Stupid Question about Freeview

Nick Beecham

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Sorry to be a bit thick.:blush:

If I buy a TV with built in Freeview/Freeview HD, does this mean I can record programmes on it without the need for a separate box?

Many thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

Nick
 
To record your still gonna need something to record onto. Like a DVD recorder or HDD recorder. You cannot record onto the TV itself. There may be a model about with the ability to do so but it's probably extremely rare. So if you see freeview just think its got one of those £20 boxes built into it.
 
Also any TV that can do this will only have one tuner.
A PVR has two tuners - one to watch and one to record.
 
Well it means that you can receive Freeview without the need for a separate tuner / box :) So if you don't want to record, you just need the TV and an aerial connection
 
Many thanks guys. :) In that case, "built in Freeview" doesn't seem worth much.

Best wishes
Nick

The built in Freeview does come in handy if you are using a DVD/HDD recorder, and don't want to watch what you're recording.
 
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You're confusing Virgin+/Sky+ with Sky HD: the two are totally unrelated. The first is a box that allows you to record to it, like a PVR. The box (like any cable/sky box) does also decrypt and process the signals coming to it from the satellite/cable, and yes for the Sky+ etc it does contain a HD tuner (so it would be easy to assume the two were the same thing), but the two processes are completely separate and should not be looked at as being one.

Once the digital switchover is complete (i.e. they've switched off all the analogue transmissions), if you don't have a sat/cable connection you will not be able to watch any TV without a freeview decoder. Whether you want to buy a £20 box, or whether you want it built in to your TV, is up to you.

Freeview HD is potentially a feature really worth having on a telly, again particularly if you don't have a cable/sat connection (or do, but don't want to pay for a HD box/subscription, or do, but only in one room for example). It means you can just plug a normal roof aerial in the back and it'll not only decode all the freeview stuff (meaning you can watch TV without a separate box), but it'll decode all the HD stuff too (all the World Cup games for example are broadcast in HD on the regular airwaves, through BBC and ITV HD channels). The prevalence of HD on freeview is only going to rise, and it's also never going to cost anything to view. Of course the alternative is to buy a HD freeview box as and when you need it- they are only going to come down in price (£100 is abuot the cheapest at the moment).
 
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you will need something to record them on to which has all ready been said
 
It's probably worth adding that if you want to record the HD content, your recorder will need a HD tuner- you can't use the TV's inbuilt HD tuner and then record it on another device. If you're looking to record HD stuff you need to make the decision, do you want to pay for a service like Sky+ HD, or do you want to use freeview HD (in which case you need a separate freeview HD PVR and therefore might as well not bother getting a freeview HD set).
 

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