Mark Saunders Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Also note that when recording the Signal is split between the viewed TV and the recorded TV so can cause a problem with recording! This is why I invested in Freesat! Mark Saunders Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzie Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 At least 30% of the population definitely won't need a new aerial for digital, and a good proportion of the remainder may well find that once the power is turned up post DSO their existing aerial is fine, even if it isn't now. It is fair to say that digital TV is often more prone to impulsive interference, so a good quality, properly screened aerial cable is desirable. Lots of info. on the subject here in a fairly non-geeky format:- http://www.paras.org.uk/ That site rather oversimplifies things, as it has to in order to be 'non geeky'. If you have an aerial which does not have a balun (as most existing aerials do not) the screening on the coax is irrelevant because any interference picked up on the outside of the coax will be immediately transferred to the inside at the aerial. Most existing aerials are not ideal for analogue, but most people do not notice the interference! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morphaniel Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 We use a Windows Media Centre with a dual channel Hauppage DVB tuner. This gives us the ability to record two channels while watching a recording. Since we have a Panasonic TV and a 'dead' Sky receiver we can also receive (but not record) FreeSat direct into the TV and could receive analogue TV while it existed. I looked very hard at the PVR market before going down the computer route (not least because while I am an IT specialist, I am away from home regularly and my wife's design requirement is that it 'just works' . No-one wants support calls from home from a lady being denied her fix of 'Coach Trip'). The main thing I disliked about the PVRs at the time were their very poor guides. The guides on our Panasonic TV are representative and still seem very clunky when compared with Sky+ and certainly with the Microsoft guide, which offers big comfortable reading programme synopses, picture in picture while you browse and so on. I haven't looked at the current offerings, so things may well be different now. Running TV on the computer also gives you the increasingly useful on-line catchup services on the same box. We use a Logitech DiNovo Mini keyboard, which supports Media Centre, and surf, watch TV online, play our music collection and watch broadcast TV as if the 'unified media centre' had genuinely been delivered. We also have the huge benefit of getting a free media extender via our son's XBox 360 so he is no longer fighting us for control of the PVR. He can watch his own programmes quite happily in his room without bothering us. Obviously, the box also plays CDs and DVDs and would record them if I put a recorder in it. It's not perfect. FreeView HD is awaiting Hauppage delivering an upgraded twin tuner (and waiting... ). I have not risked an upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 as I have heard the Windows 7 Media Centre is a bit more buggy than the Vista version and retuning the thing on the rare occasions we have to can be a trial because of the poor linkage between broadcast channel names and the guide channel names but on the whole I have never regretted the choice. Our unit is a specialist 'small form factor' box with ultra low noise cooling and I had to choose the video card carefully (my first choice eventually expired due to overheating) but design updates over time would actually make things easier, quieter and would lower the energy consumption if I were to build another. I suppose the big recommendation in the context of this thread is that the picture quality is always, always perfect and the ease of use is superb. We have a signal booster because my internal aerial wiring demands it but I don't think we have ever seen blocky, broken up or stop motion recordings over the years we've had it. And I say that as someone who goes to some lengths to avoid Microsoft products in my daily work and leisure... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium spamcan61 Posted March 21, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 21, 2011 If you have an aerial which does not have a balun (as most existing aerials do not) the screening on the coax is irrelevant because any interference picked up on the outside of the coax will be immediately transferred to the inside at the aerial. Most existing aerials are not ideal for analogue, but most people do not notice the interference! A fair point on the baluns; people will indeed watch with pretty awful picture quality, for that matter plenty of folk seem happy watching their fancy new HDTVs in stretchyvision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisf Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 In preparation for the switchover of Sandy Heath transmitter - very soon - I bought a Humax of some description which has been fine so far EXCEPT that it failed to record two programmes over the weekend. Serves me right for liking Shaun the Sheep [which is far too good for kids!] ... Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted March 21, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 21, 2011 I've got two televisions fed from the same aerial (via a splitter/amplifier) The Sony television has selected the digital signal from London as BBC1. The Samsung television has selected the BBC1 Southeast signal as BBC1. Traditionally our analogue signal was fringe strength from Crystal Palace. We usually use the Sky satellite though but they have deemed that for BBC1 regional news we are East Anglia. The user interface on most Freeview receiver /recorders seems quite clumsy compared to the Sky+ or HD boxes. Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzie Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 I've got two televisions fed from the same aerial (via a splitter/amplifier) The Sony television has selected the digital signal from London as BBC1. The Samsung television has selected the BBC1 Southeast signal as BBC1. Traditionally our analogue signal was fringe strength from Crystal Palace. We usually use the Sky satellite though but they have deemed that for BBC1 regional news we are East Anglia. The user interface on most Freeview receiver /recorders seems quite clumsy compared to the Sky+ or HD boxes. Tony You are in quite an interesting location. The BBC are correct in that you are in East Anglia, but the signal from Sudbury is pretty bad at your location, hence the construction of a new digital transmitter for Freeview at Rouncefield to fix it for you. Crystal palace (London) reception is going to be tricky for you due to aircraft fading and ghosting, but currently you will get a very good signal from Bluebell Hill (South East). Some receivers are clever and will tune to the strongest signal (in your case Bluebell Hill), some are clever and will tune to all the different varieties of a signal, and some just tune the first one they find (London). