Help - NTL Digital TV Question

[Cable Guy]

Hi all, im just new to this forum so please bear with me if i am about to ask something thats available elsewhere. I am getting the cable tv installed on Friday and just had a worrying thought that i may end up with the following problem. Here goes....Can i keep my channels 1-5 on my analogue aireal and get cable tv tuned on on channel 6 on my tv ? I have heard that this may be possible on some boxes but not on others but nobody not even anyone from ntl will confirm this for me. If not is there any peice of equipment i can get from the engineer or elsewhere that will enable me to do this ?

Any help would be appreciated - thanks

[eoin.miskell]

Yes this is possible though most if not all ntl boxes all you have to do is plug the arial in to the back of the ntl digital box.

[Cable Guy]

Originally Posted by eoin.miskell

Yes this is possible though most if not all ntl boxes all you have to do is plug the arial in to the back of the ntl digital box.

Thanks for the quick reply, i really appreciate it and it puts my mind at rest. Especially if the digital was to go and the fact i wont lose all my channels.

[MovedGoalPosts]

As has been said the existing TV aerial should be able to plug into the back of the STB, from the STB a connection can then be daisy chained to your Video and then to your TV. You then tune your TV to channel whatever to get your digital TV signals. You may need to retune your video if you find that uses exactly the same frequency as your STB for outputted signals.

This has advantage that you can then watch or record the terrestrial channels whilst using the STB, or vice versa

The best way for a good picture is to connect the STB to your TV via Scart leads if at all possible.

*edit BTW to the forum

[altis]

Oooh - an excuse to use my picture again!

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So long as both your TV and VCR have scart sockets then you can wire it as above. This will give you a better picture than using the RF (aerial) lead and will allow you to watch one channel and record another. Most, but not all, set top boxes have an RF (aerial) in connector but you won't need it if you use the scarts.

[MovedGoalPosts]

Wow, I wish once youv'e actually got all the spagehtti togheter behind your TV that it looks as neat as that schematic implies :pp

[A_KILLJOY]

Are you saying that if the STB has an analogue pass-through I will have the terrestial channels available as a tapeable output whilst watching a cable channel, with only a digital cable input to the STB?

[altis]

Originally Posted by A_KILLJOY

Are you saying that if the STB has an analogue pass-through I will have the terrestial channels available as a tapeable output whilst watching a cable channel, with only a digital cable input to the STB?

If there is analogue cable TV in your area AND you have an old box with the pass-thru then yes.

That's two big ifs there so, sadly, this won't work for most people.

[Cable Guy]

Thanks for the advice, engineer came today and installed it with no problems. Did not even touch my tv, he plugged it in through the scart lead and i still have my analogue 1-5 and i get my digital by pressing the av button on my tv - dead easy and bloody great as well.

[Tristan]

Originally Posted by altis

If there is analogue cable TV in your area AND you have an old box with the pass-thru then yes.

That's two big ifs there so, sadly, this won't work for most people.

That's not quite right

As far as I know, channels 1-5 are carried on analogue in every region, so that's not really an issue. Really the split is whether you live in a Bromley or Langley area.

Bromley areas have never had a passthrough, so they're simply not available. The few revisions of the 4001 in Langley areas do have them, so if you've got one then all well and good. If not, then you can ask to have an external passthrough unit fitted. I think this is for new installs only though, and it's a bit of a grey area....