Television setup advice requested

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frizzo

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#20707 3-Apr-2008 16:50

Hi folks

A disclaimer first, I'm a bit of a novice in this area and I would like some advice on how to best setup my television equipment at home.

I have a Panasonic 37" LCD television, Panasonic 160GB DVD/HDD recorder and Sky UHF decoder

My current setup is:

UHF aerial to Sky UHF decoder to DVD/HDD recorder to Television. The DVD/HDD recorder is also connected to the television with an HDMI cable.

My sky reception through my recorder is poor, and through the television is better but not as good as it could be. TV One through my television is unwatchable but is OK through Sky. 2 and 3 are very clear through my tv and much the same through the recorder. Prime isn't the best through any.

Have I got my setup wrong? or do I need a stronger signal (booster?)

Secondly I'm interested in Freeview but how can you have Freeview terrestrial & Sky UHF both connected? Ideally I would want to be able to record all channels through my recorder as well.

Thanks in advance
Frank

cyril7

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#120799 3-Apr-2008 18:17

Firstly, if you want to stay with Sky might I suggest that you upgrade to Sky digital and fix your reception issues. An idea of you location might help. Yes there is no reason why you cant run Sky UHF with the FreeView DTT service, but it all depends on your location.

Cyril

frizzo

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#120878 3-Apr-2008 21:07

Thanks for the reply, I live in Mount Albert in Auckland and the Sky reception was OK until I connected my DVD/HDD recorder. I thought that either I've got a dodgy cable in between or the signal got weakened with the extra hop.

What's the best way to connect a Sky UHF decoder and a Freeview terrestrial unit to my television? How would the aerial connect through both units?

cyril7

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#120889 3-Apr-2008 21:25

Hi Fisso, I suggest that if you get a DTT STB you simply split the signal from your Sky UHF antenna assuming its OK to feed both your Sky decoder and your new DTT STB. you will need to feed your new DTT box to your LCD TV via HDMI, this will give you optimal picture quality. You can then use either a component or S-Video connection from the DTT STB to your DVR for recording purposes.

Cyril

frizzo

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#121193 4-Apr-2008 20:36

Thanks for the advice on sky & freeview, Cyril. I've just had a closer look at my setup and with sky decoder connected my tv one & prime are awful through my television. If I remove sky decoder tv one and prime are very clear. Channels 2 and 3 are very clear with decoder connected or without. Any ideas on this? Apart from going Sky Digital?

Goosey

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#121198 4-Apr-2008 21:31

Sup Frizzo.

A couple things to consider before you make that plunge to SKY Digital and or Freeview.

You say when you take your recorder/player out of the loop, the signal gets better.

Are you also taking out a particular RF cable?

Are you using RF from your UHF box to the recorder and then RF cable to the TV?

How are you recieving your VHF signal. TV1 is on VHF.

Is your current UHF SKY box the old style black clunker or the newer slimline silver?

Ideally, one would feed the signal from the aerial mast (hopefully the signal is both VHF and UHF combined), to your sky, to your recorder to your TV.

Make sure all your LEADS ARE NEW (if your using stuff thats older than your recorder... this may be the problem).

Now if it were me, Id run SCART or RCA leads from the SKY to the recorder and SCART or RCA leads from the recorder to feed the TV.

Therefore you can record whatever your sky box is showing OR whatever the Tuner is set to.

Maybey an upgrade of sky box and leads is all you need. Personally, if your happy with sky UHF, then why change?

Hope this helped and for all you nodding at this post...then lets get started huh..

heheh