[arlingtondave]

Having just purchased a plasma tv with built-in Freeview I want to get a recorder. Nothing flash, just a recorder (though, ideally, I suppose with a biggish storage facility and maybe a way to transfer to recordable DVDs).

Since there is only one source (the digital arial) am I right in thinking a twin tuner would be pointless?

And what would be simplest and cheapest?

I am in a flat with no access to Sky, Freesat or any cable services or even ordinary terrestial TV reception.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

[Geofbob]

You say you have a "digital aerial", then later you say you have no "terrestrial aerial" - but they are the same thing. Can you receive the Freeview channels on your new TV? If so, it is attached to a terrestrial aerial - & if so, the same aerial can be connected to a twin tuner recorder of the type usually known as a PVR (for Personal Video Recorder). With terrestrial TV (unlike satellite) one connection to an aerial can serve any number of devices, though an amplifier may be required in some circumstances - but usually not just to run a PVR & TV.

I'd advise you to read through some of the threads in this forum, especially those discussing the merits of various PVRs - but the most suitable for you will probably be one of the Humax models.

[arlingtondave]

I took your advice and did some (even more) reading of threads,some pertinent,some not but informative in other ways and amprobably leaning towards a Humax.

Why I still hesitate is that my circumstances seem unusual.

I am in Margate, Kent, in a block quite high up, facing the sea. The local transmitters are all behind me and unusable (as are the Satellites).

I can, due to the height, access digital signals from London but no analogue signals.

So I have an indoor aerial that says it is "digital" (a Technika "Boosted TV/FM Digital Aerial" from Tesco) and it works pretty well with my TV Freeview tuner.

And this where my ignorance (and probable misconceptions come in) as I see just one signal coming in.

So am I simply wrong (which I can easily accept ) and by putting a twin tuner PVR (or similar) between the aerial and the TV gain all the benefits available normally?

And would I need to do anything different with tuning or using the TV?

Again, thanks for any replies.

DAVE

[clemenzina]

Remove your indoor aerial's cable from the TV and insert it into your new PVR's RF-In and then use a "fly lead" to connect the PVR's RF-Out socket to your TV's aerial input socket. Connect the PVR's TV-SCART socket to the TV's AV1 SCART input. Zippedy-Doodah Then you can connect a DVD recorder to your PVR's VIDEO-SCART socket and record programmes from the hard drive in real time if you want to archive (save for posterity or to play elsewhere) any of them.

Even with the most basic current PVR you'll be able to record 2 Freeview channels at the same time and watch a third on your TV.

Don't worry too much about whether or not the PVR's specs mention HD, because your TV should be better at upscaling the signal than any PVR - there are no PVRs currently on the market that can use the Freeview HD being broadcast by the BBC, you would need Freesat for that (Humax do one, and there's another brand just released... Thomson? Wharfedale? Can't remember, but you'd need a dish as well.)

I'm successfully using one indoor aerial to receive Freeview that I was using in the 1990s for analogue, and I've got another retro one picked up at a car boot sale that looks like 1950s style

Put your postcode in here to find out what aerial you need according to your location:

UK digital TV reception predictor

clemenzina

[Geofbob]

Originally Posted by arlingtondave

I took your advice and did some (even more) reading of threads,some pertinent,some not but informative in other ways and amprobably leaning towards a Humax.

Why I still hesitate is that my circumstances seem unusual.

I am in Margate, Kent, in a block quite high up, facing the sea. The local transmitters are all behind me and unusable (as are the Satellites).

I can, due to the height, access digital signals from London but no analogue signals.

So I have an indoor aerial that says it is "digital" (a Technika "Boosted TV/FM Digital Aerial" from Tesco) and it works pretty well with my TV Freeview tuner.

And this where my ignorance (and probable misconceptions come in) as I see just one signal coming in.

So am I simply wrong (which I can easily accept ) and by putting a twin tuner PVR (or similar) between the aerial and the TV gain all the benefits available normally?

And would I need to do anything different with tuning or using the TV?

Again, thanks for any replies.

DAVE

Hi Dave - I now see why you said "digital aerial" - strictly speaking there's no such thing, but manufacturers use the phrase as a selling point. (Are you quite sure it only receives digital, & not analogue as well?)

There is a note of caution I'd add to Clemenzina's advice.

You're actually lucky being able to receive a digital signal via an indoor aerial -in many (perhaps most) locations they simply don't work. Also, digital tuners in TVs & other appliances do vary in their sensitivity - so because your indoor aerial works OK with your TV's internal tuner, does not necessarily mean that it will work with the tuners in a Humax PVR - but of course you won't really know until you try it!

So, I'd advise either borrowing & trying the Humax before you actually buy it; or if this is impractical (& it probably is) buying it from a reliable retailer with a returns policy that will let you get a refund if it simply won't find the Freeview channels with your indoor aerial.

An alternative course - to minimise possible financial loss - would be not to go for one of the more expensive Humaxes, but to purchase a cheaper Vestel-clone PVR (eg Digihome or Wharfedale) possibly even refurbished or second-hand (around £50). Then if that works OK - & you still want to - you could risk getting a premium model.

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by arlingtondave

I took your advice and did some (even more) reading of threads,some pertinent,some not but informative in other ways and amprobably leaning towards a Humax.

Why I still hesitate is that my circumstances seem unusual.

I am in Margate, Kent, in a block quite high up, facing the sea. The local transmitters are all behind me and unusable (as are the Satellites).

I can, due to the height, access digital signals from London but no analogue signals.

So I have an indoor aerial that says it is "digital" (a Technika "Boosted TV/FM Digital Aerial" from Tesco) and it works pretty well with my TV Freeview tuner.

And this where my ignorance (and probable misconceptions come in) as I see just one signal coming in.

So am I simply wrong (which I can easily accept ) and by putting a twin tuner PVR (or similar) between the aerial and the TV gain all the benefits available normally?

And would I need to do anything different with tuning or using the TV?

Again, thanks for any replies.

DAVE

Somethings wrong here an aerial does not care if the information carried by the uhf carrier (21 - 68) is analogue or digital,The only difference is that for analogue it's one station for each uhf carrier and lots for digital. Hence the comment there's no such thing as a digital aerial. Analogue transmissions pre dso are much higher power than digital so are receivable over longer distances. A digital tuner though can give a perfect picture from a very small signal. It would be very strange to find somewhere you can get digital signal and not analogue (Apart from transmitters that have closed down analogue pretty well unique I would have thought).