Can you get digital tv with just a Rabbits ears type aerial.

Berberis

Reason I ask is I bought a new telly in January (sony Bravia KDL 32V4000) and I use a set of rabbits ears pluggged in the attic for the 4 home stations. Up to last month the reception was reasonable for where we are located (west wicklow at the base of a hill where not even broadband can touch)
Anyway long story short the reception was dire for the match on saturday so I took out telly instructions and tuned in digital channels and got an EPg for rte 1 and 2 tv3 tg4 and radio. But when I press to select that channel all I get is channel not available, but yet I can hear the audio from each channel crystal clear while in the EPG mode.
Is there some accessory I can buy for the tv so I can get the picture also does anyone know.
Any help apprecited

Mossy Monk

Your tv is not MPEG4 compatible. This will explain why you are getting sound but no picture.

GerardKeating

Berberis wrote: »

Reason I ask is I bought a new telly in January (sony Bravia KDL 32V4000) and I use a set of rabbits ears pluggged in the attic for the 4 home stations. Up to last month the reception was reasonable for where we are located (west wicklow at the base of a hill where not even broadband can touch)
Anyway long story short the reception was dire for the match on saturday so I took out telly instructions and tuned in digital channels and got an EPg for rte 1 and 2 tv3 tg4 and radio. But when I press to select that channel all I get is channel not available, but yet I can hear the audio from each channel crystal clear while in the EPG mode.
Is there some accessory I can buy for the tv so I can get the picture also does anyone know.
Any help apprecited

The Irish DTT service is not live yet, there are engineering tests in progress at present, prior to the launch later this year.

I think your TV has an MPEG-2 tuner, the irish DTT service will use the newer MPEG-4 standard, so your TV might need a set top box to get digital TV.

Berberis

Mossy Monk wrote: »

Your tv is not MPEG4 compatible. This will explain why you are getting sound but no picture.

GerardKeating wrote: »

The Irish DTT service is not live yet, there are engineering tests in progress at present, prior to the launch later this year.

I think your TV has an MPEG-2 tuner, the irish DTT service will use the newer MPEG-4 standard, so your TV might need a set top box to get digital TV.

Thanks Guys So if i get the set top box, should I be able to get the picture, and the fact that I can get sound, would that mean that the picture should be clear, or am I just being over hopefull here.
Can I get the box now or are they not available till the service is properlly launched

slegs

Yes, the fact that you can get the sound means most likely the signal is tuned properly. But as everyone says this is just tests at the moment and the strength of output may be higher presently than it will be once the service goes live.

Berberis

Thanks Slegs, I just read through the posts in this thread

Cheap MPEG 4 DTT Tuner

Seems the only way is to buy the receivers online from another country, So i think I'll persevere till they become available to buy here.

EDIT.
Would one of these work
Turbosat MPEG4 to MPEG2 Viaccess Cam
[URL="http:///www.saortv.com/shop/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=33"]http:///www.saortv.com/shop/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=33[/URL]

Seems a lot simpler than the box and my telly has the cam card slot on the side needed.

Would it be that easy or am I missing something here,

slegs

Yes it should work fine

watty

However not the reliability nor quality of a separate set box.

The big advantage of a separate setbox is one with built in recording and software updates.

With the Neotion Pocket converter there are 3 issues:
1) Quality
2) Heat/reliability. It gets hot and might even damage TV.
3) The tuner part of your TV has to recognise and store the channels. If the stations don't at least store and give blank picture with sound, then the Converter which is "pretending" to be a CAM won't work.
4) Some TVs you can't route un-encrypted channels via the CI, so the Neotion converter pretending to be a CAM can't see them.

Basically the CI slot for CAM was designed for decrypting Pay TV. It wasn't designed for format conversion of clear channels.

The box is very simple. Aerial to box. SCART or HDMI to TV which is then a Monitor screen. The CAM adaptor solution might require menu settings in TV.

The Pocket Duo version is nice as it has an Ethernet socket and lets you record or play via PC/Laptop or stream non-TV video. However because it is pretending to be a CAM you must be receiving at least one channel or it can't play back or stream to TV.

I'd hold off on Digital till July /August (soon), i.e. till we get an announcement of a Public Service real launch date. Then there will be cheaper and wider variety of equipment and maybe better Neotion modules faking CAM for CI slot.

You'll be able to get a basic set box under 50 Euro this time next year and one with a HDD for recording under €150. The Analogue service is not getting turned off for at least FOUR YEARS, so plenty of time. It's the pioneers that get the arrows in the back.

Berberis

watty wrote: »

I'd hold off on Digital till July /August (soon), i.e. till we get an announcement of a Public Service real launch date. Then there will be cheaper and wider variety of equipment and maybe better Neotion modules faking CAM for CI slot.

You'll be able to get a basic set box under 50 Euro this time next year and one with a HDD for recording under €150. The Analogue service is not getting turned off for at least FOUR YEARS, so plenty of time. It's the pioneers that get the arrows in the back.

Thanks for the advice, I can normally do without the four home channels as I also use a sky frre sat card and sky box for a lot of the english channels.
Just lately the reception from the aerial pluged in up in the attic is gone really bad and I missed rte big time on Saturday for the match.

But hey sun is out and plenty to do in the garden, so maybe I give the telly a break for the summer and wait and see what happens about this public service launch date.

Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it

watty

Check the connections. If there is an amp try without it, or using a professional one with F-connectors in the attic.

A common problem is poor quality amplifiers getting overloaded by the often stroneger signal or simple because there are more signals. If the aerial is too big the TV may even overload reducing quality. If that is the case you can tell by watching picture as you unplug aerial VERY slowly. If there is too much signal it will improve as the plug is just disconnected and then picture gets noisy and vanishes as plug moves away from socket.