Digital Freeview boxes for under £22

mrsyorkie wrote:

I know i'm being thick, but can i plug a freeview box into a portable telly, or does it have to be through the main aerial? We have sky free to view downstairs and we want a freeview box for upstairs in the bedroom but there is no outside aerial point. Do we need one?

I installed a freeview box last night on the TV in my bedroom which does not have an connection to the roof mounted aerial. I used an old portable aerial which was purchased from Woolworths a few years ago and it picked up all of the freeview channels just fine and the reception is a lot better than if i was using it as a standard analogue aerial in my TV.

smurf wrote:

I installed a freeview box last night on the TV in my bedroom which does not have an connection to the roof mounted aerial. I used an old portable aerial which was purchased from Woolworths a few years ago and it picked up all of the freeview channels just fine and the reception is a lot better than if i was using it as a standard analogue aerial in my TV.

Thanks i was just wondering that myself!

ETA:

Sorry for the double post.

Ooh, and sorry for the post above this one - just realised what i had written! Having one of those days...

It is best (if you want to record Freeview channels) to get a box with two scart sockets. This way you can watch analogue TV and record Freeview if you wish. This also means you can have both a VCR and Freeview box on one scart socket of the TV. Same as you can with a Satellite or cable box.

You connect VCR to Digital box VCR scart socket and then the digital box TV scart socket to the TV.

As I know many people wrongly wire up their system and have VCR and Freeview (or Sky or cable) box on two separate TV scart sockets, thus taking up a socket they don't need to.

Using SCART with any device (VCR/Freeview/Sky/Cable) will give you stereo sound on a stereo TV and pro-logic version of surround sound on a pro-logic enabled TV.

Again many people use RF out for viewing VCR/Digital box and this means lower picture quality and mono sound on the TV, even if the programme and TV is stereo.

Only the higher end Freeview boxes now have RF out, most are just RF loop through, so it can pull out the digital info from the analogue signal and then pass through the incoming aerial signal for the analogue channels to the TV etc.

Some people may have old TVs that only have RF input, so for those you will need a box with modulated RF out, but you need to remember the picture and sound won't be as good.

pjbuk007 wrote:

Please note that Freeview coverage checking sites can be wrong!!

The one linked to in the post says we CAN get freeview, but many of the others say we cannot, including the one they use in John Lewis.

In fact we discovered last year that our neighbours had been using a freeview box for years. We bought a cheap ALBA one which lost the signal, then got Sony boxand have had freeview no probs for 8 months!

We had the telly bloke around for another reason and to check aerial, and we have superb reception on all channels! Therefor did not need aerial adjusting.

I strongly suggest that if the postcode checker says "No", you borrow a box and try. I also think this should be more widely publicised as we there may be many others who think they cannot get freeview.

Very true but an even easier solution is to visit what used to be " Dixons " our local one at Ilkeston in derbyshire offered to supply a box appx £20 and should the reception not be good exchange it for other brands until effective one found " WARNING DO NOT PAY FOR EXPENSIVE WIDE BAND AERIAL INSTALLATIONS " try different boxes 1st