Can you get digital channels with old ariel?

bearaman

Hi,
I bought a new Samsung TV and have it connected to an old ariel on my roof. I can pick up the usual channels no problem like RTE1 and 2, TV3 and TG4. A friend said I should be able to pick up digital as well. The TV has a digital tuner.
Is this possible using just an ariel?
Do I need extra hardware to pick up digital channels?
Thanks,
B.

Antenna

Where are you living?
thats important for anyone to answer that question

bearaman

Hi Antenna,
Thanks for your reply. I'm living in cork city centre, I imagine reception shouldn't be an issue here.
B.

GerardKeating

bearaman wrote: »

Hi Antenna,
Thanks for your reply. I'm living in cork city centre, I imagine reception shouldn't be an issue here.
B.

Digital is on test on cork just now.

Also what model samsung, some are UK-DTT and not compatible with Irish-DTT.

bearaman

It's a Samsung SM2032MW 20" LCD - after checking this on Amazon, it looks like it only has an embedded analogue tuner!!! What extra gear do I need to get digital channels in Cork?
Thanks,
B.

Martin_F

To answer the origianl question re: the aerial - it is quite likely you will be able to use your existing aerial. I was watching the trial in Dublin on an ancient indoor 8" loop aerial hanging out the back of the TV. Perfect digital - but no analoge picture due to poor reception.

I no longer get it since they switched to MPEG4 - TV only supports MPEG2 - sound but no picture.

syboit

Martin_F wrote: »

To answer the origianl question re: the aerial - it is quite likely you will be able to use your existing aerial. I was watching the trial in Dublin on an ancient indoor 8" loop aerial hanging out the back of the TV. Perfect digital - but no analoge picture due to poor reception.

I no longer get it since they switched to MPEG4 - TV only supports MPEG2 - sound but no picture.

Similar response here, I can see the DTT channels in cork using the old aerial on the roof that was used to pick up rte's and channels from southcoast.

And to what extra gear your going to need, a box with a dvb-t tuner, with mpeg4 decoding. Lots of talk around here on suitable boxes, I have mine setup on the pc connected to the tv , hauppauge nova-t tuner card.

bearaman

syboit wrote: »

And to what extra gear your going to need, a box with a dvb-t tuner, with mpeg4 decoding. Lots of talk around here on suitable boxes, I have mine setup on the pc connected to the tv , hauppauge nova-t tuner card.

Thanks Syboit. Sorry to go off-topic a bit but how is that setup? Do you have your tv cable going into your nova-t card in your computer? Do you still need a set-top box with this? Do you need MPEG2 or MPEG4 decoders?
B.

syboit

bearaman wrote: »

Thanks Syboit. Sorry to go off-topic a bit but how is that setup? Do you have your tv cable going into your nova-t card in your computer? Do you still need a set-top box with this? Do you need MPEG2 or MPEG4 decoders?
B.

no probs, the aerial connects into the attic with some kind of booster box and I took one of those connections and plug it into the aerial socket on the dvb-t card. pc then connects to tv via vga lead, and phone lead for 2.0 stereo. no seperate set-top box needed. Card only has mpeg2 hardware, so the mpeg4 part is done in software. I watch tv using the dvbviewer program from the pc, and in there you can specify different codec's to use for HD video, I use the one that came with powerdvd.
I also have a hauppague dvb-s/s2 sat card, so in the channel list from dvbviewer I see the freeview channels coming from sat and the 4 dtt channels, just click on the one I want to watch. No need for telling it, I need channels on that card etc etc.

attached a pic of the type of aerial I have,

bleary

I have a similar q to bearaman -in cork old aeriel and a samsung.So i scanned for dtv and got rte1,2 tv3 etc and radio stations without a picture but sound is fine so reckon I have an mpeg2 decoder in tv.
So what next?
I also have a Tevion satellite kit from aldi that i never managed to get working
Is there a way i can use the box from that as a decoder?
Thx for your help

syboit

bleary wrote: »

I have a similar q to bearaman -in cork old aeriel and a samsung.So i scanned for dtv and got rte1,2 tv3 etc and radio stations without a picture but sound is fine so reckon I have an mpeg2 decoder in tv.
So what next?
I also have a Tevion satellite kit from aldi that i never managed to get working
Is there a way i can use the box from that as a decoder?
Thx for your help

You'd need some form of hardware cam to enable mpeg4, would go into a credit-card type slot on the side of your tv. There are a few threads around here on this.
The Tevion sat gear is only useful for satellite.