Page 1 of a newbie, would like some definitive details on connecting up stuff to his TV ?????

Hi, i dont easily understand TV manuals, so when it comes to connecting up more than one item to the TV i start to struggle to get them all to work as they should, are there by any chance some definitive details on how to connect more than one item up to a tv ?
I currently have a SKY box and Sky dish, but due to money constraints i have cancelled my subscription to Sky and will then be recieving Free Sat through my Sky Dish and set top box.
Also, currently i have a DVD player and a VHS recorder which is connected to my loft aerial and records the 4 analogue channels sufficiently so the misus never misses Corrie while watching something else on Sky at the same time !. If she is happy, so am I, LOL.

So now a friend is GIVING me a DVD recorder with a Freeview reciever built in !, and i havent got a clue how to introduce it into my present set up. What i probably will do (in fact i think i will have to do this) is to REMOVE the VHS recorder completly and put the Freeview DVD recorder in its place, although i do know i shall have to get a better Aerial for my Loft.

In fact talking of Aerials, some people tell me,  to recieve FREEVIEW you have to have a DIGITAL aerial, but i was under the impression that a FREEVIEW box converted the Analogue signal into a DIGITAL signal.

Can anyone please shed some light on my little problem ?. thanks

tim

Ooh, lots of questions. Ok, let`s start with Freeview - it`s not that you need a digital aerial - you are right in thinking that it picks up the signal through the same aerial as standard analogue TV - but it needs a stronger reception to work at all well, so many people have to upgrade their aerial to a better one (called "High Gain") to get decent digital reception. If you look at roof tops, if people have a small aerial with a small bit sticking up at the end, that`s the old type of aerial, that really is only good for analogue reception. If anyone has a much larger aerial with a large piece at the end, that`s the new high gain type and they probably have Freeview.


Old style aerial


Typical High Gain aerial

However, until you try a Freeview box, you will not know how good your reception is anyway, so it`s possible you won`t need a better aerial - try it first!

So you have told us what you have under the TV, but you haven`t told us about the TV at all. Is it CRT, LCD, Plasma? What connections does it have to plug things into? Most old CRT TV`s have one to three SCART inputs, plus possibly a composite input (red/yellow/white phonos, often on front or side of TV)

Give us this info, and I should be able to tell you how best to connect it all up. :)

This item was edited on Tuesday, 23rd March 2010, 12:15

Sue, he said he`ll use the SKY dish and box for freeview. ;)
To the OP, you will need to buy a £20 freeview card for the SKY box.
If you don`t, you won`t get the correct channels.

This item was edited on Tuesday, 23rd March 2010, 12:25

Pretty sure he is saying he`ll be using an ariel, bowfer. ;)

Basically your DVD recorder should have two SCART sockets, and so should your Sky box. I forget exactly which cables go where, but we had a similar setup here which worked fine.

You plug a scart cable from your main Sky box to the TV (on ours it was labelled TV scart on the actual sky box), and you plug another scart from the Sky box to your DVD recorder (that was labelled VHS scart on ours).

That way if you turn on the DVD recorder, the sky should let it pass through straight to your TV, and when you turn it off you should get Sky to the TV instead. At the same time you should be able to record from Sky to your DVD recorder the other way.


Editor
DVD REVIEWER
MYREVIEWER.COM

"The Green Belt policy is a Labour Policy, and we intend to Build on it"
John Prescott

Quote:
Pretty sure he is saying he`ll be using an ariel, bowfer.

Well I read this:

Quote:
and will then be recieving Free Sat through my Sky Dish and set top box.

Which means he does NOT need a freeview aerial.
He will get freeview through the SKY dish and box.
That`s what my mother does.
The previous occupants left the SKY dish, I bought her a SKY box and SKY freeview card.
Hey presto, no need for freeview aerials.

This item was edited on Tuesday, 23rd March 2010, 12:52

Quote:
So now a friend is GIVING me a DVD recorder with a Freeview reciever built in

Quote:
talking of Aerials, some people tell me, to recieve FREEVIEW you have to have a DIGITAL aerial, but i was under the impression that a FREEVIEW box converted the Analogue signal into a DIGITAL signal.

This is why I started talking about the aerial, Bowf. ;)

This item was edited on Tuesday, 23rd March 2010, 12:54

If the OP is using his SKY dish and box to get freeview (which is the correct thing to do) then the fact the DVD recorder has freeview built-in becomes irrelevant.
It just becomes a recorder, the freeview part should be ignored.

Basically, as I see it.

Scart from SKY box to DVD recorder.
Scart from DVD recorder to TV.

(Insert any different pieces of equipment into th equation as you please)

This item was edited on Tuesday, 23rd March 2010, 12:59

It`s probably better to have Freeview and Freesat, since there are channels on each that aren`t on the other.


Editor
DVD REVIEWER
MYREVIEWER.COM

"The Green Belt policy is a Labour Policy, and we intend to Build on it"
John Prescott

Quote:
It`s probably better to have Freeview and Freesat, since there are channels on each that aren`t on the other.

Fair comment.
What a palavour that would be to connect up though. :/
Thank god I get everything through my SKY HD box and 1 x HDMI lead! :D

This item was edited on Tuesday, 23rd March 2010, 13:25

You don`t just need a high gain aerial, you may need a wideband aerial.. In fact in some areas just a low gain wide band aerial would do. However if I get a new aerial, I always get a wideband high gain aerial. But as Sue says, you migt get all the Freeview channels on your old aerial. :)

You don`t need a $ky freesat card to get the correct channels. Without a card all you will miss is Ch 4/5 & I think $ky 3. However 99% of the channels will be the same. Anyhow as the OP was a Sky subscriber, the card will revert to a freesat from $ky card, so no money need be paid out & no loss of freesat channels at all.

As pointed out by RJS you need both Freesat & Freeview to get the maximum channels from both systems.

Provided your wife has watched all the VHS tapes, just disconnect the VHS recorder & put the DVD recorder in it`s place. Otherwise record all the VHS tapes to DVD discs & put the VHS recorder in the atticc, it can help prop up the aerial. ;)

OP. What TV do you have, & what connections does it have on it? What make of DVD recorder do you have?

This item was edited on Wednesday, 24th March 2010, 08:30