I have a little tv set that must be 30 years old.  We are undergoing digital change over this month - does anyone know if this tv will work with a digital aerial?  Don't quite understand these things.  It doesn't work at this property because for some reason the analogue aerial is rubbish.  I need to know whether I need to throw it out rather than haul it to my new house.  Anyone know please? 

Sadly no - you will need a Freeview box to receive digital channels, meaning that when your service is switched off, you won't get a thing on your old telly any more :(  You may also need a better aerial.

My elderly mum's signal is changing over this month - for over a year I have tried to get her used to using her freeview box instead but it seems beyond her.

ETA: http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/cost__and__options/service_comparison

So my old tv will still work with a freeview box?  

> So my old tv will still work with a freeview box?

Does it have a SCART input socket at the back? If so then yes, although the aerial might need to be upgraded as well, I'm afraid.

no scart lead - so it really is defunct!  Our new place has been wired ready but it is hard to get my head around the fact that when we loose our sky signal we don't even have the choice of analogue.   Hardly progress is it.  For some reason I thought because we have a digital aerial then we still get 'terrestrial'  - but of course we will need yet another box.  Or read a book I suppose!

Hey it's not so bad.... I was given a freeview box years ago and I do like having the extra channels - although not all of then are worth it *grin*
You often get repeats of things you missed, plus I would not want to be without BBC3 or 4... they do great & good new stuff. And Film 4 is good too. It's not all bad, I promise :)

My TV has a scart socket - I bought my freeview box from Dyas for £20. All good, mostly. A good aereial is a bonus.... I am having problems with mine as when it rains I can't pick up any channels at all.... rented place, landlord is useless... that's how it goes sometimes :)

Do you have a Freegle or Freecycle group near you? Always lots of people on there trying to give away tellies for free and sometimes freeview boxes too.

That is not a bad price for a freeview box!  I am so fed up with Sky - they keep upping the monthly costs and I am using their channels less and less.  The only programme I watch now is Lost.  Hubby watches the sport.  When I phoned to inform them that we were moving the woman was so difficult I almost reported her - she was having a bit of fun - boring job I suppose.  I had to spell out our new address (Ok the Welsh can be tricky but I used the correct phonetic form too - romeo, alpha etc) and she kept spelling it back incorrectly.  She then told me that she didn't think the computer had accepted it - perhaps I could phone back.........   It was a bit like that Little Britain sketch.

Get FreeSat from Sky. It costs £20 for the freesat card if you already have the dish and skybox. I got it for our bedrooms when i got fed up paying for multiroom. Link here

We don't get digital yet and our 'council' telly as the kids call it :-) has a dreadful signal so can be unwatchable. Sky was our only solution. We have normal Sky in the Livingroom and Freesat elsewhere. My mum uses freesat on all her TV's.

> FreeSat from Sky

Now that is a very useful bit of information - thanks Dakkobear. 

Have had a think!  If you have a freesat card surely that means you can't use the recording part of the box.  Isn't sky+ part of the package.

Don't know as we don't use sky+ in the bedrooms just old fashioned sky - we pay for sky hd so we can use sky+ on that if needs be. Don't have time to watch what I want to watch so never really use sky +. Must be a dinosaur :-D

>Must be a dinosaur

No, you're really up-to-date! We don't have Sky at all (and don't intend to either).

We don't have Sky either - but may have to resort to Sky Freeview if the digital signal doesn't improve :(

Daisy

I don't have Sky at all and have no plans on getting it at all. I do have a Freeview box that we were given but rarely use it - I prefer to read than watch TV for the most part :-)

I just record the programmes that I like and watch them at my convenience.   I suppose I could download them on iplayer - but sitting in front of the computer screen isn't as comfortable as lounging in front of the tv.   I like to read as well but generally when I go to bed.

I'm hooked on 'Yesterday' (the history channel) and OH (who mostly listens to the radio) likes to watch the repeats of Poirot on ITV3 :) :) :) We also like the repeats of QI and Have I got News for You on Dave - but apart from those programmes, don't watch much at all. Last night, the only programme that was worth watching on the television was the Indian train programme on BBC4. Our digital reception is so bad that we can only get some channels, like ITV3 about 10% of the time :(

Daisy

That is one of the things that annoys me Daisy - no History channel on Freesat - I do like the History Channel and Dave but not on freesat. Most of the time I do watch the Beeb , itv, C4 etc but more4 does some good documentaries and I like BBC3 &4. The only ones I really missed going on to Freesat were Sky1 and the History channel but savin £20 per month soon got me over that! I'm a bit addicted to Glee at the moment much to the disgust of my elder daughter who thinks its naff :-D

We're thinking of getting FreeSat as, hopefully, it would be better than digital :) What's Glee - we don't get that on Freeview. BBC channels are the only channels that we can get with 95% reliability. The rest range from 10-50% :( I must check what channels we would get with FreeSat before we make a decision - don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater :) :) :)

Daisy

Glee is a programme on E4 about the Glee Club at a high school - think high school musical minus disney lacquer :-D :-D Not a channel, just a program that amuses me  :-)

We have a 10 year old telly that we could have used a digibox with, but after researching it and finding that the results are variable at best, and influenced by the fact that we have lost the remote and the replacement only changes channels and volume, we took the plunge and bought a NEW LCD TV from tesco.  It was an amazing price for a HD Digital/Freeview TV and as we don't go out/drink/smoke and had the money we felt we were entitled to a treat :)

I was a bit dubious about changing from analogue to digital, but the TV took care of it, I just reset it and told it to set itself up :-D

So far the reception has been incredible and no need to change the arial or it's position, although we do have a signal booster  :-D

Not bad for where we are, most people have SKY here because they can't get good enough reception.

Don't have and will never have SKY here, won't pay for SKY FREEview.  

It's called FREEVIEW and I ain't paying extra for it ;)

anyone want a 10 year old telly, with a replacement remote?  :-D