Terrestrial TV
 

Hi,

I have a quick question and i was wondering whether anyone can help me. I have recently moved into a new house and didnt have a tv aerial. I had virgin come over to install my phone/internet and the installer informed me that the tv for my house (terrestrial i believe) comes through the virgin connection point.

I have since been into my loft and found a cable which i have connected to my tv and i can get channels 1-5. My question is, firstly, will this be supplied by virgin, or is there another company which would provide this. Secondly, i am unable to pick up any digital channels through this connection. Does anyone know what i could do to get digital, without fitting a new tv aerial. (I already have sky, i was just wanting digital for the rest of the house.)

Thanks in advance

Matt

Re: Terrestrial TV
 

Easiest way is to get a quad LNB on your sky dish and feed a new cable through to the rest of the house and get a freesat box (they use the same group of sats).

The VM point will never have freeview signals only an analogue passthrough for channels 1-5 but I believe these will soon cease to exist

Welcome to the forum and I've moved your post to the correct forum for you

Re: Terrestrial TV
 

The fact that you cannot get the digital FreeView channels through this cable means that this will be the Virgin Media cable.

Virgin Media used to deliver analogue channels as well as their digital channels but this is being phased out.

You will not get your digital Freeview channels, except through an external aerial.

Digital broadcasts are different dependent on the service.

Terrestrial FreeView is DVB-T and can only be received through an external aerial connection.

For interest the other types are DVB-C for cable and DVB-S for satellite.

Re: Terrestrial TV
 

Thanks very much for your help so far guys. I got the impression it was only going to show channels 1-5. I believe i have a quad lnb on my sky dish already, as i have two connections going to my sky box and then i have two spare ones. If i ran a cable from one of the spare connections into a digital box would that enable to me watch freeview, or would i need to buy a seperate freesat dish.

Thanks

Matt

Re: Terrestrial TV
 

You can;t use the spare connections in a FREEVIEW box as that is DVB-T, instead you need a FREESAT box (DVB-S) and that should give you roughtly the same as freeview (and I think a few channels more)

If you get just a freesat reciever then you just need one of the connections, if though you get a freesat with built in PVR then you need two connections.

You might also consider getting a HD freesat system so it'll be futureproof for a few years to come

Re: Terrestrial TV
 

I think, now that your initial questions have been answered, you need to state your requirement for TV and what you would like to spend.

If I understand correctly, you have a single, digital FreeView TV which only receives channels 1-5 as explained earlier through the Virgin Media cable.

If you want to receive all of the FreeView channels without any further monthly cost then you either have to get an external aeriel to receive DVB-T or go FreeSat as previously advised but this requires a capital expenditure on a FreeSat box.

Re: Terrestrial TV
 

Robbo,

I will explain my set up and you can advise of the best course of action. I have a sky hd box in my front room with the virgin media cable going into the rf input and i have my dish outside with the two sky inputs. I then have a cable carrying the skybox output into my loft, where it gets split into 4 seperate rooms. Each room has a sky magic eye on it and all the tv's can watch 1-5, as well as whatever the sky box is showing (set up on tv's as channel 6). My problem is that 3 of my 4 tv's (not including the front room one) have built in freeview. What i wanted to find out was whether i could do something, either with the virgin rf cable, or with a dish etc to be able to watch freeview on the other 3 tv's.

Sorry about the long reply. I have just read the post from kammy and it looks like it might not be possible. Unless there is a DVB-T/DVB-s converter so i can put it into the back of the sky box.

Thanks for any help

Matt

Re: Terrestrial TV
 

Better off getting a freesatfromsky card as you get the full suite of Five tv channels amongst others

Re: Terrestrial TV
 

Assuming someone has a spare sky box..

