All posts by MikeB
Below are all of MikeB's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Norrie - I hate to disagree with Dave, but thats exactly how I have my system set up, and frankly, it makes life a lot easier.
My Sony recorder has never taken well to being passed through to my freeview box/CRT TV, and a decent spliiter (my original was free from the ariel guy, but £5.99 from Maplin should be fine, the same is even less online) and a second ariel lead is all you should need, and set them up as you suggested - simply put the splitter into the wall and attach the two leads to the TV and the recorder.
In fact one of the Samsung reps made up one for me from F connectors (he was a former TV engineer and said that F connectors are far better than normal leads anyway), and it works very well. The power of the Freeview signal went up tenfold following switchover, and splitting makes no difference to the quality of my signal, but does help in solving any reception issues, because you can isolate a possible problem very quickly, and I can use two seperate tuners.
The Humax is very good (simply pop in the HDMI cable and take away the scart), as are the current Samsungs, but I suspect that now you are able to watch HD, recording will be your next target, and the Humax YouView had proved to be very popular. That said, if you bought a 5 series Samsung upwards, the TV smart functions now allow catchup from all four channels.
I admit this method might not be 'offical', but it seems to work.
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In theory, passing a freeview signal through another bit of equipment basically does much the same thing as using a seperate splitter. Either way, provided you've got a decent signal, you should be OK, but looping through is recommended by the manual and is a little neater. My splitter has a 4Db loss.
However, curious as to what the reality would be I actually did a test in the name of science. I looked at the strength of the signal on my cheap Goodmans digibox with my present setup - around 70% on strength and excellent quality, so fine. I then unplugged the Digibox from the splitter, and connected it into the digital output from the Sony PVR. Admittedly the lead I used was a decent but cheapish flylead rather than the high rated coax its usually connected to, but the picture seemed no different.
When I looked at the signal strength on the Digibox, I was surprised that the strength had fallen to about 60-65% - still OK but the bar was now a slightly sickly green/brown rather than the full green before. This is hardly conclusive (might try with proper coax), but I did put the original setup back!
My best suggestion would be 'whatever works' - but use the best connections you can from the ariel to your equipment - spend slightly more on good coax and you'll get a better signal.
If you go to 7 Day Shop, you can get very decent 1.4 HDMI cables for £3.99 or less each (cheaper still with a multi-deal),and that should be fine. Instead of spending a fortune on HDMI's, spending £3-12 on a decent flylead (and any other analouge connects) will be money well spent.
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Alan - it does not matter if the TV or the Humax is connected to the internet.
I suspect that as long as you put the HDMI from the Humax into an HDMI input on the TV and have the PVR switched on, you can select that input (the TV will automatcially select the internal tuner first) by using the 'source' button on the Samsung remote. Check the manual first, and then check the HDMI cable/inputs are working.
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Lisa - you cannot use the TV tuner to record to a dvd/vcr recorder - it must have its own tuner or at least a freeview box attached to it, and be attached to the aerial.
Check if your recorder has a freeview tuner in it (it will often tell you on the front, or check the manual). If it does not, my best advice whould be to buy a new PVR, such a Humax or Panasonic.
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M
Is it possible to connect two Freeview boxes to the same aerialThursday 11 April 2013 5:20PM
Peterborough
RJ Brambling - The YouView Box is currently not able to use wifi to directly connect to the internet via a dongle (see the whathifi.com's review of it in December), unlike the Humax T2. You will have to put an ethernet cable in the back, at least for the moment. However, you could use an old wifi hub to carry the signal from your network.
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M
How many Freeview, Freesat, Sky and cable homes are there in thThursday 18 April 2013 10:33PM
Peterborough
Charles - I'm not sure how many there are who have multiple systems, but feedback from customers makes me think that there are a fair number, although whether they actually use them all much is another matter.
If you have an old Sky dish on the side of your house, as you do, than Freesat is very easy to set up, and since high/mid level Samsungs and Panasonics have Freesat tuners built in (as well as some other brands in the past or at present), a fair number of people can/do use both systems.
