Freeview Newbie - Questions

[Lloydy76]

Hi,

Just a couple of quick questions.

• Can I use my old Sky aerial/dish and coax to connect to the freeview box?
• I used to run a booster/splitter from the back of my Sky box to distribute the signal to bedrooms in the house - all hard wired with coax - is the same possible from a Freeview box? Is there and ant-out option?

That is it

Cheers

Mark

 

[pws]

Hi mark And welcome:

freeview is the replacement for the old analogue TV so you can use your old TV ariel.

You can use the ols sky dish for freesat.....sort of the same as freeview but via satalite..

With regards the antenna out all my freeview boxes have the ant out so i presume they all do.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Paul

 

[Rodders53]

1. No a satellite (sky) dish is unsuitable, you need a UHF TV aerial like these Aerials, TV Aerial and Digital Aerial outside on the roof ideally but possibly in the loft (depending on your location relative to the transmitters). *

2. Yes you can use those cables to distribute a signal to other sets, but you'll need to find a Freeview box with a 'RF modulator' for it to work the way it did with the Sky box (and these are getting fairly difficult to find nowadays)... A better way is to fit a Freeview box for every TV as the signal passed on contains all the TV channels. That way each TV can watch a different programme (or even the same one) at will. Planning Your TV Installation is worth reading.

* of course if you already have a rooftop UHF TV aerial then that should be suitable for Freeview (in most cases - there are exceptions). We'll need to know your approximate location to advise or check your coverage predictions using the trade view of http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/postcodechecker/

 

[Lloydy76]

Aha.. that kind of puts a spanner in the works then.

We still have the Sky boxes and dish, but havent had Sky for several months now - just using the box to view the free channels.

One box died today, hence my question.

I dont have an aerial, just the Sky dish - I guess I need to have a think then.

Cheers

Mark

 

[Rodders53]

Get a second-hand sky box? Freecycle or 2nd-hand dealer, charity shop or ebay? {Mend the box? - simple psu problems are very common}.

Free to view sat receiver from the d-i-y sheds/lidl/aldi (not so user friendly but quite cheap).

Freesat receiver or PVR - better epg than a cheap generic box but more expensive.

Satellite stuff is discussed on Satellite TV | AVForums.com - UK Online where you'll find a lot to read!