TV with digital TV tuner - will it work?

nchch

Hi,
Apologies - this has probably been answered already but I can't find it on boards.

I am thinking about buying a TV with an inbuilt digital TV tuner which claims to pick up 41 channels (i.e. the UK FTA channels). When I quizzed the guy in the shop he told me it would only work if I had an aerial on the roof of my house. I don't - we had cable and then sky digital so never put an aerial up. However, I thought that digital TV didn't go through aerial's.

Does anyone have any idea if i'll be able to pick up channels? We have sky digial in one room but just don't want to pay the €15 extra a month for multi-room as it won't be used very often.
Cheers.

slegs

You will usually have many choices for hooking up external tuners like Sky satellite or even terrestrial DTT to your television like scart, component or HDMI.

So yes the television can still be used even if you dont plan to use the internal tuner.

Might be worth checking if the internal DTT tuner is MPEG4 capable before purchase as otherwise you will definitely never be using it as Irish DTT (DVB-T/MPEG4) will be a different format to the UK (DVB-T/MPEG2).

However, you will probably need to look this up online as there is a very good chance that the salesman wont have a clue.

coylemj

Digital TV will be available via aerials, it will be broadcast on UHF frequencies and is known as Digital Terrestrial TV or DTT. Anyone with a wideband UHF aerial receiving analog TV today will be able to receive DTT from the same aerial but obviously they will need a digital tuner either in a new TV or a set top box.

I'm not sure about the UK FTA chanels, are you able to pick up a UHF signal from any transmitter in NI? If so then you may be able to get DTT from across the border but note that we are going to use MPEG4 instead of the UK MPEG2 so a TV with a digital TV which picks up UK DTT will need a seperate (set top) box in order to receive DTT from the 26 counties network (RTE & Boxer) when it starts next year.

http://www.digitaltelevision.ie/

byte

Panasonic make a TV with integrated Freesat tuner, which as the name suggests, is for receiving free satellite signals, which include the UK terrestrial channels (not Channel five currently, but rumoured to be very soon)

O7Pat

nchch wrote: »

I am thinking about buying a TV with an inbuilt digital TV tuner which claims to pick up 41 channels (i.e. the UK FTA channels).

.................

Does anyone have any idea if i'll be able to pick up channels? We have sky digial in one room but just don't want to pay the €15 extra a month for multi-room as it won't be used very often.
Cheers.

If its just the free channels you want would it not be easier to just get a second non subscribtion sky box?
(Or if you don't have it upgrade to sky+ and keep your existing box for the non subscrition channels)

The Cush

nchch wrote: »

I am thinking about buying a TV with an inbuilt digital TV tuner which claims to pick up 41 channels (i.e. the UK FTA channels). When I quizzed the guy in the shop he told me it would only work if I had an aerial on the roof of my house. I don't - we had cable and then sky digital so never put an aerial up. However, I thought that digital TV didn't go through aerial's.

I assume you may be referring to the UK's Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) service Freeview which broadcasts 40-50 channels digitally to a UK digital (freeview) TV or set-top box which is connected to an aerial on the roof. This service is available in Britian and N. Ireland and can also be received across the border if you are within range of a N. Ireland transmitter.

Where do you live and where was "the guy in the shop" located?

A warning, if you buy a freeview digital tv it may not be able to receive the Irish DTT service which is expected to launch in Autumn 2009.

nchch wrote: »

Does anyone have any idea if i'll be able to pick up channels? We have sky digial in one room but just don't want to pay the €15 extra a month for multi-room as it won't be used very often.
Cheers.

As you already have a Sky dish installed your best option is a Freesat or FTA satellite receiver which will pick all the UK free-to-air channels (without subscription), and depending on the type of LNB fitted to your dish you could connect up to 8 satellite receivers.

Firetrap

I assume in time we'll be able to buy televisions in Ireland that'll have an inbuilt digital receiver to pick up Irish digital TV. Assuming of course that it turns out not to be as plausible as the Yeti?

coylemj

Firetrap wrote: »

I assume in time we'll be able to buy televisions in Ireland that'll have an inbuilt digital receiver to pick up Irish digital TV. Assuming of course that it turns out not to be as plausible as the Yeti?

Given that we will have a different system to the UK (they are MPEG2, we're going to be MPEG4), it may be that there will be some TVs in the shops with MPEG4 digital tuners intended for the Irish market - or there may be none. At the end of the day you'll probably be as well off with a set top box (STB) which means that you can go out and buy any TV, otherwise you may find yourself with a very limited choice.

Mossy Monk

Firetrap wrote: »

I assume in time we'll be able to buy televisions in Ireland that'll have an inbuilt digital receiver to pick up Irish digital TV.

You can already buy TV's capable of picking up the Irish DTT broadcasts.

mrs aol

I've just bought a tv with a digital tv tuner (Mpeg4). Can I receive channels with out my sky box? I'm in Cork.

GerardKeating

mrs aol wrote: »

I've just bought a tv with a digital tv tuner (Mpeg4). Can I receive channels with out my sky box? I'm in Cork.

What model TV?

TheDriver

depends where in cork? spur hill still doing tests for dtt. you sure its mpeg4 and not digital enabled??

watty

No proper service yet. Even then only the Irish channels free. Sky or Fta sat box better for extra channels

sceptre

coylemj wrote: »

note that we are going to use MPEG4 instead of the UK MPEG2

Ofcom made a proposal in December 07 that the standard there be changed to mpeg4/DVB-T. Dangerous as it is to assume, I'd guess that most UK digital terrestrial certified TVs/boxes can cope with mpeg4/DVB-T (not that they're adverse to moving the target as people found out last August)

mrs aol

It's a sony 40W4000.

It says:
Digital TV Tuner DVB-T
Digital TV Service TNT
MPEG Profiles and Levels MPEG4 AVC/H.264 HP@L4

I'm in east cork.

knoxor

to OP,

I'd go the Freesat way. The signal you get through you ariel is the Freeview signal, you are not guaranteed to get a signal everywhere in the UK never mind in Ireland. Freesat broadcasts are also in HD and they are FREE. If you go for the Panasonic tv's with the integrated freesat tuners you are all set to go. You can use an already existing Sky Dish to pick up the Freesat signal and that will work anywhere (I think Freesat uses the same satellites Sky do), even in Ireland.

You can also buy a separate Freesat box to plug into your tv, but the new Panasonic TV's have it integrated.

slegs

sceptre wrote: »

Ofcom made a proposal in December 07 that the standard there be changed to mpeg4/DVB-T. Dangerous as it is to assume, I'd guess that most UK digital terrestrial certified TVs/boxes can cope with mpeg4/DVB-T (not that they're adverse to moving the target as people found out last August)

If you are suggesting that most UK Freeview boxes are MPEG4 capable you would be very incorrect.

MPEG4 will only be used when the UK starts to roll out HD channels over freeview and only at that stage they will start promoting HD MPEG4 DVB-T/DVB-T2 capable boxes. There are hundreds of thousands of DVB-T/MPEG2 boxes sold in UK and they are now very cheap (<25GBP in many cases) so there will be no major changes for normal SD Freeview in the medium term.