I have entered the murky world of digital TV, at least SWMBO is looking at a new telly so I thought I'd better get some opinions on this sort of thing!
I am not sure what the pros and cons are for aerial vs satellite. A colleague has offered me a dish and says I will need to buy a digibox to go with it. Should I be heading down this route at all? Is there a better free to air offering using digital aerial and free view box?
I am reluctant to embark on both aerial and satellite routes.
Also I currently have two co-ax cables going down to my TV point. My intention was to fit a digital aerial and connect to a splitter in the loft and distribute to 4/5 rooms. If I put a free view box in the lounge, can I take the output from this back to the loft and re-distribute to other rooms? If so how's it connected? Do these splitters (located in the loft) have auxiliary inputs? Can I introduce CCTV in at the splitter also at a later date? Finally, which manufacturer for decent kit - aerial, splitter, freeview box?
Too many questions I know, but that's the story of my life right now! Too many jobs and no where near enough time, or knowledge, to tackle them.
Thanks in anticipation if anyone's even got this far, let alone considered responding
It all depends.. on what you want from television.
If you are happy with what you get now than the easiest thing is to get a 'Freeview' set top box. This will give the channels you are used to, plus some new extra ones.
FreeView: If you get a good picture on your existing set then you probably won't need a new aerial, saving a lot of hassle. A 'digital' aerial isn't any different to an analaogue one, unless you live in a difficult reception area or one or two specific locations where a wideband aerial is needed.
To distribute the signal using your spare aerial cable you will need a set top box that includes a modulator or feed the aerial 'out' of the set top box into a video and distribute the aerial signal from that. See this list:
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could distribute using a video sender unit. (Don't know about quality)
Satellite: To many people satellite means $ky. And $ky is all about subscriptions, encryption and viewing cards. You can get a much greater selection of programmes but these will cost extra on top of the basic subscription.
There is a great deal more to satellite television than $ky which is just one proprietory brand using an encryption system that can only be decoded using one of their boxes.
You don't say but I assume you are being offered a $ky dish. However you will have to fix it up and align it with the satellite, possibly d-i-y, but other wise will cost around 100 pounds. You will also have to get a $ky box and unless all you want to get is BBC you will need a viewing card from $ky.
Consider the present $ky offer of free kit (dish and box) including free installation, and the offer of a dish doesn't look very attractive.
If you go for the $ky system you will also be able to get the regular channels you are used to, BBC and ITV etc via satellite. There is an 'issue' that BBC are 'Free to Air' (not encrypted) -no card required, but ITV, CH4, are 'Free to View' (encrypted by $ky) requiring a viewing card.
The $ky box is one viewing card only and you won't be able to distribute it to other rooms unless you also buy the extra box subscription - AIUI about
20 pounds a year for a second box.
It is also possible to buy satellite receiver kit that is nothing to do with $ky and doesn't require any subscription. There are over fifty satellites providing hundreds of channels, many of which are national stations offering premier programmes, but often in foriegn languages, Free to Air. It's not possible to use the $ky equipment to receive any of these.
All the above is just my opinion so don't take my word for it. I stand to be corrected.
Whether you go for Satellite or settle for Freeview depends on the type and quantity of TV you intend to watch. Sky offers more channels plus premium film and sports channels etc - but the subscription options can become expensive. If you don't watch TV often, then you may wonder if it is worth it - we eventually cancelled the subscription because it worked out cheaper to just have freeview and buy DVDs of favourite movies and series. If you go for sky, then they usually have a free box and installation if you sign-up for more than the basic package for 12 months - check their web site. If you go for Freeview - then check your postcode on the freeview website to ensure you can get a good reception first (good analogue reception does not guarantee good digital reception) Look for a freeview box that also has RF output socket to allow you to distribute the signal (some cheaper ones don't) For choosing a box, check the technical forums and user reviews here
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you have 2 coax downleads from the loft, you can get a distribution amp called a "Loftbox" or similar eg
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add CCTV, you would require a modulator to convert the CCTV video signal to RF before plugging into the loftbox.
If you want to distribute the signal, bear in mind that (on all the boxes I know of) only the channel being viewed on the box will be distributed. To have a full feed of all the channels would require a STB per television (at which point Sky looks less attractive, and Freeview more so).
Have you had a look at the latest offer from Sky i.e. Freesat from Sky giving over 120 TV and 80 radio stations. For £150 you get a set top box, dish and installation. It's not too clear what happens after 5 years. But you can update to pay stations at anytime.
On Thu, 2 Dec 2004 21:54:33 -0000, "JM" strung together this:
Although bear in mind that most\all\some freeview boxes only have RF loopthrough, they don't send the digital signal being viewed through the house. For that you would need to modulate the composite scart output.
I understand this bit about the set top box only delivering one channel at a time. So, can I have an option in the lounge (where the box is located) to either: view the box output or have the TV connected direct to the aerial feed to the box and re-route the box output into the loft for distribution to another TV in the house?
Have you checked out what is on digit telly these days?? Most of it is crap. I have recently cancelled my Sky script and went cold turkey with just the basic free chaneels,now i dont miss any of it. It becomes a habit you see. They just repeat the same junk over and over. Unless you are an avid sports fan and want it for that especially then I can only advise not bothering,,,only my opinion..
Fit dish and sat cable to lounge. Scart to main TV for good picture. RF loop through or scart (better) to VCR for recording. Sky costs GBP
20 pm without movies and GBP 34 pm with (roughly).
An alternative is to pipe just sky up to the loft space then use a splitter as a joiner (they work both ways). Note that splitters loose about 4.5dB of signal for good ones (ferrite transformer in them) or
6dB for resistor (cheap) ones. You need to be in a good signal area and or have a good aerial for splitting to give an acceptable picture still.
Sky+ is another option when you can hard disk record programs. And you can watch on sky channel while recording another which basic sky can't do. However, in order to be able to program a recording you need to have the EPG which costs! Or you can be on the movie package and get EPG for free. Cost is (or is about) the same. So Sky+ means
34pm else it is useless.
Freeview:
May need to fit better aerial, depending on signal strength, as some digital channels are lower power than others and digital drop outs are more annoying than an analogue grainy picture. Using sat cable for the down feed is also a good idea as the it feeds the digital signal with less loss.
Freeview is free, unless you go for the pay channels. If so, you'll need a freeview box that can take a card. Twin freeview decoders are available and Twins with hard disk. Not many at the moment the number is growing. With these you can watch one while recording another or record 2 while watch a recorded. Time slipping is also possible like Sky+.
DVD:
The likes of Blockbuster et. al. now do monthly DVD subscription. Cost is 14 pm which surprisingly (:-) not) is the same as the extra Sky subs to get the movie channel. On these schemes you get 3 DVDs. Watch 1, post it back, they post the next, and so on. With the postage time I guess you could watch 3 DVDs per week. Postage is free BTW.
IMO these DVD subs schemes are ace. You choose when you start it and you can pause it, so like Sky+, but, you get to choose from a huge range including the very latest DVDs, UNLIKE Sky who charge extra for the latest movies. Why anyone would want sky movies I don't know. When I cancelled my Sky the guy admitted to me was on a DVD sub scheme too.
If you have the kit or can obtain it and DIY you just need to spend =A320 on a card. I think I might be looking around Loot shops etc...
Read the T&Cs page from the "What is Freesat" page you linked too. B-)
If you pay =A3150 you get free cards as and when required for 5 years, if you pay =A320 its a free replacement cards for 3 years.
"If we replace Viewing Cards after that period, you will need to purchase a new one by paying our then applicable charge (which shall not be more than =A320)."
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