Personally I'd go for a HD freesat pvr box as you get all the features of a HD recorder without imposing more costs

Re: Terrestrial TV
 

Kammy and Void, I already have sky hd running so i dont really need freesatfrom sky, nor a pvr hd box. I was just wondering how i would connect a freeview(dvb-t i believe) signal to my current set up. I cant put an aerial up though im afraid as i live miles away from a transmmitter and cant really get to my roof. If that makes sense

Re: Terrestrial TV
 

If you can't put an aerial up, then you can't add Freeview to your set-up. Freeview really does need a good rooftop aerial, unless you happen to live right underneath your local transmitter.

The closest you would get is to buy two cheap Freesat boxes and connect them to the two spare terminals on your Sky dish's LNB.

---------- Post added at 18:10 ---------- Previous post was at 18:07 ----------

Not really. Once you've bought the FSFS card, you still need to buy a Sky-branded box to put it in. Then every time you fancy channel hopping up or down, you have to go via a pile of channels that show you the 'upgrade' nag screen.

Personally, I don't think it's worth the cost and inconvenience just for a couple of channels nobody watches. Although having said that, Fiver and FiveUS will inevitably land up on Freesat sooner or later.

Re: Terrestrial TV - move to freesat!
 

Sorry to say, fiveUSA (ch174), fiveUSA+ (ch175), Fiver (ch176), Fiver+1 (ch177). Is already on Freeseat with a Freesat card ;)

So, as was I told over the phone that a Freesat card will let see the + channels plus the rest that is for freesat other than an monthy payment with a sky package.

So the future is already here (sky)... freeview is past tense :dunce:

Sky UK area coverage 98% :D
Freeview UK area coverage 75% :td:

Above is written in each others information sources/releases :angel:

Re: Terrestrial TV - move to freesat!
 

I'd be careful where you use that dunce smiley ... especially when you yourself don't appear to understand the difference between Freesat and FreesatFromSky, which are two different brands owned by two different organisations and two different channel line-ups.

Freesat doesn't require a card - you buy a Freesat-branded box and receive all available Free-To-Air channels. The box uses your postcode to deliver the correct regional variations on channels 101-104.

FreesatFromSky does require a card (which you have to pay for, in addition to the box). With the card you get a mere handful of channels not available on true Freesat, because while they are Free-To-View, they are not Free-To-Air (they are encrypted). This includes Fiver and FiveUS. You can't run the Sky box without the card, because the card stores your region information. Without it, you don't get the correct variations on 101-104 (unless you're in London).

... and now you're confusing FreeSAT with FreeVIEW - again, two quite different things. ;)

Re: Terrestrial TV
 

Just use a good quality CRT TV with a scart socket for ease of use to deal with matter above.. as one option to over come the problem. I know there not sold any more in stores but a good serviced secondhand is good future investment than the later...modern day flat screen tv.

That's why a good old quality CRT TV, is good to have other than putting up with replacing a modern-day flat screen tv ever so many short years..... not me.... (modern flat screen TV).
A good CRT TV will last you years, by any way who needs a 40+ inch tv in your living room where a 36@CRT TV is just as good but much cheaper to buy in the first place ........ hence theres the method in ones madness.

Even serviced good second-hand tv, will do for a bedroom too or for a childs room. The tv in my bedroom is 28+yrs old (CRT TV - Ferguson) from my parents living room, when they didn't need it any more, I was watching the same tv as I grew up in late childhood day till collage days. That value for money if I have to say.

---------- Post added 26-08-2010 at 00:02 ---------- Previous post was 25-08-2010 at 23:55 ----------

Very true sir Chris, correction is noted - but I'd like to think I stated a point still. As with old sky box (I've got 2 my first & a spare second hand skyplus+ box ). With sky box you can upgrade if so, or when you wish to do so.. so that why think it's the better option out of the two, you see. It gives you more options for the future...:dunce:
Yes I have noted regional difference when my box (with card) plays up after power outage, so yes some thing's matters I guess.

---------- Post added at 00:08 ---------- Previous post was at 00:02 ----------

Ok fair enough...:cool:

Freesat/FreesatFromSky = sat dish
Freeview = digital aerial

Re: Terrestrial TV
 

Quite agree ... we bought a Sony widescreen CRT 7 or 8 years ago and its picture knocks spots off any LCD I've ever seen displaying an SD picture. TBH at normal viewing distance I'm sceptical that an HD screen of the same size would look any better in our front room.

