Help for the Digital Novice

Back in pre history – well the last century anyway - TVs were simple, 4 channels and a remote control if you were lucky. Now we have multiple remote controls, multiple set top boxes and a spaghetti nightmare connecting it all together.

Our prehistoric TVs (we now call them analogue) consisted of the screen to watch the picture on, speakers to listen to the sound and crucially a tuner. The broadcast signal picked up by the aerial (usually on the roof) has all the TV programs mixed up together and it is the job of the tuner to sort them out. So when we press, say button 1, the tuner separates out BBC1 from the other broadcast signals and sends it to the screen and the speakers so that we can see and hear BBC1.

Moving on to the 21^st century and the digital age we now have flat screen, so called, digital TVs but they are fundamentally the same as the old ones – they still have a screen, speakers and a tuner.

So what’s the difference then?

It’s just in the way the TV signal is broadcast.
There are two types of digital broadcast:

• Digital Terrestrial – DTT, DVB or DTV for short. Arrives through the aerial on the roof and is called Freeview.
• Digital satellite. Needs a satellite dish and unless you are an enthusiast is packaged as Sky or Freesat.

Other services are available such as cable and BT Vision but we are not concerned with these here.

So what is a “digital TV”?

IT IS ANY TV WITH A DIGITAL TUNER

Tuners are stupid things, they only speak one language, so analogue tuners don’t speak digital.
Digital satellites come from outer space so they speak a different language from digital terrestrial and need a different tuner again.
If you buy a TV today it should have two tuners built in, one for analogue and one for digital terrestrial but you should check before parting with your money as some still have only an analogue tuner.
If you have an older TV it will have just an analogue tuner but you can convert it to digital by adding an external digital tuner, commonly known as a “set top box”.

To summarise

• Digital TV needs a digital tuner
• New TVs should have a digital terrestrial (not satellite) tuner built in *
• Older TVs can be converted by adding a set top box
• Digital terrestrial or Digital satellite
• New TVs can also have a satellite set top box added

* Several manufacturers now make TVs with an integrated Freesat tuner as well as the digital terrestrial tuner

Digital broadcasting is here now and in May 2012 (in the southeast) the old analogue signal is being turned off. So if you haven’t converted to digital by then you won’t be able to watch TV.

Not everybody can get Freeview - mainly related to geographic location. As a general rule if you get a good analogue signal you will probably be OK. You can check the official prediction for your postcode here.

To get Freesat you need a dish mounted so that it gets a clear view of the sky to the southeast - any trees or buildings in the way will block it completely - but we can check that for you.

Important Information about using a Recorder

Tuners are like men – they can only do one job at a time (according to women). So our tuner can only separate out one station at a time.

Many people still have a video recorder and as you know that lets you record one station whilst watching another – it can do that because it has it’s own built in tuner. If you set the video recorder to say, record ITV, it will use its inbuilt tuner to record that station whilst you watch another station on the TV using it’s built in tuner.

Here’s the catch, most video recorders only have an analogue tuner. That means that from May 2012 (when the analogue signal is turned off) they will no longer be able to record! And in the meantime they can only be used with their built in tuner to record analogue broadcasts, not any of the new digital channels.

Most set top boxes – terrestrial or satellite – can be connected to a video recorder and successful recordings made of digital channels. But set top boxes are tuners don’t forget – they can only do one channel at a time – so if you are using the set top box to watch TV you can only record the channel you are watching! It is also very difficult, if not impossible, to make automatic timed recordings by this method.

The newer DVD and hard disk recorders do now have digital terrestrial tuners built in and several manufacturers now make a Freesat tuner and recorder combined. These allow the recording of one channel whilst watching another or recording two channels at the same time, recording whilst watching the playback of a previously recorded program or even pausing live TV!