Dave asked

31st March 2012

I am intending to replace my Aunt's failed VCR which is eating tapes with a Freeview HD plus recorder. The initial setup will be an HD ready TV and the recorder, and I have no problems with the cabling - using an HDMI and Coax cables as appropriate. She'll then hopefully be in a position to record one/two Freeview channels and watch another Freeview channel at the same time.

At present she has a Sky box (so no HDMI but just a SCART socket) with a purchased viewing card so has no subscription but views the free channels - and has recorded to her VCR. She has one or two satellite channels she is keen on - not available on Freeview. Would it be possible to link the Sky box into the above setup so that there will be three components: HD ready TV, Freeview HD plus recorder and Sky box? So that she can pick up the Sky channels when she needs to. If so, best way of cabling please?

The TV you mention has no SCART input and I can't find any mention looking online quickly of any other analogue input which you could use to connect the Sky box. If you know or can find out that it has a component video input you can purchase a SCART to component adapter and connect both devices to the TV so allowing you to watch Sky on the TV and record and watch Freeview via the recorder. If the TV doesn't have an analogue video you may want to considerer another HDTV as I can't think otherwise how you could connect to the Sky box to the TV. You can obviously simply connect the Freeview HD recorder with an HDMI cable.

James asked

30th March 2012

Previously I had an old LG PVR, connected via a Cambridge Audio AVreceiver, to a Philips HD-ready TV (720p, 1080i) with HMDI cables.

I have just upgraded the PVR to a Panasonic Blu-ray with Freeview HD. Thepicture intermittently cuts out or goes to a snow/fuzzy screen. I never hadthis problem with the previous set up. I understand it could be a handshake issue, but really no clue how to fix this?

This could be a problem with marginal signal reception if the problem only occurs when you're watching live TV, or it could a cabling problem with the HDMI connection. You should check the cable is secure and free of physical and electrical interference and if you're able, try a different HDMI cable if you suspect reception isn't the issue.

If the problem only happens when you're watching live TV, if there's nothing obviously obstructing your aerial and assuming it's not driving you mad it may be worth waiting a couple of months to see if the problem goes away. As more of the analogue is turned off as digital-switchover completes the power of the Freeview transmissions can be increased, hence if it's a reception problem it may just go away.

Sheila asked

27th March 2012

We have recently undergone the HD switchover in the Basingstoke area. We have bought a new 42" LG 3D HDTV and find that every so often it blacks out for a second or two - is this part of the switchover or is it our new TV?

This could be caused by a number of things such as the weather, an intermittent obstruction of your aerial or as you mention maintenance at your local transmitter. If it's not driving you mad and you can wait a few months until the analogue television signal is turned off at all the transmitters around you, may well find the problem goes away as the power of the Freeview transmissions will be increased as there will no longer be an analogue signal to interfere with.

Djamel asked

27th March 2012

I would appreciate if you could give a recommendation how to connect my Samsung Plasma HDTV which has 4 HDMI input to the following: a satellite Box, BT Vision Box, a Blu-ray mome cinema (also Samsung). Do I need an optical cable to hear the sound of TV programmes through the home cineam speakers; currently I can only hear the sound from the satellite TV through home cinema speakers (using only HDMI cables between all components).

I'm a little surprised that you're getting sound from your satellite box with only HDMI connections, it sounds as though you may have another audio connection to the surround system that's making that work. No matter though, unless your surround system has enough HDMI inputs that you can pass all the other devices though it with a single HDMI connection on to your HDTV, you best best is to connect some kind of audio connection to it direct from your TV.

With the TV's internal speakers disabled and the sound travelling out of the TV down a digital/optical cable at worst you will get stereo audio though your surround system irrespective of what you're watching on the TV. The multi-channel you get will depend very much on the HDTV you have, the devices you connect to it and the multi-channel audio standards they support.

Juliette asked

27th March 2012

I have just set up a Logik 250gb Freeview TV recorder to my Panasonic TV and it all works great until I turn the TV off, when I switch it back on it doesn't recognise the Freeview box and I have to remove and put back the SCART cable before it shows on the screen!

You want to determine if the problem is with your TV or the Logik recorder itself, the former is probably easier to fix but unfortunately less likely.

You should make a note of which input the recorder is connected to before you turn off the TV and then ensure that when you turn it on again it's coming back on the same input. As I say any modern television worth it salts will do this so the problems unlikely to be there. If by chance it is you probably need to change a setting in the TV's menus.

If the TV doesn't seem to be at fault double check the SCART connection between the two, you can try reversing the cable or even if different cable if you have one. Also make sure you are using the right SCART socket on the recorder box, you want the one that's marked 'TV SCART' or something similar.

James asked

22nd March 2012

Hi, I have an LG 26LC2R, a few years old now. It has HDMI but when I connect my Freeview box (i-Can) nothing happens. The instructions say in this case I need to use a SCART lead as my TV can't cope with the copyright protection. Can you please explain this?

It sounds as though you have some kind of Freeview HD box as these, distinct from their standard-definition Freeview counterparts, are required by standard to have a copy-protected HDMI port. If the HDMI port on you your HDTV doesn't support this copy protection (HDCP - High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) then you won't see anything on the TV as you describe.

Your options are either to go with a standard-definition SCART connection or to get around the protected video with a device such as the HD Fury which will remove the copy protection for you.

Sophia asked

22nd March 2012

I am just wondering if it is possible to connect a 32" HD LED TV to a Sky dish with out a Sky decoder to opperate the built in Freeview? If so how do i go round in doing that and do i need to change the frquency on the Sky dish? Also if this is not possible can you tell me what aerial would i need please?

Freeview needs an aerial so you can't use your satellite dish with the integrated tuner in your HDTV I'm afraid.

If you want to use the dish you could purchase a Freesat receiver and connect that up to your dish and that will work without any adjustment. If you want to use the Freeview tuner in the TV you will need to purchase and install a wideband digital aerial.

Jean asked

21st March 2012

I have a Sony RDR-HXD870 DVD Recorder 160GB with Freeview connected to a Sony Bravia 32" HDTV. We are on the Oxford transmitter and the TV is updating almost every day. The proble is that when this happens the screen on the DVD shows D----- and I cannot use the recorder guide to record a programme until I re-tune. What can I do to stop this happening?

If this has only been going on a few days it's probably just maintenance on the Oxford transmitter as digital-switchover completes so it should only be temporary, and in fact switchover will be fully complete in April.