And years ago my dad always swore by a local independent TV shop for repairs and additional TVs when needed. I had a secondhand one from there that lasted for years.

It's true, Sky does give you the upgrade path, however the pay-TV market in the UK is quite mature now; essentially, most people who are ever likely to want it already have it. Freesat isn't aimed at people who ever might want Sky; it's aimed at people who want digital TV now but can't get it, because they're in a non-Freeview area (possibly on a relay transmitter), or an area that won't carry a full Freeview service even after switchover. To that extent, the upgrade path isn't relevant to most people. Freesat is very popular with sat installers who are fed up of putting FSFS rigs in (usually elderly) people's homes and then having to explain why the EPG is crammed full of listings they can't watch, and don't want.

Aside from that, there's the HD question. Even with the recent launch of HD services from some Freeview transmitters, it's difficult to see how the current terrestrial transmitter network is ever going to be capable of moving from a fully SD service to a fully HD service, similar to the change that occurred in the late 60s and early 70s with the switch from 405-line, VHF to 625-line UHF broadcast.

Freesat is the only platform in the UK today that is capable of delivering HD, free-to-air broadcast slots to each channel as and when that channel is ready to commence an HD service. There may be a queue to get access to the HD transponders on the satellites, but that's an insignificant issue compared to the simple lack of bandwidth that makes comprehensive HD an impossibility on Freeview (unless and until an entirely new and radically improved means of compression is developed and deployed).

Given all of the above, I can only imagine Jimmy Murdoch gave ITV a very good deal to get their 2, 3 and 4-HD channels as Sky subscriber exclusives. Because in purely numerical terms, they have just agreed to put their channels where few people can see them, and even fewer people will watch them ... who really wants or needs to see Randall and Hopkirk (upscaled but still deceased)?

Re: Terrestrial TV
 

Is that true?, each transponder is limited with bandwidth, if they have left the space between the SD channels then YES I agree, but have they left that space (I don;t know that's why I'm asking :D )

Re: Terrestrial TV
 

I wasn't even thinking of it in such technical terms (that's your job ;) )

So far, they have been able to add channels simply by shuffling them between the transponders, without even having to worry about extra capacity. Beyond that, the normal schedule of adding new sats and replacing aged ones should be swift enough not to hold up the process of launching HD channels. That's why I said HD channels should be able to launch pretty much when they want to, rather than claiming every channel could go HD tomorrow (which would not be possible). With satellite, the availability of HD slots is reasonably well matched to demand.

This isn't the case with Freeview, where the whole broadcast infrastructure has been crippled by OFCOM's refusal to allocate the current analogue UHF channels for future TV services. They simply haven't left enough room to deliver everything in HD with current technology, and once they've flogged off the spectrum there never will be enough room for the current technology.

Re: Terrestrial TV
 

That's what was worrying me about your statement..

I don;t believe that they have enough room for every SD channel to be HD, even though HD is more compressed in it's mp4 state it would still need more bandwidth than the current mp2 layout (might though be wrong there??)

Re: Terrestrial TV
 

No, they definitely couldn't switch everything to HD tomorrow and expect it to fit. The trick is to match supply and demand, and so far as I can see the sat operators have that pretty much under control. OFCOM, on the other hand, has royally screwed up the long-term prospects of the UK ever having a comprehensive, free-to-air terrestrial HD service.

Despite ITV's bizarre flirtation with Sky, Freesat still provides the only long-term solution for people who want to move from SD to HD in the same way as our parents moved from 405 to 625.

Re: Terrestrial TV
 

:tu: I think for your statement "Freesat is the only platform in the UK today that is capable of delivering HD, free-to-air broadcast slots to each channel as and when that channel is ready to commence an HD service" to happen then they would need more sats up there, but I think that was and has always been the plan (just look at sky who have gone through many sats in their years of service (currently they have three sats but have had 10 previous carrying sky services including analogue))