I know this is rather off topic but I don't know of a TV group (is there
one?).

Freeview... Having just bought a standard set top box I was amazed to
discover that one is unable to watch one channel while recording another.
Does anyone know of an alternative STB which can do both jobs with the
simple press of a button?

"PJO" wrote in message
...
I know this is rather off topic but I don't know of a TV group (is there
one?).

Freeview... Having just bought a standard set top box I was amazed to
discover that one is unable to watch one channel while recording another.
Does anyone know of an alternative STB which can do both jobs with the
simple press of a button?


If you want to watch one digital channel while recording another, the best,
if not *only* way (presuming no digital telly) is to daisychain 2 STBs
together. There is one by (dare I say it?) Bush being advertised for only
£40 atm. (Not an undue amount, IMO.)

Avoid the £99 Philips boxes as they are not too reliable atm, apparently.
(What is it with Philips these days? - They seem to be going through a bit
of a bad patch?)

"PJO" wrote in message
...
I know this is rather off topic but I don't know of a TV group (is there
one?).

Freeview... Having just bought a standard set top box I was amazed to
discover that one is unable to watch one channel while recording another.
Does anyone know of an alternative STB which can do both jobs with the
simple press of a button?


If you want to watch one digital channel while recording another, the best,
if not *only* way (presuming no digital telly) is to daisychain 2 STBs
together. There is one by (dare I say it?) Bush being advertised for only
£40 atm. (Not an undue amount, IMO.)

Avoid the £99 Philips boxes as they are not too reliable atm, apparently.
(What is it with Philips these days? - They seem to be going through a bit
of a bad patch?)

On Thu, 13 Nov 2003 23:13:49 -0000, "PJO"
wrote:

I know this is rather off topic but I don't know of a TV group (is there
one?).

Freeview... Having just bought a standard set top box I was amazed to
discover that one is unable to watch one channel while recording another.
Does anyone know of an alternative STB which can do both jobs with the
simple press of a button?

Why would you be amazed that a single box picks up a single channel?
What you need is Sky+, which has two receivers.
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering

On Thu, 13 Nov 2003 23:13:49 -0000, "PJO"
wrote:

I know this is rather off topic but I don't know of a TV group (is there
one?).

Freeview... Having just bought a standard set top box I was amazed to
discover that one is unable to watch one channel while recording another.
Does anyone know of an alternative STB which can do both jobs with the
simple press of a button?

Why would you be amazed that a single box picks up a single channel?
What you need is Sky+, which has two receivers.
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering

Has it ever occurred to you just why one can record one thing and watch
another whilst using a TV and VCR?

Of course BUT as the STB has a scart OP specifically for a VCR I thought it
was able to direct a different challen to that OP while another was directed
to the TV scart OP.

With technology the way it is these days I don't think that's asking a lot.

Has it ever occurred to you just why one can record one thing and watch
another whilst using a TV and VCR?

Of course BUT as the STB has a scart OP specifically for a VCR I thought it
was able to direct a different challen to that OP while another was directed
to the TV scart OP.

With technology the way it is these days I don't think that's asking a lot.

Why would you be amazed that a single box picks up a single channel?

Yes, I do find that amazing. Basically the STB needs two tuners.

What you need is Sky+, which has two receivers.

Od two STB's? which is messey.

To be honest, now that I've looked at what's available on Freeview (crap
mainly) I think I'll sell the STB again and go back to analogue. I reckon if
I wait a few months I'll be able to buy a reasonably priced twin tuner STB.

I notice Nokia make one but it's currently £250+. I'm sure others will
follow.

Why would you be amazed that a single box picks up a single channel?

Yes, I do find that amazing. Basically the STB needs two tuners.

What you need is Sky+, which has two receivers.

Od two STB's? which is messey.

To be honest, now that I've looked at what's available on Freeview (crap
mainly) I think I'll sell the STB again and go back to analogue. I reckon if
I wait a few months I'll be able to buy a reasonably priced twin tuner STB.

I notice Nokia make one but it's currently £250+. I'm sure others will
follow.

In article , Keith G
wrote:

"PJO" wrote in message
...
I know this is rather off topic but I don't know of a TV group (is
there one?).

Freeview... Having just bought a standard set top box I was amazed to
discover that one is unable to watch one channel while recording
another. Does anyone know of an alternative STB which can do both jobs
with the simple press of a button?


If you want to watch one digital channel while recording another, the
best, if not *only* way (presuming no digital telly) is to daisychain 2
STBs together. There is one by (dare I say it?) Bush being advertised
for only £40 atm. (Not an undue amount, IMO.)

Well, I've just boldly gone and bought a DTTV receiver box (Nokia 221T).
Chose this one as it had good reviews and has a S/PDIF output for sound as
well as a pair of scarts.

The 'snag' wish daisy chaining I have found is as follows:

Both the DTTV and my VHS/DVD combo unit have 'aux' scarts as well as 'TV'
scarts, so can actually be daisy-chained in either order. However although
each outputs RGB, the each (it would seem) only accept composite or S
video. Thus the unit at the 'far' end of a scart daisy chain suffers a loss
in image quality. Since my TV has two scarts - but only one RGB - this is a
pest.

At present I have opted to have the DTTV box at the 'far' end of a daisy
chain, so the DVD can still give good pictures, but the DTTV picture
suffers as a result.

When the DTTV box is connected directly to the scart RGB input of the TV it
gives a very good picture despite our only having a poor signal level which
causes breakup when it is raining heavily. (A better antenna is on the list
of future improvements ;- )

I am currently investigating scart switches of the types sold by
lecktropacks, etc, to see if I can effectively give my TV two RGB inputs by
using a suitable switch. I believe you can get 'auto' ones that switch in
response to the inputs.

The quality for recording does not matter so much, so I'll either use UHF
or try the aux scarts. No point in trying to give the VHS a superb image as
the recording will be relatively poor anyway! :-)

Seems weird that units output RGB but do not accept it inwards to pass
through...

OT: Another pest with the Nokia turns out to be that the 'TV station' and
'Radio station' lists are distinct, so switching between radio and TV is
clumsy if your TV is switched off and you are just hearing the output via
S/PDIF. Is this standard for DTTV boxes?

The user guides for both the DTTV box and the VHS/DVD recommend daisy
chaining scarts with the VHS/DVD 'upstream' of the DTTV so far as signals
sent to the TV are concerned. This works, and means the DTTV box can auto
switch and pass through the VHS/DVD output, which is convenient. However
the degrading of DVD images is obvious when I do this.

FWIW I tried connecting the DTTV output to the secondary scart on the TV
(which does not have RGB inputs) but this caused problems as they seem
incompatable as to the form of composite/S video. Colour was difficult to
obtain, and seemed to rely upon 'leakage' from one cable to another, but I
have not yet sussed this out beyond finding it did not work! ;-)

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html