Advice on getting new tv & connection set up needs please

bluedog

I am looking into getting a new tv, dvd player and preferably a system to record programmes, but appears it is not as straightforward as I thought, due to my present, "ancient" connections and would appreciate some help and advice please.

I've decided to stay with freesat due to the number of channels available, but have seen that there is an on-going monthly cost to be able to record programmes, which I cannot afford.

I currently have an old crt tv, a satellite dish with a single cable and get freesat from sky following cancelling my subscription with them. The sky box is old - a white Thomson one with just basic functions to receive it through and they gave me a different viewing card for it when I changed over. I do have a faulty roof aerial, presumably analogue, but opted for sky originally due to poor reception in my area. (This was pre-digitalisation, hence guess this should have generally improved now IF I had a new aerial and went with freeview instead?)

I have been shopping around both on and offline and confused myself silly with how to proceed!

I can have a tv up to 28", which according to the sales chap and availability instore, is not very popular and limiting on what goes with it and functions available on it. Having the option to use internet services would be nice, but until broadband in my area is upgraded, it wouldn't work very well. It would be nice to be able to connect to my pc (something else I am looking to buy soon.) but not essential at present.

It seems that to enable recording programmes and/or use catch up tv with freesat, I need to get a freesat tuner with this function. (I understand there are a few less channels available if using one of these as opposed to sky freesat - this is not a problem.) I looked up the model I was recommended and sounds great .. but won't work unless I upgrade the satellite dish cable from single to twin.

And now I'm stuck on the best way to proceed. I'm not tech-savvy with all the options on tv's nowadays and unfamiliar with functions of tv tuners which doesn't help. Can anyone recommend where I can find concise information about the jargon, functions etc please - I'm keen to learn!

Do I need a tv specifically for freesat - I've noticed most are listed as having freeview tuners - would this be a problem?

Given what I'm aiming to achieve, what are the functions I need to look for on both tv and freesat boxes?

Can the tuners play and record to disc or would I need a seperate dvd player/recorder for this. (I'd like to watch home videos on tv too).

The biggy is how to change the satelite dish cable for all this to work in the first place! Is there anything on the market that can do this easily or do I need to get someone in to do it? I've seen some companies will do the installation (ie PC/Curry's) at an additional cost but am confused from the literature as to whether they'll do just this bit.

If anyone can help with any of this please, I'll be highly grateful.

googler

bluedog wrote: »

I can have a tv up to 28"

Why are you limited to 28" TVs?

And now I'm stuck on the best way to proceed. I'm not tech-savvy with all the options on tv's nowadays and unfamiliar with functions of tv tuners which doesn't help.

Do I need a tv specifically for freesat - I've noticed most are listed as having freeview tuners - would this be a problem?

Unless you buy a TV with an inbuilt satellite receiver, the tuner features won't matter, as you won't have it connected to an aerial, and won't get a signal.


Can the tuners play and record to disc or would I need a seperate dvd player/recorder for this. (I'd like to watch home videos on tv too).

By home videos, do you mean VHS tapes?

bluedog

The size limitation is due to the room size and shape - there simply isn't enough space for anything larger even if it was on a wall.

Sorry about the confusion about videos! I should have explained that better. I meant videos I've filmed from my camera and camcorder at home and burnt to dvd discs on my pc.

almillar

You need to measure the gap - don't just assume 28". If you're saying 28" because that's the size of your CRT, you can definitely go bigger. Give us the width and we can help out.
You've got FreesatFromSky at the mo, and as you say, it'll cost you £10 per month to be allowed to record.
You need to contact a local satellite/aerial installer and get them to put another feed in from the dish to your living room. Depends on your house, but get a few quotes. Under £100 I would hope!
If you want to record stuff you need a PVR, don't worry about the TV having FreeSat built in. If you can stretch to it buy a Humax <freetime> recorder. This has all the nice catch up features integrated into the guide, just like Youview does for aerial users. If you can't stretch to that, the Humax Foxsat HDR is an excellent device and does have catch up stuff, just not as nicely integrated.
That leaves the TV. You're just looking for a full HD TV within budget basically.
What home videos do you want to watch? Are we talking about a VHS player and DVD player? Both of these can plug into your new TV.

bluedog

Hi again and thanks very much for all the help given here. It is enormously helpful and made far more sense to me than the staff member in the store.
Life's a funny ol' game and I've got to shelve plan's for a new tv & set up for the time being as the funds will now be going into getting a new pc instead .... I've had so many issues with it (hence not replying sooner ) and reached the conclusion that the money being spent on repairs, replacing bits and pieces/upgrading it would be far wiser used in a complete new system. Its about 8 years old and I've had my money's worth from it so can't complain.

Going back to the new tv, I did some research as advised on quotes and was surprised at how wide they were - between £50 -£ 145 for the same work.

The wall space that the tv lives in measures 31" wide which is why I am restricted on size. I currently have a 26" and with the surround, its a close fit.

Sorry about confusing you with my terminology - age showing alongside being so far behind with technological advancement I guess, lol! Photography is one of my hobbies, alongside taking home videos using my camera. I burn these to disc (onto cd's and dvd's) using the pc and would like to be able to view them on the tv if possible. My current dvd player doesn't do this and wondered if there was something that would?

My aim now is to get a new tv after christmas. As I said, your help has been enormous and I've really appreciated it. Thank you very much.

almillar

I just picked a random 32 inch TV from Currys there - it's 29 inches wide. You'll find that the surrounds around them have got much smaller, so I'd be looking at a 32 inch TV. It's bigger, and being a more common size, better value.
Many TVs will allow you to view photos from a USB stick or even memory card. You want to check how good this functionality is before buying (can be slow or awkward), but that's the cheapest way.