Digital Tuners & Analogue

elliot_01

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Hi Readers,

Can I ask what I fear is likely an embarassingly newbie question!? :blush:

I may need to buy a digital TV tuner, and would like to know if they are also backwards compatible with analogue (for instance, if I found, after buying one, that I had to replace/upgrade my aerial - I'd be stuck with no signal at all).

After reading some of the product information, for instance, the Panasonic TU CT30 Digital Terrestrial Tuner, it's not obvious whether they do support analogue too, or not.

Thanks
 
No, they don't. They are all intended as add-ons to things (like TVs) that already have an analog tuner.
 
Hi
Your question is not too clear, if you buy a digital TV - you will have no anologue.
Is that your question? If it is, if you fed a VCR with analogue into your digital TV then you would have both digital and analogue.
Nigel
 
Some offer 'RF Modulation' allowing you to pass through the signal complete with all freeview chanbales via RF.

Not sure if this is what you mean.

Either way, why would you be stuck with no signal at all?
 
Hi,

The Panasonic box you mentioned is supposed to be very good; opinions everyone?

The digital box works in harmony with your analogue equipment. You plug it into the back of your tv, like you would a video recorder, say with a scart lead. Then, just as you would select the channel to watch a video tape, you select a channel to watch from the freeview box.

The freeview box has its own remote controls (or buttons on the box) that allow you to change channel etc.

So you have an analogue tv that can watch digital channels by virtue of the digital box. If you have a digital tv, like other people have said, obviously you are totally digital and have no analogue, though I expect you can play analogue material into a digital tv from an analogue video recorder: the reverse of the set-up with the freeview box I described above.

The freeview channels are a bit all or nothing regarding reception. If it's good, it's good; if it's bad, it's unwatchable. Your aerial might be ok, or you may need to keep yopur aerial but use a signal amplifier available from all DIY stores or electrical stores (B&Q, Comet, etc). If you do need a new aerial it will receive both analogue and digital, so you don't need to worry about only being able to get one signal type.

Hope that helps.
 
Sorry to add to my own reply, I was going to say ignore all the stuff about digital tvs because I am pretty sure that's not what you are asking about and it only confuses the issue.

Also, I used the example of connecting your digital box to the tv for simplicity. You would probably want to connect the box to your video and the video to the tv so that you can record from the box to the video. Some (most?) boxes have two scart sockets. You connect one direct to the tv and the other to the video for this purpose.

But to clarify, the two products work together. The freeview box gives you digital channels on your analogie tv, but you do not lose the analogue reception of your analogue tv.
 

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