pretty much a saving face exercise for Carlton and Granada to open their wallets and pay them off, as they'd announced their merger plans a few months earlier.