Remember that before digital switchover, in many parts of the country, Freeview was simply not viable, and so the choice was Sky or Freesat (in rural areas Virgin is not an option, and these were often the places with poor Freeview coverage). For many people, the only way of getting HD signals was again Sky or Freesat, so people may have bought a dish for that reason(Sony even gave one away with a W5810 set). Since the switchover, the power of Freeview signals has gone up tenfold, and of course now includes HD, so there is much less need for Freesat, or even Sky for some customers. Yet the dish might still remain.
However, since these are often single LNB dishes, and Freesat recorders are a lot rarer than Freeview HD ones, Freeview HD possibly is used more (particularly to record), and the dish just used to watch.
Freesat's signal seems to be slightly better and slightly more reliable, but Freeview HD is pretty much built into every new TV, and of course you just need an aerial.
A YouView box and Freesat built into the TV or via a seperate box seems perfectly fine, although the need for Sky/Freesat seems slightly redundent, and possibly problematic.
I have had customers who have both Sky (the chap liked it because it was the only way he could get Fox News!) and Virgin (for broadband). I suggested some haggling with both companies would allow him to save money.
I also had a customer not long ago who had three Humax boxes (Freesat and Freeview), and was looking for a Panasonic Freesat box as well - obviously he liked to record a lot!
I suspect that most people use one system to a large extent - Sky customers will tend to use Sky to watch everything, even the Freeview channels they can get on their TV's tuner - its simply easier. For people who have a number of systems (often legacy systems), its largely what works for them, and the cost/hassle of using more than one system.
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dennis: Correct - unless you have Sky 3D or a Blu Ray player (and they are pretty much all 3D these days)/Play Station 3, then 3D Freeview is pretty few and far between (the Wimbeldon Finals, The Olympics opening and the Strictly final from 2011 are the only ones the BBC have done, as far as I'm aware).
You can of course turn 2D into 3D, which might be interesting, but its not going to be as good. However, 3D Blu-Ray players are available for £70, and 3D films cost very little more than the 2D only versions.
3D is not the reason to buy a TV, but it is a mark of a higher quality screen. If you've bought an ET5, you've got a 300hz screen, and a GT50 you've got at least a 600hz screen - the higher the hz, the better the picture.
Colin - how is your TV/sound system set up? If you've got the digital opitical output bypassing the TV and going directly to a sound system, you can cause a delay.
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M
what is the difference between normal Co-axial cable and satelTuesday 23 April 2013 4:54PM
Peterborough
Richard Pope: Richard - Could you explain what you mean by 'a mixture of satellite and normal cable from the dish with one connector for the cable' - Your digibox should be a Freeview box (I assume) and therefore connected to an aerial, and any satellite feed should come via a dish. If possible they should be entirely seperate, and normally connect via scarts/hdmi's into your TV (unless you have internal tuners for both).
As far as the freeview signal is concerned, if you supply a postcode and other details, them I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than me should be able to help.
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M
Freesat is "fastest growing TV platform" and "outgrows Pay-TV" Thursday 2 May 2013 10:39PM
Peterborough
conor: since Ultra HD TV's have only just come out, basically start at 60in screens, its only films (and no means all of them) that are being made in Ultra HD, and our broadband network simply will not have the speed for quite some time to stream such huge volumes of data, Ultra HD is not something any of us should be immediately worried about.
Its likely that OLED 4k screen will become much cheaper, but it will take a while for them to filter through to the market, and of course people will ultimately only buy them for the 4K if there is something to watch on them!
KMJ had it right - most people watch TV using a perfectly decent set, using technology which is reasonably well priced and well proven. And they tend at present to watch free to view most of the time.
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Wednesday 27 March 2013 8:55PM
Jim - I sell TV's part time, and legacy equipment is one of out biggest bugbears.
As JB38 points out, check that your existing equipment had HDMI's (DVD recorders often do), and whether you will be upgrading to Sky HD or Freesat(which of course uses HDMI). VCR's are now obsolete, and I would generally advise people to think 5 years ahead, not 5 years behind. You can get switchers, convertors, etc, but they are often a pain, and the cost is often not much less than a cheap Blu-Ray player, etc.