Receiving Freeview and cable signal

Hi,

I have TV supplied via cable (Virgin Media) which provides the basic channels (BBC1&2, ITV and Channel4&5). A few years ago I went with Sky (now Sky+) but decided to keep the cable supply to feed TV's in the bedrooms.

My current setup is cable feed goes into the back of the Sky+ box. The RF output from the Sky+ box is sent up into the loft where it goes into an amplifier/distribution box which then sends it to 5 other rooms. This gives me the channels supplied via cable plus whatever channel is currently being decoded on the Sky+ box.

I have just purchased a new computer monitor which also has built in Freeview receiver which I would like to make use of. I have tried just connecting it to the RF feed, not really expecting it to work, and it didnt. I was expecting to be able to receive the Cable supplied channels and the Sky+ signal but that didnt work either. I am not sure why though.

I beleive that the Freeview signals are not sent via Cable and to receive these I will need an aerial but dont really want to have seperate feeds.

Does anyone have any idea why the Sky+ RF isnt being picked up and also how I could go about combining the output from an aerial with the existing RF feed that includes the Cable channels and Sky+ channel? I assume I cannot just feed it into the amplified/distribution box as the frequencies will clash?

TIA

Alan

Reply to
AlanC
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RF feeds from these STBs is analogue. The FreeView tuner is digital.

You need an aerial for the FreeView tuner to work - but it won't decode the RF output of a Sky etc box.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Interesting that you refer to the screen as a computer monitor with Freeview, rather than a television with computer input, which is usually the way they are marketed. It sounds as if it does not have an analogue tuner, which is a pity, because you won't be able to watch the RF output from your Sky box on it. If it has a SCART connector, or video and audio phono inputs, I could suggest an alternative method, but it would entail running at least two additional screened leads to the Sky box and frankly, might be too messy. I imagine the five analogue channels currently being carried by the VM cable will cease at the same time as the off-air analogue in your region which may be this year

Reply to
Graham.

you should be able to connect it to a loft aerial (maybe with a booster) then you have another source of TV!

Reply to
clumsy bastard

Thats how this model (Samsung T220HD) is marketed (as a monitor). They also do the T220, which is almost the same (higher contrast ratio and faster response time) which is just a monitor.

I wasnt too sure if it was a good idea to go with something that tried to both and possibly didnt do either very well, but so far I am happy with its performance as a monitor. The wide screen aspect takes a bit of getting used to.

I had thought about additional cables but the effort wouldnt be worth it.

I was wondering what VM will do. Will they send down the equivilent digital signal. Will they have to replace all of those set-top-boxes with ones that can take a digital signal?

Alan

Reply to
AlanC

Yes, that was my next move. I should be able to just disconnect the cable from the amplifier/splitter in the loft and connect it to an aerial (have to buy one first).

My other thought was, should I get another loft box which can accept multiple inputs and feed a loft aerial into this. The thing I am not sure about is how it would work with the existing cable feed with the Sky channel added to it.

Alan

Reply to
AlanC

I was wondering what VM will do. Will they send down the equivilent digital signal. Will they have to replace all of those set-top-boxes with ones that can take a digital signal?

Alan

Snipped

surely VM supply a digital signal.

Reply to
John

So far as I know, they (Virgin Media/NTL) replaced them several years ago.

Reply to
Rod

All of my current TV's are non-digital and they are connected to the cable and receive the standard channels. Maybe they also send a digital signal but I would have thought that my new TV with its digital (Freeview) receiver would have picked them up.

Reply to
AlanC

All of my current TV's are non-digital and they are connected to the cable and receive the standard channels. Maybe they also send a digital signal but I would have thought that my new TV with its digital (Freeview) receiver would have picked them up.

Any TV with a SCART will receive a digital signal from Cable or any other source. It is fed in through the SCART as a Red., Green & Blue plus audio. Virgin is Digital.

By using the term "non-digital TV " you are likely to get conned into buying a new one.

Reply to
John

All of my current TV's are non-digital and they are connected to the cable and receive the standard channels. Maybe they also send a digital signal but I would have thought that my new TV with its digital (Freeview) receiver would have picked them up.

It will be interesting to see if digital TVs continue to be sold with analogue tuners. As you have found out analogue will still be useful for distributing RF from set top boxes, CCTV etc.

Reply to
Graham.

It's the STB which is digital. SCART connections are analogue.

The RF signal - via your aerial cable - could carry an analogue signal or a digital one. Different tuners are required to decode these.

The RF output from things like even digital STBs is always analogue - and is simply a hangover from early days when TVs didn't have line inputs for safety reasons.

I suppose it is possible to have a 'digital' RF output - but I don't know of anything that has it.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I would keep it as simple and independent as possible because a) I'm out of my depth b) fault finding will be easier and you have more redundancy.

Reply to
clumsy bastard

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