New TV Moderately OT:-)

[T i m]

<snip>

Hmm, that must be a less than ancient Toppy then (our TF5800's don't have HDMI)?

<snip>

I meant more why a 'Freesat TV' rather than 'a TV' with Freesat box. ;-)

Ah. What do the locals do to get a better signal can you see? Tall masts?

Ok. ;-)

Sure. As long as it can 'see' in the right direction the rest should be easy. Even without an external signal strength meter, if you can rig it temporarily to be able to see the TV (through a bedroom window, video link between smartphones ...) you can gently position the dish (Up/down, E-W, LNB skew) using the picture and often the STB built-in signal_strength_indicator to get it just right (tuning for the peak between the nulls etc).

Hehe, np, when you are ready, in one (if the weather is good) or separately. ;-)

Ok.

Will that cable run be external as I think I remember the internal access was very restricted?

Cheers, T i m

p.s. I've found the remote for the DVD player ...

[Bob Eager]

And, even earlier, TV tubes had a circular face (with only a rectangular area being used). So the dimension was the diameter, the same as the diagonal.

[williamwright]

Charles I never thought I'd see you resort to " 'cos "!

Bill

[Andy Burns]

No, many TVs npw take terrestrial tv on belling-lee or s\tellite on F connector and have both tuners included.

Sky (with their Q system) have now swapped to wideband LNBs that aren't compatible with TVs expecting a universal LNB, you can get a combined LNB, but they don't fit that as standard, so effectively they're locking customers in.

[Steve Walker]

Some Linux satellite boxes (mine included) can also make full use of wideband LNBs. I don't know if any standard Freeview ones can.

SteveW

[Andy Burns]

I realised it's not actually a Sky proprietary technology, but last time I looked it only seemed like large head-end systems were using it, not domestic kit, suppose it's "the future"

[John Rumm]

Pretty much anything can be wall mounted - but they usually require bracketry not supplied with the set.

To a limited extent that is possible sometimes, however you may find it a bit limiting.

Most will have a decent searchable EPG these days.

Many will have dual DVB-T2 and DVB-S2 tuners as standard, ans so can be fed directly from a normal LNB equipped dish as well as a a terrestrial aerial and also receive HD content.

Note also with smart capabilities and an internet connection much additional content becomes available via the various catchup services.

If its a 5800 like mine, then it only has a scart output and SCART inputs on modern TVs are rare now.

That is not a show stopper, since for example my LG OLED TV does have component and RGB inputs and hence can be driven from as SCART capable device with the right cable. You can also get various active adaptor boxes that can scale scart to HDMI etc.

However there are better ways to do the things that Toppy did these days, and do them in HD as well.

(I use a network connected HD tuner (Silicon Dust HD HomeConnect), and use Plex to record from that to my network storage. Any TV / Computer / Whatever can playback from that)

[PeterC]

Best I've seen is the Manhattan Freeview box that can handle 2 channels from a single feed. I don't know if Full Band Capture is possible on DTTV.

[charles]

saves typing

[Tim Lamb]

You are seriously suggesting I could benefit from dual TV trivia for the cost of one?

>

[alan_m]

and not necessarily the viewable diagonal. It could include the bit of the tube hidden behind the front bezel.

[alan_m]

Freesat is the Electronic Programme Guide. While a TV may have an undocumented satellite input and you can get Free to Air satelitte programmes (the Freesat range for instance) it may only support now and next for the programme information rather than the full 7 day EPG.

[Tim Lamb]

In message [e-mail], T i m [e-mail]> writes

This is a TF5810

Oh. Probably 18" or so of stack space available.

They accept Anglia TV, have taller houses or live further up: out of the valley.

One stud/brick wall and the two outside walls otherwise ample crawl space.

I have plenty of coax but I don't remember extra screening.

Ah!. Currently Angela's unit has been moved to the lounge. More for GCs than the rest of us.

[Tim Lamb]

OK John. Thanks. The 5810 Toppy does have hdmi but I take your point about Internet capability.

I suspect the problem will be finding a manufacturer putting all these features into a relatively small TV when the bulk market must be grand scale units:-(

[The Natural Philosopher]

No it isn't.

????

>

[Tim Lamb]

Well above my head, Peter:-)

With a normal Freeview satellite box, am I restricted to single channel viewing? I have got used to being able to record 2 channels while watching a 3rd.

[Tim+]

Indeed. We are long past the days since 32? was regarded as large and now TVs of that size are more expensive (and harder to find) than larger better equipped ones.

Tim

[John Rumm]

In the end I retired toppy since it could not record HD, and it was also fiddly to get recordings off it and onto the network so they could be watched from any tv etc. (I had previously connected it to the ethernet via a hacked Linksys NAS device - but that was still fairly austere - you could then FTP programs from it at about 2x real time playback speed).

LG still do some "small" (i.e. 32" sets!)

I got a LG 32LM6300PLA[1] for family last year. It has pretty much all the basics you mention including both Freeview and freesat tuners. It has composite and component in on phonos, so could be mated with a scart output.

[1] picked up at Currys since I needed it in a hurry.

[John Rumm]

You can get PVR boxes from the likes of Panasonic Humax that will more toppy like recording with HD. The freeview versions are fairly cheep, although the freesat ones seem more expensive.

(If you try do it with the recoding capabilities you get built in with modern TVs, then they are relatively limiting since they normally only have one tuner. Most seem incapable of even recording other channels in the same mux as you are watching. To add insult to injury they often encrypt the recording such that it can only be played back on the TV that made it. So beyond "pausing live tv" or grabbing a recording while you are out, they will feel very poor compared to what you can do with toppy).

[Dave Plowman (News)]

To the TV? ;-)