V!rg!n: when is digital TV not digital?

BitterAndTwisted

I'm currently on a reduced package due to cash-flow problems, so kept my broadband service (Size S at £18.95 a month) and the phone line-rental (£13.90) and got to keep my set-top box in order to retain Freeview which was offered as a package with the phone.

This set-top box was originally supplied when I subscribed to Telewest and has been hooked up to my old warhorse of a telly ever since.

Yesterday my sainted sister gave me her spare flat-screen telly but when I hooked it up to the set-top box via the cable supplied the TV was saying it had no signal.

Spoke to the tech support bloke in India and when I explained what I'd done and what I'd tried to get the thing working he put me through to someone else in sales.

They are telling me that the set-top box needs to be replaced to receive HDTV and the princely sum for installation is £50 and will also cost me another tenner a month as well. Naturally on yet another fixed-term contract which I don't necessarily want because my landlord is going to supply Freesat in the next few months or so, exact date not yet confirmed.

I realise that I'm not technically competent but it seems to me that if the signal coming down the wire into my house is digital why isn't the signal going into the telly digital as well?

I don't relish having to wait to use this nice shiny new telly but I have a feeling that I might have to.

Any comments?

visidigi

how had you connected it up to the TV? If the box is old, presumably SCART? You should still be able to get all the non HD channels (the box itself won't support HD, only the Cisco VHD, SA/Samsung V+ and Tivo boxes support HD Signals).

JimmyTheWig

There's a difference between digital and HD.

Your box will be digital (which should be fine). Sounds like TV is HD.
But you should be able to use the TV with existing box as non-HD, I would have thought?

(Still only having a CRT ourselves, I can't guarantee an HD TV will work with non-HD equipment, but I would have thought so.)

The guy on the phone is trying to sell you HD equipment. I don't believe that you need this to watch regular stuff on TV.

visidigi

HD TV will still do standard definition.

You wont be able to get a signal on any HD channels, but via SCART or component should still display a signal.

custardy

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

I'm currently on a reduced package due to cash-flow problems, so kept my broadband service (Size S at £18.95 a month) and the phone line-rental (£13.90) and got to keep my set-top box in order to retain Freeview which was offered as a package with the phone.

This set-top box was originally supplied when I subscribed to Telewest and has been hooked up to my old warhorse of a telly ever since.

Yesterday my sainted sister gave me her spare flat-screen telly but when I hooked it up to the set-top box via the cable supplied the TV was saying it had no signal.

Spoke to the tech support bloke in India and when I explained what I'd done and what I'd tried to get the thing working he put me through to someone else in sales.

They are telling me that the set-top box needs to be replaced to receive HDTV and the princely sum for installation is £50 and will also cost me another tenner a month as well. Naturally on yet another fixed-term contract which I don't necessarily want because my landlord is going to supply Freesat in the next few months or so, exact date not yet confirmed.

I realise that I'm not technically competent but it seems to me that if the signal coming down the wire into my house is digital why isn't the signal going into the telly digital as well?

I don't relish having to wait to use this nice shiny new telly but I have a feeling that I might have to.

Any comments?

you seem confused
The HD component doesnt matter a jot to your set up
most likely the issue is you


so you have the VM box
are you connecting with scart as before,or hae you hooked up viaHDMI?

visidigi

custardy wrote: »

you seem confused
The HD component doesnt matter a jot to your set up
most likely the issue is you


so you have the VM box
are you connecting with scart as before,or hae you hooked up viaHDMI?

Its a telewest box...no HDMI present on them...

spike7451

The's no such thing as digital TV.The signal transmitted is digital,all the set top box (Sky/VM/ect) does is convert the digital signal back into analogue.
If,as you say,the's no HDMI on the Teleworst box,then the Indian C/S persons correct,you will need to have the box replaced in order to get HDTV.At the moment,you can only have an SD feed so will need to watch the TV on one of the AV channels.

almillar

This doesn't seem to have anything to do with Virgin or subscriptions - OP seems to have got a new TV and can't connect it to his current and quite old box.
What way was it connected to your old TV - SCART? This should connect the same way to the new one. On the new TV, you need to find out how to select an AV channel, and you'll be able to see the Telewest box's output.

custardy

visidigi wrote: »

Its a telewest box...no HDMI present on them...

given the OPs blamng of VM,I felt it best to check

BitterAndTwisted

Eh, I dunno whether the connector supplied for the old telly was scart or not. What might one of these look like? Is this the thing that converts digital info to analogue? I suspected all along that I was being sold HiDef capability when I don't necessarily want or can afford HDTV. I just want to watch telly so I'd be quite happy with standard def!

I used all of the input selections available and AV was one of them.

I'm not actually blaming anyone. Yet. Naturally it's my own lack of technical understanding that's preventing me from getting handle on what's going on here.

spike7451

This is a SCART lead;



It's the cable box itself that converts the digital back to analogue,connect the scart to AV1 on the TV & to TV OUT on the cable box.