TV Help

Elle7

Hey

I'm wondering if there is a way to watch TV without an aerial port thingy?

My accommodation guide mentions buying a tv license if I plan to watch live TV, so I bought a TV, and completely forgot to look for an aerial thingy. Now I can't find one, so I'm wondering if there is an alternative?

The TV has freeview HD installed, if that's relevant.

Any help appreciated, I'm really lost

E x

jennimoo

You will probably need your own little mini aerial I should think, something like this:
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/9004272.htm?CMPID=GS001&_$ja=tsid:11527%7Ccc:%7Cprd:9004272%7Ccat:home+entertainment+and+sat+nav+%2F+television+aerials+and+boosters+%2F

That's not a recommendation, just one example of the type of thing.

NeilF3485

As above, if there is no main aerial connection then you'll need to get your own aerial. Quality will potentially be pretty poor though.

Failing that, you could stream the TV online (iplayer, ITV player etc.) with a laptop and then use the TV as a monitor (assuming that your laptop has an HDMI out, or that your TV has a VGA port).

Akenaton

The first point to be aware of is that if you bought the tv new from a shop or online then your name & address will most likely be passed to the TV Licensing Authority, who may make checks.

Now i'm not too sure what your question is, but to receive 'Live' tv, these are the two main routes.

You would need either to go via the Satellite route OR the Terrestial Analogue TV/Freeview route.


For satellite viewing you would need a dish installed with cable to a Digibox (or set-top box)
The digibox would normally then be connected by a SCART or HDMI lead to your tv.
(Viewing by Satellite can be either subscription based, or via 'Free-to-view' which gives access to all the main channels plus quite a few more.)



For terrestial viewing (through an aerial) the old Analogue basic TV channels may still be available if 'Digital Switchover' date has not yet happened in your area, along with some Freeview channels.

If Digital switchover has already happened, then only digital Freeview channels will be available.

If you intend to take this route, then knowing what is available in your area is necessary to set up the tv.
Such as, are the old analogue channels still available, or just digital?
and a roughly predicted signal strength for your area would be useful.
That would give an idea of the type of aerial you would need.

I could give you detailed info of the above but i would need a rough location or part postcode to be able to do that.

Your tv has inbuilt tuners for the old analogue channels and also the digital Freeview channels, so all it needs is an aerial to make it work, but to receive satellite tv it would need a separate digibox connected to a satellite dish aligned to the Sky Astra satellites.



If you don't intend to watch live tv, just Online replays of certain progs then that can be done by connecting your laptop to tv via a HDMI lead and browsing to the Program download sites.
(You could use a VGA lead to connect to tv but it only carries video, no sound, so another lead would be required for that. HDMI is better as it carries both video and sound)


Have a careful read through, it doesn't provide all the answers, but should hopefully help you decide which route you want to take.