Help please-connecting analogue tv+Video/dvd+freeview box

angela110660

Please can you help. Just bought a freeview box at Asda and lady said we needed a scart to go with it as not included. Fine. I am now surrounded by so many cables it is unbelievable.
Video/dvd recorder to analogue worked fine and we could record when we wanted and playback.
Now the freeview is in the equation it has upset everything and the video is really playing up (sulking?).
I have the freeview info saying I can connect to video either with or without SCART. How? Why? Neither way seems to make it work.
My video info shows the main ariel still going into it and then a RF cable connecting to the Freeview box (it actually calls it digital but I think that means the same).
Wish we hadn't bothered with the damn thing now and I might just put it on the portable in the backroom so that the video is sweet for Xmas.
All replies gratefully received as it's my call to get this to work and the family are all tapping their feet...

penrhyn

What freeview box do you have? Assuming its got two scarts and an RF loop through.
I'm assuming that your DVD/Video is a single unit.
RF: Aerial>>Freeview>>DVD/Video>>TV
SCART: DVD/Video>>Freeview>>TV

Soulistic

Were you able to sort this out? If not, what I would like to know is what kinda connections are available on your TV (as in how many scarts, and if there is phono), how many connection are available on your DVD/Video and also on your Freeview? We can sort it out from there.

redux

The 2 Freeview choices are SCART lead or RF connection via the aerial lead. Was your video originally connected to the TV by SCART or a short aerial lead?

If it's the latter, then for now I'd do it in a slightly different order - have the house aerial lead going into the Freeview box, then short aerial lead to VCR, then another to TV. Doing it in this order means you can still record the Freeview channels if you leave figuring out SCART for now. You will need another short aerial lead though, and I hope there's one of these in the box.

Doing it with RF means tuning both the Freeview output and a new input channel for the video to a channel that doesn't interfere with your analogue reception or the video rf output.

I think the point of SCART is that it doesn't require lots of tuning of the various boxes, so if I've confused you about tuning, try and work out the SCART connections.

I'm less up to speed on SCART myself, but if the TV had a socket you could plug the video into it and be able to select AV or maybe 0. If it has none, or you don't want to confuse yourself by changing everything, then use the aerial connection you already use.

Likewise for the video - a SCART lead from Freeview to the video input socket, and this would be selected on the video by pressing AV or 0 as a channel.

Or the TV or video may have more SCART sockets, and AV1 and AV2 selectable.

I hope this is something to start with.

angela110660

Thank you all. Sorry for not responding before but been too busy to come online. I am going to have a go at all the above suggestions before I come back here again as I may have some luck. The Freeview box has twin scart sockets and so does the video/dvd recorder but the problem has been that although the video shows it is recording a channel, I cannot find the playback. Can see me recording loads and us all sitting down to watch it and looking at a blank screen unless I can resolve this.
Will go and have another go at it now.

angela110660

Just wanted to say (belatedly I know) thank you so much to Redux for the info regarding the Freeview connecting to my tv and video/dvd.
I used the scarts to connect and it all worked perfectly and I have recorded and watched several things now for the family.

redux

Oh good - now I'll have to get you to teach me!

ginger_nuts

I need help I have TV ,video ,Freeview ,and now DVD recorder .My situation is made worse by having 2 aerials . Digital aerial connected to freeview ,scart from freevier to TV .
Analoge aerial to video , RF from video to TV . How do I connect a DVD recorder to this set up .My tv has 2 scarts,DVD 2 scarts Freeview 2 scarts . video 1 scart.I can swop from digital to analoge via TV remote but I do need both aerials .

marksimpson

ginger_nuts wrote:

I need help I have TV ,video ,Freeview ,and now DVD recorder .My situation is made worse by having 2 aerials . Digital aerial connected to freeview ,scart from freevier to TV .
Analoge aerial to video , RF from video to TV . How do I connect a DVD recorder to this set up .My tv has 2 scarts,DVD 2 scarts Freeview 2 scarts . video 1 scart.I can swop from digital to analoge via TV remote but I do need both aerials .

Why do you need both aerials? You will be receiving analogue channels on the "digital" aerial as well.

Incidentally, there is no such thing as a digital aerial. A piece of bent wire cannot be digital. What you have is a wideband, high gain aerial, more suitable for receiving digital signals. As a result of being a high gain aerial it will also give you better analogue reception.

RF should go from the high gain aerial to the Freeview box, then to the VCR, then to the TV.

SCART: There are a number of possibilities to try, but I recommend VCR into DVDR, DVDR to Freeview, Freeview into TV AV1. Then connect the remaining VCR SCART to the TV AV2. This should allow you to record from both Freeview and VCR onto DVDR, and also allow you to watch a video while recording from Freeview onto DVDR.

Make sure your Freeview box is set to output RGB not composite, you'll get a better picture. And if you have a widescreen TV, make sure the freeview box is set to 16:9 - it's amazing the number of people who have widescreen equipment and who have never seen a widescreen picture.

ginger_nuts

marksimpson wrote:

Why do you need both aerials? You will be receiving analogue channels on the "digital" aerial as well.

Incidentally, there is no such thing as a digital aerial. A piece of bent wire cannot be digital. What you have is a wideband, high gain aerial, more suitable for receiving digital signals. As a result of being a high gain aerial it will also give you better analogue reception.

RF should go from the high gain aerial to the Freeview box, then to the VCR, then to the TV.

SCART: There are a number of possibilities to try, but I recommend VCR into DVDR, DVDR to Freeview, Freeview into TV AV1. Then connect the remaining VCR SCART to the TV AV2. This should allow you to record from both Freeview and VCR onto DVDR, and also allow you to watch a video while recording from Freeview onto DVDR.

Make sure your Freeview box is set to output RGB not composite, you'll get a better picture. And if you have a widescreen TV, make sure the freeview box is set to 16:9 - it's amazing the number of people who have widescreen equipment and who have never seen a widescreen picture.

I need two aerials to get Irish tele RTE 1,2 TV3 ,TG4 .Most people can connect both together outside .I cant connect both together outside because off trees

marksimpson

Ah ok. In that case connecting them together downstairs is a bad idea as it could cause a reduction in the signal level from Divis. I hadn't included an RF connection to the DVDR in the set up above, so I'll try that.

RF1 - Divis
RF2 - Claremont Carn

RF1 goes into Freeview box. If you want to combine the feeds do it at this point, so that RF2 is not going into the Freeview box. Then take the combined feed and feed it into the VCR, then into the DVDR. From there, feed to TV.

RF1 goes into Freeview box.