Ok, so I've acquired an unused HDTV from my parents and I'm wondering how to go about getting an hd signal to it.

I am in an adsl only flat and I'm about to be connected to virgin broadband but can't get the tv from them.

The flat has a satellite plug which I presume I can just plug into to get the signal?

Could someone go through the options I have please? Never had a tv of my own before so not sure.

I don't want much... Well tbh all I want is BBC hd for the f1 next year. I don't need any subscription channels or anything.

Tvm

Oliver

You now own a TV, so you'll need a licence.
If you're doing that, while you're out, pick up an HD Freeview box for it. Or order one online. I guess you'll be able to pick up an aerial while you're out.
Done.

Thanks for the reminder but I knew about that one already. Had about 5 or 6 letters from them when I moved into the flat.

Does the hd freeview go through the regular aerial. There is a socket in the block of flats so I guess I just plug into that?

Thanks!

You could try that .

If your TV has a Freeview receiver built-in then you should be fine - if not then you will need a "top-box" type receiver - Tesco's sell them for about £20-25.

If the TV has freeview built in try that first. Rather than splash out on a freeview box or HD freeview box see what you can get without having to splash out. If you have a console then you can use that for a while till you get a digi-box of some kind.

As far as satellite is concerned you could try a freesat box from Freeview or Sky. Or go the whole hog and get a sky package.

Either Freeview HD (about £50) or Freesat.

http://www.freesat.co.uk/

+1 for checking your TV already comes with freeview. A simple model search will save you the hassle if you can't be arsed with trying to set it all up. It's unlikely to come with Freeview HD unless it's very recent.

Thanks for the help all.

Went to tesco on the way home tonight and they had a freesat hd box for 99.97 took it to the till and it came up at 89.97!

Got it home, plugged in and it's all working perfectly with no setup at all!

Woo! BBC hd!

Ok, so the box is going back in its box tomorrow and back to tesco. It keeps dropping the signal completely every so often.

Today I was watching that polar bear thing when suddenly the picture went and was replaced with a message about signal loss. I switched onto another channel and it was fine. It was all the main channels that were out.

Half an hour later the picture came back. Then I was watching war of the worlds and it went again and hasn't yet come back.

So can anyone recommend a decent hd freeview box for about £100?

Thanks

Actually signal loss will be an issue until your area is switched over completely to digital. I have another two years to wait for a decent signal. Thankfully I can use TVcatchup.com to watch instead. though that is not HD.

It was a freesat box though so that shouldn't matter should it? The freeview in my old house seemed to be a lot better so I'm gonna go for that.

Freesat should work now where ever you are. Was your dish checked?

I wonder if quality of components has anything to do with it? In my experience cheap freeview boxes have the same issues and inferior cabling doesn't help either.
I bought a refurb Humax foxsat box direct from the company and installed a dish at my Mums house. shes never looked back and it doesnt break up or lose signal. Ymmv

What was the weather like? The satellite signal can't penetrate heavy cloud or thick mist, but it has to be quite exceptionally bad unless you're very far north on the edge of the footprint or have a bad dish.

Do you have your own dish, or is it distributed to all the other apartments? If it's distributed, then it's worth asking other tenants if they have similar issues. If it's your own dish then it's worth checking it, either yourself with a kit or professionally.

With Satellite, it's the quality of the LNB and the alignment of the dish that is more important than the box. The LNB is a pre-amp that boosts the signal and changes the frequency.

With terrestrial, the box is designed to take the signal un-amplified from the aerial. Some boxes will have a better SNR than others, and thus cope with lower signal levels better. However, you are still dependant on a decent aerial and distribution system. If the SNR at the socket is too low then even the best box will suffer picture breakup.

Don't be blinded by HD, HD does not equate to quality, I watched Band of Borthers on Bluray and the DTS sound was impressive, while the HD Samsung telly was distractingly ghosty. It would have been better on a standard def screen with a faster response rate, one way to get a near-perfect AV experience is to by a £10 second hand widescreen CRT screen with a £5 digibox from Cash Converters and plug the audio into your hi fi. £15 and you're laughing.