Digital TV Cost Cutting Article - Discuss What You've Been Offered

murphydavid

Hope I’m in the right thread. I live in Surrey and I’m not a great TV watcher but every time I do turn on I end up thinking its got to be better than this. Maybe its because my knowledge of T.V. is about zero so my question is probably naive. Basically its this. Before I try buying into some new channels will I actually be able to see them?
I have an Analogue TV a TV aerial pointed at London from Woking (about 40 miles or so - same direction as everyone else’s), a Freeview ‘digi’ box and a signal booster thingy. My analogue reception is ok – except channel 5 which has always been poor but watchable. My freeview (digital) signal is fine for the 4 analogue channels not channel 5 and a couple of others, but the reason for my question is an awful lot of the other digital channels disintegrate into squares and freeze up and crackle and report ‘you have a poor signal’ ie they are un-watchable.
To get decent digital do I abandon my aerial and get a satellite dish? Can I get T.V. through my phone line? What other way is there to get T.V? Do I need to get the aerial man in. A new T.V. perhaps? If I get a T.V. engineer in is that a good investment? My aerial looks like everyone else’s and I changed the co-axial cable so it is fairly new. Did I just get a dodgy freeeviewbox?. How can I find out without calling in the (expensive) professionals? I just want to sit in my armchair when I’m tired and surf all the TV without it getting up my nose so to speak.
Further relevant info is
I don’t have access to a cable network. (Someone in my private road objected to having the cable laid and the cable company didn’t do it). I have TalkTalk landline phone and free broadband. I think that’s it.
Thanks if you can help.

BexTech

Have you tried the postcode checkers to see what they say your reception should be like?

http://www.freeview.co.uk/home
http://www.digitaluk.co.uk

http://www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/tvd.exe? (This one should give a suggested aerial and transmitter to use).

If they say you should get decent reception and you don't then it's worth trying a different Freeview box (try and borrow one).

If it says you are in a weak / poor signal area then if it was me I'd simply wait for analogue to be switched off and the power increased on the digital channels as your current aerial should be fine once the signal is increased (though there are a couple of areas where even after switch over due to some channels broadcasting out of band you may need a new aerial). Whilst you are waiting go with FreeSatFromSky or wait a few months for the Freesat boxes to hit the market.

https://www.freesatfromsky.com

https://www.freesat.co.uk


With these two freesat products as it's only the spec of the boxes that are different, they'll both pick up all the Free To Air satellite channels that come from Astra 2 / Eutetsal Eurobird. The Sky version will also pick up Ch4, Ch4+1, Five, Five US, Five Life and Sky Three - However Ch4 and Ch4+1 will be switching to Free To Air next year, not sure what Five are doing.

The Freesat version will also come in HiDef versions too, so you'll pick up BBC HD, Luxe.TV and ITV HD when that starts and 4HD when that switches from Free To View to Free To Air.

murphydavid

[FONT=&quot]Well it says I should be using Crystal Palace which is the direction I seem to be pointing. Didn’t see anything about signal strength but it did say I need an extra high gain aerial which sounds like it might be a poor signal? I didn’t realise the power was going to be turned up. It said 2012 is when analogue is turned off in my area that’s a bit of a wait if the power is going to remain low till then. [/FONT]

ckerrd

murphydavid wrote: »

[FONT=&quot]Well it says I should be using Crystal Palace which is the direction I seem to be pointing. Didn’t see anything about signal strength but it did say I need an extra high gain aerial which sounds like it might be a poor signal? I didn’t realise the power was going to be turned up. It said 2012 is when analogue is turned off in my area that’s a bit of a wait if the power is going to remain low till then. [/FONT]

As already stated if you can borrow a freeview box then you will know for sure. If not and are prepared to risk £20 then you can pick one up in most supermarkets now. Take it home plug it in and away you go.

Maybe the world of digital TV will open up for you

EDIT - don't necessarily believe what the sites tell you. I get this from the Freeview site
Unfortunately you can't receive the Freeview channels in your area now, but when your region switches to digital you should be able to receive the most popular channels.

I have two freeview receivers which currently give me the most popular (sic) channels

murphydavid

I don't know anyone who will lend me a freeview box. I must admit that when I bought mine I had no idea what paying for an expensive one might or might not give me so I bought the cheapest one going. Don't think I will blindly buy another cheap one that might give me the same problem again so I just spent an hour or so looking at review sites and find that quality/price seems to be a big issue. The best review value for money I could find seemed to be a Ferguson FDI prism at nominally £65. I think I may give that a go after Xmas. Is there a thread here that discuses the best deals for freeview. I searched but could not find one. Maybe I will try to start one.

FannyHill

There may be a local shop that will let you try a Freeview box and return it within a few days if it doesn't give you a suitable signal. I have an old Echostar and it works well even though I'm about 35 miles from the TX.

BexTech

murphydavid wrote: »

I don't know anyone who will lend me a freeview box. I must admit that when I bought mine I had no idea what paying for an expensive one might or might not give me so I bought the cheapest one going. Don't think I will blindly buy another cheap one that might give me the same problem again so I just spent an hour or so looking at review sites and find that quality/price seems to be a big issue. The best review value for money I could find seemed to be a Ferguson FDI prism at nominally £65. I think I may give that a go after Xmas. Is there a thread here that discuses the best deals for freeview. I searched but could not find one. Maybe I will try to start one.

Unfortunately buying a dearer one doesn't necessarily mean you'll get a better product / reception, some of the dearer branded ones are poorer than the cheap ones.

orchid-96

Just went on to cancel my sky as I am getting a tv with freeview and I wanted to get sky + but couldn't find any deals...

Anyway, I have stuck with them as I was offered

sky + (£49 installed)

Free broadband (2 mb but to upgrade only £5)

Free evening and weekend calls with sky talk (£10 line rental)

Sky multiroom (original box will be re-installed)

My sky package at the moment which includes sports £35

total monthly outlay £55 (saving on my current spend of £70)

I am really happy with that as to be honest dh didn't want to cancel and with the new telly coming it will be nice to have the channels and the sky +

airtrack12000

Sky was turned off yesterday after 30 days notice period. No phone call received asking me to stay. Sky+ facility still works on freeview channels. might not miss the other channels after all!

BexTech

sabelu wrote: »

I want to see football this year however should I pay an extra £19 pm and get Sky Sports, should I subscribe to Setanta through Sky £9.99 pm or go the whole hog keep the Sky basic channels and add Bt Vision Free Of Charge and subscribe to their games with a view to ditching Sky at a later date. Can you have both Sky & BT Vision through your tv? With BT Vision deal currently it would be cheaper and also add more choice I think. Are Sky only channel showing Carling Cup? What does anyone think of my predicament?

You have to subscribe to Setanta direct through Setanta and not through Sky, though you can use your Sky viewing card and box.