Well I gotta say, I think digital TV generally is a total overhyped crock of ****.

Last week I ordered myself a Nebula TV card for my PC for the bedroom, which is a TV card with a digital freeview receiver built in.

The box itself is excellent, the features are superb, its easy to use and its just a very good product.

But I think digital freeview is utter rubbish. I remember when digital TV started to become hyped. All this bull about how the signal is 1's and 0's and would be easier to receiver, better picture and all that.

Well living in a rented house, I've had to make do with an indoor aerial, and got a powered one from maplin that was recommended by some site or other for use with freeview TV. My mate also has an extremely large aerial that he uses in his room for freeview.

I am amazed at how difficult it is to get all the channels, and a decent picture on them. The nearest transmitter is only about a mile away, so it should be a good reception area.

I have read before that its almost a waste of time to try and get it with an internal aerial, and now i know what they mean.

Unlike analogue, you dont just get a rubbish picture - no, total pixellation and very irritating screeching and popping sounds out of the speakers. Before, it was still watchable just, but now i'd say it was practically unwatchable. Every time i change channels i seem to have to adjust the aerial. And even when i get it right, i can just sit here and within 5 minutes, it can be rubbish again.

This is supposed to be a step forward? What ******

Once analogue is turned off, the idea is that digital can go to higher power / more bandwidth... but as an ex-freeview 'user', I know exactly what you mean...

I was having this problem this evening. Just can't seem to get ITV (which is no big loss ) - the picture goes all blocky and the sound just cuts out. Most other things are better then with analogue.

I think it's worth it just for the Guide.

I work on the theory that you dont get owt for nowt

Freeview has always been crap channels needing a high quality outside aerial.

A multiroom Sky+ package is the answer but Sky certainly know how to charge. I think I pay over

Get a booster with variable boost - mark the setting where the signal goes at the low end, and at the high end. Too much signal won't work either

Settle somewhere in the middle. Most of the time it's ok then.

I've had OnDigital since it came out, then ITVDigital, and now I'm just using the Freeview bit, not the TopupTV. You need a VERY good signal quality, and indeed the advertising is BS.

The picture quality I would say is more extreme. You get: proper pic & sound OR degraded but watchable, OR the more than a little annoying red dot with occasional pic if you're lucky.

Best thing to do is to go to your setup pages and check out the signal strength.

A booster shouldnt cost that much but keep it AWAY from your digibox as it messes it up - so I used a little 2 meter lead to keep it nicely away

We dont have freeview in our area but with a high gain aerial and amp we can pick it up from a transmitter some 30 miles away and nearly always have a perfect picture....even the kids in their rooms can get a reasonable picture with indoor aerials.........not sure what to suggest except pay a visit to your local tv shop and ask there....maybe as above ....signal too strong...it can happen

I ditched ntl and now use only freeview, a pc card is less resiliant to a bad signal. Keep in mind when reading the below, I live in Stevenage and our roof aerial is pointing at the Crystal Palace transmitter more than 20 miles away.

PC wise I use 2x Hauppauge Nova-T cards with XP MediaCenter 2005, works really well but sometimes the signal stutters, this is connected to my 42" plasma TV via a DVI Cable and the picture is superb with very little pixelation, just the odd stutter.

I also have a Sony freeview box hooked up to the TV, this hardly stutters at all and looking at the signal strength in the menu its excellent with excellent quality. The PQ is slightly worse because of the way its connected to the TV.

I have had recent problems, but the cause I found was that the tuners (pc and sony) are picking up the Sandy Heath transmitter from the back of the aerial (not good) and storing those when doing an auto scan, I then get a bad picture and massive breakup on some channels. I gave up and tuned the freeview box manually and problem fixed, but you cant manually tune mce2005 so I am still working on that.

We dont have freeview in our area but with a high gain aerial and amp we can pick it up from a transmitter some 30 miles away and nearly always have a perfect picture....even the kids in their rooms can get a reasonable picture with indoor aerials.........not sure what to suggest except pay a visit to your local tv shop and ask there....maybe as above ....signal too strong...it can happen

We are in same boat here, but like you say, a high gain DIGITAL tv ariel and an amp....away you go with an excellent picture

We don't get digital terrestrial TV or DAB out here in the sticks.

I make do with a combo of Sky+. 2mb ADSL and a whopping big dish pointed somewhere European with a Satellite card in my PC.

I've sacked of Sky now but the missus is hankering after freeview and I'm just not interested. Okay I'll have no choice when analogue goes but for now I'd rather go out and play than watch TV any way.

Most of it is pants.Spend hours just flicking through the programme listings then go to bed.

