What is a "RS232 port" on a freeview box?

HappySad

this weeks MSE email says about the £22 freeview box
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000BISKUS/?tag2=moneysavingex-21

So what is a "RS232 port"?

Also what does the below mean?
"IEC Female connector for terrestrial antenna connection
IEC Male connector for loop through output"

Lorian

A serial interface. It's probably included as a backup method of updating firmware. But as these updates are generally provided over the air, it's of no practicle use.

The loop through bit means you can connect a TV aerial cable (almost ALWAYS not supplied) from the receiver to the TV to allow the TV to continue to recieve analogue channels as well as the digital ones.

The TV aerial plugs into the female socket.

Lorian

I type faster

albertross_2

Yeah, but I can spell practical and receive.

HappySad

My TV does not have a scart socket.. so would this work with my TV????

Lorian

Touche.

I'm suprised they list an RS232 as a feature. Like the "90 Channels" LOL.

hang on a minute, it also says widescreen support, I guess that means "widescreen except on BBC sport".


It's a nice enough looking box, but it would be even nicer with a channel LED display.

HappySad wrote:

My TV does not have a scart socket.. so would this work with my TV????

Nope, not unless it has a video and sound in RCA/Phono then you could get a SCART to phono cable. This box has no UHF modulator. Most don't. If you need one, look for an old Phillips Ondigital box (ebay) they arn't so nice to look at, or fast to use, but it will work with a SCART-challenged TV.

<edited for several typos>

HappySad

Thanks Lorian

Just had a look at the back on my devices. My TV is non-scart but the video that plugs into has one scart socket... Would this mean that I can plug the freeview box into the video?????????

Lorian

HappySad wrote:

My TV is non-scart but the video that plugs into has one scart socket... Would this mean that I can plug the freeview box into the video?????????

What does it say by the socket - does it say "TV" or something else? If it just says TV you might be out of luck, it might be output only. If it does take an input you would need to turn the video on and use it's "input select" button to select freeview reciever. That should work but it's not so hot. It may select it automatically using the SCART-select pin.

HappySad

Oh NO!!! it says "TV"... No it is very unlikely to work..

Will borrow a freeview box and see if it works anyway before buying this amazon box.

Thanks

sra

When I first got a Goodman's GDB the software was absolutely terrible. The box would turn itself off randomly and had all sorts of glitches.

Over on the digitalspy.co.uk forums one of the software developers for Goodmans would post giving updates on when the software would be updated and what new features would be added. If you didn't want to wait months for the broadcast update, you could download it and install it through the RS232 from here.

Here's how the RS232 would be used. I used it many times trying to find the best software. Thankfully Freeview software has come a long way since then