Freeview choices

Folks,

I'm pretty electronic-savvy, but I must admit that I've never had
cause to investigate Freeview (I have digicable) until the in-laws
said they'd like a box for Christmas.

Why am I finding a price-range of £30-£90 for these boxes? I know some
have more SCART's than others and some do the top-up. I'll buy the
bargain model if the price difference is mostly in brand name.

Is there any other features that I'm looking for? Anything that a 72
year old couple can do without?

Evan Joanette

"Evan Joanette" wrote in message
om...
Folks,

I'm pretty electronic-savvy, but I must admit that I've never had
cause to investigate Freeview (I have digicable) until the in-laws
said they'd like a box for Christmas.

Why am I finding a price-range of £30-£90 for these boxes? I know some
have more SCART's than others and some do the top-up. I'll buy the
bargain model if the price difference is mostly in brand name.

Is there any other features that I'm looking for? Anything that a 72
year old couple can do without?

Evan Joanette

Just bought a Matsui DTR-2 (one SCART). If they're not into taping then it
would be fine. (It is £40, the £50 DTR-1 has 2 SCARTS ideal for adding
VCR).
It doesn't do Top-up. Best to not connect the analogue, just set them up
with the new box which will switch the TV to AV automatically, so they use
the new box for 1-5. Then hwne they are used to it they can progress onto
the other channels.

Sim

Sim

(Evan Joanette) wrote:

Why am I finding a price-range of £30-£90 for these boxes? I know some
have more SCART's than others and some do the top-up. I'll buy the
bargain model if the price difference is mostly in brand name.

Is there any other features that I'm looking for? Anything that a 72
year old couple can do without?

I'd say go for a Setpal box. Those are reckoned to be the easiest to
operate for elderly folk. Setpal don't actually make the boxes, but
supply the internal module for several manufacturers. They will be
marked "Setpal" as well as with the manufacturers logo. I have seen one
at £40, but they're usually about £50.

--
Dave Farrance

Is there any other features that I'm looking for? Anything that a 72
year old couple can do without?


They may not be able to do without a wideband aerial for freeview reception.
DTT (digital terrestial) tx output is not as powerful as the analogue
variant at the moment so reception could be dodgy depending on the area of
residence. A *freeview* antenna will pull the stations in as well as
possibly can be expected.

If they are just a sit and watch telly people then they could easily do
without analogue and digital audio outs and a extra scart if recording
programs they are watching is not their thing (although they could switch
over to analogue). They may also be able to do without a 7 day epg if they
buy something like the radio/tv times for what's on information otherwise
it's pretty much teletext service for finding out what's on all the channels
without flipping over to each one!

Steve

"Dave Farrance" wrote in message
...
(Evan Joanette) wrote:

Why am I finding a price-range of £30-£90 for these boxes? I know some
have more SCART's than others and some do the top-up. I'll buy the
bargain model if the price difference is mostly in brand name.

Is there any other features that I'm looking for? Anything that a 72
year old couple can do without?

I'd say go for a Setpal box. Those are reckoned to be the easiest to
operate for elderly folk. Setpal don't actually make the boxes, but
supply the internal module for several manufacturers. They will be
marked "Setpal" as well as with the manufacturers logo. I have seen one
at £40, but they're usually about £50.

The RF output could also be a useful addition, especially if they can't get
the hang of AV switching on the TV or VCR, especially as many elderly people
aren't interested in wide screen & stereo sound, one can just tune the digi
box to the channel of their choice.


--
Dave Farrance

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 15:34:16 -0000, Stevie Boy wrote:

A *freeview* antenna will pull the stations in as well as
possibly can be expected.


??????????????????????

"Arthur" wrote in message
news
On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 15:34:16 -0000, Stevie Boy wrote:

A *freeview* antenna will pull the stations in as well as
possibly can be expected.


??????????????????????

A wideband aerial that is designed for the receiving of DTT transmissions.
This will provide maximum signal gain for your set top box. The gain will
depend on the design and amount of elements the aerial has. Reception at the
end of the day will depend on the choice of stb, positioning of aerial and
your location to your nearest or most suitable transmitter.

Steve

I hope the couple in question are not reading all this mail on the internet.
They won't enjoy being portrayed as old duffers at 72!!!

Regards,
Noel ( One of a very ancient couple of 78 who use all modern comms.
Including a long piece of string and two cans to communicate with out
rellies in OZ.)


Stevie Boy wrote:
Is there any other features that I'm looking for? Anything that a 72
year old couple can do without?


They may not be able to do without a wideband aerial for freeview
reception. DTT (digital terrestial) tx output is not as powerful as
the analogue variant at the moment so reception could be dodgy
depending on the area of residence. A *freeview* antenna will pull
the stations in as well as possibly can be expected.

If they are just a sit and watch telly people then they could easily
do without analogue and digital audio outs and a extra scart if
recording programs they are watching is not their thing (although
they could switch over to analogue). They may also be able to do
without a 7 day epg if they buy something like the radio/tv times for
what's on information otherwise it's pretty much teletext service for
finding out what's on all the channels without flipping over to each
one!

Steve

Noel and others,

No worries, they're not reading the newsgroup, so they'll not know I
inferred they were "old".

Based on some more personal research and comments in this thread, I
can expect to find analog/digital output and some boxes with
programming guides. Hmmm...interesting.

I think a couple of scarts would be good, as they have a DVD and VCR
already. A lot of these TV's autoswitch to the right AV device
anyway, so perhaps they'll be able to simply turn on their Freeview
box without a fuss?

I really have to stick to my £50 limit though. They won't appreciate
anything that's more expensive, and I've got other people to buy for!

Thanks for all the tips guys, you're great.

Evan



"Noel Thomas" [email protected] notvalidherebtopenworld.com wrote in message ...
I hope the couple in question are not reading all this mail on the internet.
They won't enjoy being portrayed as old duffers at 72!!!

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 21:31:19 -0000, Stevie Boy wrote:

A *freeview* antenna will pull the stations in as well as
possibly can be expected.


??????????????????????

A wideband aerial that is designed for the receiving of DTT
transmissions.
This will provide maximum signal gain for your set top box. The gain will
depend on the design and amount of elements the aerial has. Reception at
the
end of the day will depend on the choice of stb, positioning of aerial
and
your location to your nearest or most suitable transmitter.


I put the question marks in because there is no such thing as a
"*freeview*" aerial and this is quite likely to confuse the OP asking for
advice. It's quite wrong also to equate wideband with freeview as in the
great majority of cases a wideband aerial is not required for DTT and will
actually give inferior results to the correct grouped aerial.

Arthur