Josiah asked

8th July 2011

I'm going to be buying an HD TV in a few months but need a freeview box for my SD TV now. If I buy a Freeview HD box, will it work with my current SD TV (I understand that the HD channels obviously won't work without an HD TV)?

You should have no problems purchasing a high-definition Freeview box now and using it with your existing standard-definition television. As you mention you won't be able to view the new HD channels in high-definition but you will continue to receive and be able to all the existing standard-definition Freeview channels.

Alex asked

6th July 2011

Just bought a new TV (Samsung UE37D5520), connected it initially by SCART as it was for my old CRT TV, but also connected via HDMI cable (£5 basics from Amazon). On changing the connection to HDMI in the settings the screen goes black and says No Signal. If I reboot the V+ it says "It looks like you have connected your V+ via HDMI etc etc".

Also, going through the setup again it has 'Plug & Play' which is only available when TV mode is selected, this goes through English etc and eventually arrives at an Auto Tuning screen where the options are Air or Cable. I had already selected Air and tuned in Freeview channels no problem, when I go back and select Cable I get options of Full, Network, and Quick, with a bunch of greyed out options below for (I think) manual tuning. But whatever I select here nothing seems to be getting detected. Or am I completely missing something?

The co-axial/RF input on the back of your is a dual mode one able to handle either Freeview or digital Cable, but it's not able to do both as you can only connect up one of either an aerial or cable connection at a time.

You'll want to keep the aerial connected so you are able to watch Freeview via the 'TV' input/source selectable on the remote and use one of the HDMI inputs to connect to your Virgin box and select that source to watch cable.

Jack asked

30th June 2011

My Mother lives in a flat where one aerial serves the whole block, she receive only 15 Channels +radio, will buying Freeview+ box give her more channels?

Freeview+ is nothing more that a combined Freeview receiver and recorder so purchasing one won't in itself get you any more channels than the existing Freeview box. A newer box in itself may do a better job with the limited aerial signal available but I doubt it would make much of a difference.

Doris asked

28th June 2011

Could you please tell me if they have digital/HD television in Cornwall as I shall be staying there for a while and wonder if I should have to change mine.

Digital switcher is in the West Country TV region is completed and Freeview HD should also be available there with the right reception hardware if you want it:

http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/when_do_i_switch/west_country

Chris asked

28th June 2011

I have a satellite TV tuner and I was wondering if it was possible to tune my dvd player through it as I have a very heavy TV mounted on the wall and it is impossible to take it off without help. Being able to play my dvd player through the satellite box would help enormously.

What you can do really depends on the what if any inputs (beyond the connection from your satellite dish) your decoder box has. If you're able to connect or adapt an output from your DVD player to connect to a spare video input on your satellite decoder this should allow you to achieve what you want by switching to the external/AV input from your satellite remote. If there's a SCART input for use with a VCR this is probably your best chance of success but this will depend very much on what make and model of satellite decoder you happen to have.

Ken asked

28th June 2011

I have a PC with HDMI connection so can I connect my Freesat box to my computer?

I very much doubt you have anything other than an HDMI output on your computer so connecting it to the HDMI output on your Freesat box won't do anything sadly.

Tony asked

22nd June 2011

We have recently moved fro south bucks to kent. Should we be able to access HD Freeview in this area as we did in our old house? Our postcode here is ME17. It was HP9.

For Freeview HD you'll have to wait until May next year for digital switchover to take place in your TV region which is Meridian:

http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/postcodechecker/main/display/basic/ME17+2PW/

David asked

22nd June 2011

We currently have Sky Freesat, but because of trees the reception is not great. We would like to change to Virgin (our street is already cabled) in two rooms, but keep the Sky Freesat in the spare bedroom. Is this possible?

Satellite and cable are quite different systems but you should have no problems with them coexisting in the same household. You'll just need to make sure there is the correct cable/satellite cabling to the respective decoder boxes in each room. Virgin should take care of installing their own hardware for you and if necessary all you should need to do is to extend/move the cable from the satellite dish to the decoder box's new location.