DIGITAL TV - What do you know?

Loobeylou

Hi Jo_Bloggs - you are correct in your assumption that we also cannot get Channel 5!

We tend to get left behind in the race for technology, and a local band of people fought tooth and nail to have the valley become broadband enabled about three years ago!

mdean

I think the negativity to digital is a shame. Its a bit like 405 lines to 625 lines- that change happened with no subsidies from government.

If you can get a digital terrestrial signal you can get freeview for about £30 (£20 on ebay)- given how incredibly cheap tellys are these days that is nothing. If you want to watch more than one channel at a time - just buy extra boxes for each tv - or buy a cheap distribution system from Maplins, and some co axe and pipe the signal round your house. You may need a new arial - I did it cost £35 easy!

One you have digital quality pictures you will will really notice the difference.

If you cannot get freeview or you want more free channels a sky box and a dish is the answer. At the moment you need to buy a card to watch ITV C4 and C5 - one off payment - but all the BBC channels, and many others such as cnn are in the clear. Next year ITV will go clear so I would not bother buying a card but watch them on analogue. The dish is not big - only 45cm and a decent installer could hide it. A second hand box and independant install might cost £150 tops to get great pictures and lots of channels

Turn that annalogue off as soon as

Fran

Asda have Duraband digital boxes for £29.87

edna_clouds

Loobeylou wrote:

Hi Jo_Bloggs - you are correct in your assumption that we also cannot get Channel 5!

We tend to get left behind in the race for technology, and a local band of people fought tooth and nail to have the valley become broadband enabled about three years ago!

Same as you loobeylou.No digital signal (Exept sky) no channel five no broadband until recently and mobile phone reception is a bit dodgy.Mustn't GGGGGGGGGrrummble!

bigT_5

what nobody seems to mention is that with analogue you can watch and tape differant channels at the same time. As far as I can see to do it with freeview or sky you need to spend more money on more equipment.

Joe_Bloggs

@BigT
The reason you can do this is because both devices have built in tuners. The tuner sections will become even more obsolete when the analogue signal is no longer broadcast. In this situation you would have to use two set top boxes. One to feed a video recorder and one to feed the TV. I say box but some boxes are about the same size of the remote control they come with. I did see a DVD player with a built in digital tuner but not yet a video tape recorder.

Many of the top end set top boxes have either recording to hard disk or DVD disk. Some have twin digital tuners. One had twin tuners and could record and display two channels simultaneously. These top end devices cost a lot of money now. In time they will become more affordable.
See http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/freeviewreceivers.html
J_B.