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LCD TV with intergated Freeview

Advice required prior to purchase (December 2007)

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adderzigzag
Hi maybe an obvious question! I am considering buying a 32" LCD screen basically to connect to my new PS3. So i can watch Tv also I was going to connect it to my sky box, it has two outputs via a coax cable. My question is if the TV is expecting a signal from an ariel, think its called composite, and expecting to tune to freeview channels, what will happen if this input is fed a signal from my sky box as I suggest?
Look forward to comments, sorry if its obvious, I would like soem ideas before i get "sales speak" from a showroom
DV
dvboy
You would need to connect your Sky box to it via Scart and view it though an AV channel the same way you probably already do.

Your Sky box can't output anything digitally through its coax output, and it's a little pointless looping your aerial through it. You should connect your aerial straight to your TV (or via a video/DVD/HD recorder if necessary).

To be honest, it seems a bit pointless having an integrated digital TV if you have a Sky box as all the channels on Freeview are on Sky anyway.
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adderzigzag
The problem is we are in a pretty remote part of Yorkshire in a non-freeview area, hnce we have sky, I can't use the scart connection as the new tv will be in a different room. But from you comments you agree there could be a problem if the new unit has an intergrated tuner. So if a found a tv without the freeview i think it will work ok, but thats just my thought!
DV
dvboy
An intergated digital TV will probably still be able to tune to the analogue coax output of your Sky box as well as analogue 1 to 5. But you'd be better off connecting it with Scart.

It just seems a bit pointless spending the extra money on an integrated digital TV when you have Sky and can't actually get Freeview, as you'd have no use for the digital tuner inside the TV.

Buy an LCD TV without a digital tuner.
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adderzigzag
Well exactly the point i;m trying to make and perhaps not making myself clear is there are only a few non-freeview models at 32", so i feel and your comment sconfirm i would be ok with a non-freeview model but could have problems if i buy one with an integrated tuner. Thanks for the ideas!
DV
dvboy
adderzigzag posted:
Well exactly the point i;m trying to make and perhaps not making myself clear is there are only a few non-freeview models at 32", so i feel and your comment sconfirm i would be ok with a non-freeview model but could have problems if i buy one with an integrated tuner. Thanks for the ideas!


I don't think you'd have any problems, as I said above, integrated digital TVs usually have analogue tuners in them also. I just don't think you need to buy a TV with a digital tuner in it.
NG
noggin Founding member
Every digital TV I've seen (i.e. Freeview integrated) still has an analogue tuner as well, so if you HAVE to use the RF or RF2 output of your Sky box to feed your new TV you can. No digital set I've seen thus far has ONLY had digital and no analogue.

If you use the RF connection you will, of course, get mono sound not stereo, get a noisy relatively poor quality modulated composite video rather than clean RGB picture, and have no automatic 4:3/16:9 widescreen switching (so unless you like short fat or tall thin people you'll be pressing the aspect ratio button the TV remote a lot) All of these you get if you can use the TV SCART (though you don't get widescreen switching or RGB on the VCR SCART)

If your main Sky receiver is a Sky+ then it might be worth considering getting a second hand Sky box with a Freesat card for your TV, and running a cable from one of the two spare LNB feeds on the Quad LNB that Sky+ receivers are installed with - and if you don't have a Sky+ and only have a normal Sky receiver it is still worth considering putting a Quad LNB up and running a second feed to the other room. This won't cost extra in subscription - just the purchase of the box - unless you want the subscription channels.

You will still get all the BBC, ITV, C4, Five channels and a lot of other Free to air services (though some of the channels on Freeview are not free on Sky)

However - it is still worth buying a Freeview set for the future. You may not get a good Freeview signal currently, but as analogue switch-off progresses, once analogue has been switched off in your area, you should get 2 or 3 of the 6 Freeview multiplexes (the public service muxes) in better quality.
JR
jrothwell97
As far as I'm aware, TVs which have a digital tuner built in also have an analogue tuner. This would be very convenient, as you don't have to hook up a Freeview box when DSO comes to Yorkshire, and neither do you have to use a crummy little TV to watch your Sky or analogue signals on. Your Sky box's cable should go straight into the back of your new TV, no problems.

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