Clive asked

19th November 2009

We have our Sky TV service so that it can be recieved/watched in two rooms. We have upgraded to Sky HD and the engineer who fitted it advised that although the programmes will go to the other HD-Ready TV, it will not be in HD. The reason he advised was that you need an HD box for each TV. Is that correct please?

The engineer is correct; you will need a high-definition Sky box for each television you want to watch HD on. You should have two co-axial connections in different parts of your house to your satellite dish, and attached to each of these there should be a decoder box that converts the satellite signal in to something you can watch. You need a high-definition decoder to watch your HD service, so you need two as you want to watch on two televisions.

Gerard asked

17th November 2009

I've invested in Freesat through a Panasonic TV and Humax box both bought from and installed professionally through John Lewis. Absolutely Brilliant!

This last week though I've not been able to receive BBC1 or ITV1, ITV2 and a message comes on the screen to say "poor or no signal"

HELP! What has happened? Is it related to the switchover to digital?

I'm sorry to hear about your reception problems. You should be able to investigate the signal strength of the problem channels using the on-screen menus within your television. It sounds like it's low for the channels you mention so firstly check your connection from the dish to your television. Turn the power off to your television and then check the co-axial connection on the back is still secure. You should then check there is nothing obstructing your dish's view of the sky, or that there has been an movement/dammage caused by the recent bad weather.

If there are no obvious connection problems but are still experiencing poor reception it's probably best to speak to your installation company directly for assistance.

Milindra asked

17th November 2009

I'm thinking of buying a LCD TV in the UK but hope to use it in Sri Lanka.

The TV system in UK is PAL as everybody knows. In Sri Lanka it's PAL-B. There are Goodmans LCDs with PAL, that also have an option in the sound settings to change to:

BG PAL/SECAM System (PAL-BG or SECAM-BG)

DK PAL/SECAM System (PAL-DK or SECAM-DK)

I PAL (PAL-I)

L (optional) SECAM (SECAM-L)

Do you think I could use this LCD TV in Sri lanka?

Thanks for your question. So long as you can sufficiently be sure any television you buy in the UK will is able to support multiple PAL standards you should also be able to use it in Sri Lanka.

The UK uses PAL-I and as you say and PAL B is used in Sri Lanka, from the information provided it looks like PAL-I and PAL-B/G are all supported but you may like to confirm this with the manufacture directly to be sure. It should only be the sound that won't work worst case, but if I were you I would double check before making the purchase.

Sandra asked

17th November 2009

If I have an HDMI cable from my TV to a set top box, does that mean I can get HD on my screen?

In that you have an HDMI connection on your television I'm going to assume it is capable of displaying a high-definition picture.

What you then need at the other end of the HDMI cable is a high-definition source and high-definition content. Even you have means of displaying (your televsion) and transporting (the HDMI cable) high-definition material, you must also have something that can generate or output the HD content (a source). This could be a high-definition set top box with appropriate HD service, games console or Disc player.

Once you have a complete chain of HD picture source, HD connection and HD display you will then be able to watch in high-definition.

Peter asked

17th November 2009

I have Sky+ & and an HD (1080) Freeview TV. I subscribe to Sky for SD, can I get just Freesat HD using a secondhand Sky+ HD set top box? That's to say SKY+ SD with Freesat HD.

As far as I'm aware even if you did manage to get a Sky HD box working with Freesat HD, and I'm pretty sceptical that it would work, I think you will then run in to problems with the EPG and recording set up that would likely then make you experience even more sub-optimal.

Subject to having enough signal outputs on your existing dish you should be able to reuse it to receive Freeview HD, so if you were going to buy anything, I would go out and buy dedicated Freesat HD box and get the best viewing/recoding experice you can.

Linda asked

12th November 2009

I have just got a SonyKDL524500 tv, so far so good, but when playing DVDs the picture is letter boxed, the whole idea of a big screen tv was to enjoy the picture on a large screen.

I am not technical minded so please tell me in laymans terms, also am thinking of getting a new DVD player or should i be looking at Blue-ray player, i honestly dont know the difference.

First thing to check is that the DVD you're watching was produced in an aspect ratio the same as or compatible with that of your LCD HD televsion, which is 16:9 (1.78:1). This information should be printed somewhere on the back cover of the DVD case.

If the aspect ratio is wider than 16:9 you will by default get the back letterbox bars above and below the image in order to maintain the original image proportions. You may also find in some cases the letterboxing is actually part of the film itself, assuming this isn't the case you will want to check your DVD player's zoom/enlargement settings described below.

If the DVD is marked as something like 'Anamorphic Widescreen' you should be able to get this to display correctly on your high-definition television. This should in most cases happen automatically but if it's not you will want to look on your DVD remote or in it's menus for a zoom letting which is misconfigured.

A Blu-ray player can simply be thought of as high-definition successor to the DVD format. Now you have a high-definition television this might be a good prospective purchase if you plan on wanting to watch movies in high-definition in the future. Equally if you simply wanted to watch your existing DVDs in higher definition you could go for a cheaper upscaling DVD player that would improve the display of your standard-definition DVDs on your HDTV.

Byron asked

10th November 2009

Is it possible to take a link off the back of a Virgin V+ box and feed it to a tv upstairs?

Also, would a "magic eye" work as it would on a Sky box?

Firstly I haven't been able to find an equivalent Magic Eye for a cable system so you probably won't be able to replicate that functionality exactly, but you may be able to achieve something similar via different means.

Firstly you can do things 'officially' and have a second decoder box installed which give you total independent control on a second screen.

If you don't want the hassle of having the cable (input) signal duplicated upstairs you can look to using one of your existing decoder's outputs. The options there are either a RF video sender, or with appropriate signal amplification/modulation a co-axial or similar wired connection direct to the television. You would also probably want some kind of RF remote to allow you to control the decoder downstairs from upstairs.

John asked

4th November 2009

I see that Sony are to release a TV with built-in Freeview HD decoder in the near future. I don't want to jump to Freesat HD to find more channels are being transmitted via Freeview. At present Freesat HD is limited to BBC HD and ITV HD. As and when BBC and ITV start to transmit their core channels BBC1 BBC2 etc and ITV1 ITV2 etc., is there a commitment that they will also become available via Freesat?

Is there a list of channels expected to be available in HD via Freesat?

Freesat as you say only currently has BBC & ITV HD channels, while a present Freeview has none, but should launch with 3/4 pretty soon.

I would have expected more HD channels on Freesat by now, but there aren't even any smaller channels broadcasting. Channel 4 has a high-definition service on Sky HD but its encrypted so indicating some kind of commercial agreement between the two, so I think Channel 4 HD won't happen on Freesat much before 2011.

Freeview HD will have more channels (just) that Freesat does at the moment, but its capacity for adding more is less than on Freesat.

I don't know of any more planned Freesat HD channels, but they may or may not be just around the corner as they have been for the past year or so. You would imagine that with it's greater carrying capacity Freesat would end up with the same and more channels than Freeview in the medium to long term, but I can't tell you which way to jump now.

If I were you, I would wait and see how the Freeview HD platform evolves in the shorter term.