What to do about Digital - 1 [Installing a Freeview Set Top Box]

This is the first in a second series of posts on this site to help you with the Digital TV Switchover at the Rowridge and Winterborne Stickland tv transmitters next March.

I know some of you who currently have only analogue television reception are beginning to think about what to do about digital. Here are some initial thoughts - more will follow in subsequent posts under this heading.

You can continue to use your current analogue tv. You will, however, have to add what is called a "Freeview Set Top Box" ("STB"). These are available from all good television shops plus other outlets like supermarkets, discount stores etc.

This STB will usually come with an "aerial fly-lead". Your current aerial lead going into a socket on the back of your tv has to be taken out of that socket and plugged into the "aerial input" socket on the STB. The aerial fly-lead given with the STB then is connected between the "aerial output" socket on the STB and the aerial socket on the tv. There are different plugs and sockets used so you cannot go wrong - just look at the plugs on the ends of the aerial fly-lead and the sockets on the equipment and you'll see how easy it is.

The STB should also come with what is called a "Scart Lead". This is quite a beast of a lead with a large plug on each end. It has to be connected between the "TV" Scart socket on the STB and a Scart socket on the tv, usually called "AV1" or "IN-1". If you have some other device connected to the tv by a Scart lead already, that socket will most likely already be used, so you'd have to use another Scart socket on the tv for your STB.

If you qualify for the Digital Switchover Help Scheme (essentially over 75 years of age or on some form of benefit), you can apply for that help from September onwards, up to one month after the final Switchover date (March 21st). Or you could buy an STB at any time, but do ask very near neighbours if they can receive digital terrestrial (Freeview) tv (not satellite) successfully. Otherwise, if you cannot receive it now you would be wasting guarantee time on the STB by buying now. Reception after the Switchover will be much better than now so it may be better to wait until close to March 7th before buying an STB.

Certainly if you are watching your analogue tv from the Winterborne Stickland Relay transmitter, there is no point in buying an STB yet because there are no digital transmissions from that transmitter until next March.

The next post in this series will look at possible problems with buying and installing an STB - there are a few! Guidelines will be given about possible ways of overcoming those problems, but the basic message behind this first post is:
You do not need to buy a new tv, nor do you need a new aerial (assuming your analogue reception is currently all right). Here is a LINK to explain more about the Switchover Help Scheme.