Eck asked

30th November 2011

I am considering buying a new 40" TV with built in Freeview HD. At present I have 32" HD Ready TV only. I also have a Sky box (older one). Can you advise me what additional wiring I would require and how I could set it up for the new TV?. I also have a DVD recorder which has a hard drive and DVD facility.

I don't think you should need any additional wiring so long as the new HDTV has the same input connections you're using on your current HD Ready TV. That probably means to SCART connections but SCART and Component video are pretty interchangeable with simple converters so as long as the new TV has at least two analogue (SCART and Component) inputs everything should be compatible as work as it does at present with your current TV.

Wendy asked

30th November 2011

Will a Freeview HD box work with a non HD TV? I'm planning to upgrade my old TV next year but my digibox needs replacing now.Obviously I Couldn't watch in HD on my current TV but would I be able to watch and record normal freeview?

You can indeed use a Freeview HD with a non-HDTV provided it has a video output that matches one of the inputs on your present TV. You'll probably also be able to watch the high-definition channels in standard-definition if they're available in your area.

Brian asked

29th November 2011

I have a new Panasonic DVB TV (TX-L32DT30B) and an older DVB Panasonic HDD/DVD/VHS recorder (DMR- EX95V)

Both work very well until I connect the HDMI cable. The TV then claims that it has lost its signal (on a channel basis - not all of them) and several channels do not give a picture. Removing the cable immediately restores the picture. The HDMI cable is a cheap item non-gold plated etc - is this the cause or are there other settings that I need to work on?

If it's a particularly cheap HDMI cable it may well be poorly shielded and so be interfering with your television reception. In such a case I would pick up a different HDMI cable and that will probably solve the problem. There's absolutely no need to spend a fortune on a new HDMI cable, something around the ten pound mark should work fine.

Keith asked

29th November 2011

I recently brought a Grundig HD set-top box to enable my JVC HD Ready TV (LT-26DA8BJ) to receive the HD channels. All was well until I became aware that some broadcasts are shown on the TV screen either as box, or reduced wide angle.

The Grundig manual suggests using the wide button on the remote, to toggle between available formats to find the one best to show the programme. I find none are of much use compared to the JVC televisions own tuner, which conveniently shows all broadcasts in wide screen when set to auto-full in zoom mode.

Is there any way I can have the advantage of auto-full with my HD box,or is there another brand of HD box that will, when used with my TV.r

You shouldn't have to adjust the aspect ratio or zoom settings much if ever with both your HDTV and recorder properly configured. All digital television is broadcast in widescreen format which will map to the native resolution of your HDTV which will also be widescreen. You should make sure that your recorder and HDTV are set up to display in the default widescreen aspect ratio without any scaling or zooming. On your TV this mode will be call something like full, dot-by-dot, native or 1:1 and that's what you should select. Some content won't be in the same 16:9 widescreen resolution so you will see black bars from time to time but you will be watching the picture undistorted.

David asked

29th November 2011

I have an HD Ready TV with a standard Freeview ariel. Can I connect a Freesat box to my TV via the standard aerial please?

You can't connect a Freesat box box via the aerial connection but there's nothing to stop you connecting a Freesat box, connectedappropriately to a satellite dish, to your HD Ready TV via one if its other inputs such as HDMI or SCART.

Mark asked

29th November 2011

I have a Toshiba 37RL853B with Freeview HD built-in and a Toshiba HDR5010KB Freeview HD recorder. When the aerial is pluged straight in to the TV all channels includingthe HD one work, but when I connect the aerial through the Freeview recorder, HD works on the recorder but not on the TV whilst all other programmes work on the TV.

Try rescanning with nothing but the aerial and power connected to the HD recorder to eliminate any other cabling as a source of the problem. You'll obviously have to unplug just before you do a scan and not before so you can get to the right place in the recorder set up menus.

Secondly go to:

http://www.ukfree.tv

and enter in your postcode. The site will tell you what transmitters and channels you should be able to receive, and if two or more transmitters show, one with HD and one without Freeview HD channels try the following:

Unplug the aerial connection and do a full channel scan, no channels will be found and this will clear all and any existing channels. Reconnect the aerial but this time do a manual channel search, searching one at a time each of the frequencies listed for the HD transmitter you found on Ukfree.

You might also like to try splitting the aerial connection with a splitter so that both the HDTV and recorder are connected directly to the aerial.

Adrian asked

29th November 2011

I have a Toshiba DVD/Video recorder (DVD19DTKB2) with a built in Freeview tuner, and an old Samsung CRT TV which I am looking to replace with a flat screen TV (32" to 37").

As I already have a Freeview tuner on the DVD player, presumably I don't need one on the TV I get, so I wondered if there were any general recommendations on the best quality (for picture and sound) flat screen TVs without Freeview tuners. I'm not bothered about HD TV.

The only extra I would be interested in would be the facility to watch BBC iPlayer on my TV. I've recently moved to an area that does not have Virgin cable from a cabled house, so I'm looking at alternatives to get "catch up" programming (e.g. Freesat). But I can't seem to find any TVs that have Freesat without a Freeview tuner.

You're going to find it hard to find a new television that doesn't include a built-in Freeview tuner these days now we're in the midst of digital-switchover as Freeview replaces analogue television. The cost difference if you can one will probably be perceptible so I would instead concentrate on finding a television that has sufficient catchup/internet features to meet your other needs. You'll end up with a Freeview HD tuner or otherwise that will be integrated in to the TV and will save you necessarily having to turn on your DVD recorder to watch television.

Mark asked

22nd November 2011

I will be able to record sky whilst watching a free view channel on the TV tuner or vice versa?

Yes the in-built Freeview tuner is a separate 'input' distinct from the Sky box and so it can be watched independently of whatever the Sky box is doing.