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium spamcan61 Posted March 22, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 22, 2011 The user interface on most Freeview receiver /recorders seems quite clumsy compared to the Sky+ or HD boxes. Tony Some are seriously clunky; although personally I prefer the UI on my Vestel box to the Sky+ box which sits on top of it - mind you I've had the Vestel box much longer than the Sky+. For example the Vestel has separate buttons on the remote for scheduled recordings and stuff already recorded, whereas Sky+ requires going through TV guide then green button, to be presented with a single list of past and future recordings. The Vestel also has a colour coded bargraph of HDD usage, easier to relate to than Sky+ with its single yellow bar and % for each programme. OK the usability of the Sky+ box isn't helped by the fact that I've only got one satellite feed so scheduled recordings require a bit of messing about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted March 22, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 22, 2011 You are in quite an interesting location. The BBC are correct in that you are in East Anglia, but the signal from Sudbury is pretty bad at your location, hence the construction of a new digital transmitter for Freeview at Rouncefield to fix it for you. Crystal palace (London) reception is going to be tricky for you due to aircraft fading and ghosting, but currently you will get a very good signal from Bluebell Hill (South East). Some receivers are clever and will tune to the strongest signal (in your case Bluebell Hill), some are clever and will tune to all the different varieties of a signal, and some just tune the first one they find (London). We can't get any usable BBC East or ITV Anglia signal here on analogue or digital. The bit of Essex south of the London Arterial is probably ethnically London rather than East Anglia so most people want the London signal which even at its current strength is better than the old analogue signal. Though thanks to Sky putting us in the Anglia region and Bluebell Hill putting us in the SE I am now aware of criminal incidents in Norwich and Tunbridge Wells. The Freeview website used to recommend Bluebell Hill but now gives Crystal Palace as the preferred site for transmissions for our postcode. Everyone's aerials are pointing that way! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 OK the usability of the Sky+ box isn't helped by the fact that I've only got one satellite feed so scheduled recordings require a bit of messing about. All this talk of usability again puts me in mind of the original TiVo. Apart from a brilliantly simple and elegant interface it was very very smart when it came to organising clashing recordings with only a single tuner. You could organise programs by priority so the stuff you really wanted would be recorded and then it would also search the listings for a repeat of the clashed programme and record that instead. Going from a decade old TiVo to a new Sky+HD box was like going into the dark ages Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium spamcan61 Posted March 22, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 22, 2011 Going from a decade old TiVo to a new Sky+HD box was like going into the dark ages I've never owned a TiVo, but people I know who have always rave about them; pity it never caught on in the UK (maybe getting Sky to market the product in the UK wasn't a good move.....). I nearly bought one a few years back when Comet were selling them off for about 80 quid IIRC, OK you'd still have the subscription on top of that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 pity it never caught on in the UK (maybe getting Sky to market the product in the UK wasn't a good move.....). They are however about to catch on. They signed a deal with Virgin Media to use TiVo in the firmware of their cable boxes. Right now you have to fork out for the top package to get it, but the plan is eventually have TiVo on every box giving the UK probably more TiVos than the US. No cables anywhere near my house alas... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Welly Posted March 22, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 22, 2011 One of the problems is without doubt signal. I can see Belmont from 100 yards away from my home but alas the TV cannot see it at all. So we receive our signal from Emley Moor and as a result our version of Look North comes from Leeds and not Hull for Lincolnshire. It's possible that the signal from Belmont where you live, is too strong for your PVR, you'll have to ask a TV aerial installer about fitting an attenuator in the cable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold chriswright03 Posted March 22, 2011 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted March 22, 2011 Forgot to say that it does have a signal booster in the loft with it. That was mainly because we have had a second tv point in a bedroom. To be honest it does not appear to have made any difference at all. As regards the signal from Belmont. Well I am in a dip so the signal passes straight across the top of us. I will stick with it for the time being and see if it improves as it is very hit and miss. Perhaps when the DSO happens all will be solved. Thanks Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 I will stick with it for the time being and see if it improves as it is very hit and miss. Perhaps when the DSO happens all will be solved. Ours certainly went from "hit & miss" to "pretty reliable" when we had the full switchover - before the change every time somebody ordered pizza the signal would go out when the moped passed, after the change it doesn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium mezzoman253 Posted March 22, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 22, 2011 - before the change every time somebody ordered pizza the signal would go out when the moped passed, Why is it these mopeds are so much more prone to doing this? We get the odd random vehicle pixilate the TV, but these mopeds do it all the time. You can spot them coming on the screen before you can actually hear them Yes we probably need a new antenna and down lead, but there must be EMC limits on their ignition systems which don't seem to be in force. Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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