Went for sky but didn't bother with the movie channel.It seems to be about two years out of date the rubbish films they offer.Wasn't allowed sport package either by swmbo :thumbdwn:

Most of it is pants.Spend hours just flicking through the programme listings then go to bed.

Went for sky but didn't bother with the movie channel.It seems to be about two years out of date the rubbish films they offer.Wasn't allowed sport package either by swmbo :thumbdwn:

swmbo keeps saying about getting sky back too - I just ask her if she could cope with me watching motorsport all the time and she shuts up.

Well well...even in audio....digital will always be nothing compared to analogue...

Well well...even in audio....digital will always be nothing compared to analogue...

Despite what the marketing types say about clearer pictures and better sound...

Rob.

Well I gotta say' date=' I think digital TV generally is a total overhyped crock of ****.

Last week I ordered myself a Nebula TV card for my PC for the bedroom, which is a TV card with a digital freeview receiver built in.

The box itself is excellent, the features are superb, its easy to use and its just a very good product.

But I think digital freeview is utter rubbish. I remember when digital TV started to become hyped. All this bull about how the signal is 1's and 0's and would be easier to receiver, better picture and all that.

Well living in a rented house, I've had to make do with an indoor aerial, and got a powered one from maplin that was recommended by some site or other for use with freeview TV. My mate also has an extremely large aerial that he uses in his room for freeview.

I am amazed at how difficult it is to get all the channels, and a decent picture on them. The nearest transmitter is only about a mile away, so it should be a good reception area.

I have read before that its almost a waste of time to try and get it with an internal aerial, and now i know what they mean.

Unlike analogue, you dont just get a rubbish picture - no, total pixellation and very irritating screeching and popping sounds out of the speakers. Before, it was still watchable just, but now i'd say it was practically unwatchable. Every time i change channels i seem to have to adjust the aerial. And even when i get it right, i can just sit here and within 5 minutes, it can be rubbish again.

This is supposed to be a step forward? What ****** [/quote']

I bought a freeview box 4 weeks ago (sony vtx800), and plugged it in expecting nothing as my aerial is about 3 years old, and to my surprise it all worked. Well i think it does anyway, in that we get ITV 2, so the mrs could watch celebrity island extras. There is a lot more channels, but some are scrambled, i think these are the top up ones where you pay and they give.

And my aerial is in the attic. I live in Hereford and i don't know how far the transmitter is away. Think its a few miles at Ridgehill. Maybe i was the lucky one.

Ade

This might seem like a daft question but instead of buying an amplifier etc. why not just splice into the co-axial cable from the exterior roof aerial and use a y-splitter to take a feed into your bedroom..(failing that put the y-splitter in the back of the TV and send another co-axial back up the wall into the bedroom)..?

It'll stilll be crap telly but at least it'll be clear crap telly..

Main reason: if you split it you'll change the impedance of the cable (as you'll never get it the same both 'ends' if you dont use identical length leads. That could increase reflections. Also you are decreasing the signal strength by splitting it as you're increasing the load on the signal.

If you want to split it, you really will benefit from a (variable) booster. A fixed booster is cheaper for sure but has the fundamental problem that if the signal is too strong/weak the digibox won't like it.

I've got the Sony Freeview box and a new external aerial and get a fantastic picture on all channels (my analogue signal on Channel 4 is virutally unwatchable).

As for the quality of the programmes, even the Sony box can't improve that.

Well well...even in audio....digital will always be nothing compared to analogue...

Used to think the same, been involved with hifi and then home cinema for over twenty years.

But......

I now have to say that SACD or DVD-A through a system around the

To be honest most digital tv channels are just endless repeats going round and round and round and round. Terrible scheduling to, Frasier just stopped halfway thru a season and started again halfway thru another one!

The only stuff you end up watching is stuff that was on terrestrial years ago, and conversely, any good stuff on satellite usually ends up on terrestrial anyway. Only thing it's worth getting for is sport

Used to think the same, been involved with hifi and then home cinema for over twenty years.

But......

I now have to say that SACD or DVD-A through a system around the

Well I gotta say, I think digital TV generally is a total overhyped crock of ****.

Can't agree with you more. I bought an integrated digital tv about a year before on digital went bust. I bought a

Dude, for digital audio to even be as close to analogue, sample rate figures will have too hit crazy numbers just to be able to even simulate the smoothness of analogue audio waveforms, which will never happen. Analogue rules. I work with digital audio because I have to, and it's good no doubt , but it'll never be as good as analogue. Especially to the ears.

Yeh but at what price point?

Get a