perfect analogue - no freeview - extra channels

[timmgrant]

Hello,

I have just moved into a new house. I plugged the aerial into the standard aerial wall socket and got perfect reception for all analogue channels. When I do a digital scan however I get absolutely nothing. The extra weird thing is I am getting two extra channels I would not have expected: BBC news 24 and MTV One. I can only assume that somewhere there is some (cable?) equipment converting the standard channels into RF somewhere? I know the previous tenants had Virgin Media - I received a card in the mail requesting to pick up a Virgin Media STB but the previous tenants obviously took it with them. When I called the number and explained the situation the engineer did not seem to have a clue and said if there wasn't a STB then it wasn't VM. Did a bit of a google and came across something called NTL Analogue? Could this be it? I couldn't find much information on it at all so I have no idea. All I know is it was bought out by VM.

Anyone have any ideas? All I want is standard FreeView. I am assuming MTV One and BBC24 are not analogue channels although this is a new area for me (Herts).

Thanks,
Tim

[vascop]

You can only get freeview if you have a digital tuner. This means that you should be able to get it if your TV has a digital tuner and/or you have a freeview set top box.
So does your TV have a digital tuner for starters?

[BenMcr]

By the sounds of it you could be in an area where Virgin (ex-ntl) run an aerial replacement service, as cable tv doesn't usually use standard aerial sockets. Cable definately doesn't carry Freeview signals, so doing a digital will get you nothing.

Have you definately got an outside aerial? and can you at least name the town you are in (will help)

[vascop]

Ben
what I meant was that if he's plugging directly in to an aerial and his TV has an in-built digital tuner, he should be able to get Freeview.

[BenMcr]

I know, but in some areas (Milton Keynes for example) there are normal aerial sockets but they take their feed from Virgin instead

[timmgrant]

Hi, Thanks for your posts. I am in Harpenden (Herts) which is only about 20 miles from Milton Keynes so I am guessing that is what it is. I can't see an aerial on the roof but don't have great visibility so didn't want to assume. In that case I am guessing that I will need to get an aerial installed. The thing is though - there are three RF feeds throughout the house and only one of them has the 7 channels (standard 5 plus mtv, bbc24). Do you know much about this VM feed? I am kind of hoping that all the infrastructure is in place (incl aerial) but was disconnected by whoever installed the VM feed. Where would the feed come from? I assume there must be some hardware somewhere in the house converting the signal (cable?) into RF? I had a brief look through the attic and couldn't see anything.

PS I have all the equipment for freeview - DVB-T card, 3 STB's and two in built tuners in tv's ;)

[BenMcr]

Actually in Milton Keynes, BT laid cabling in the 80's instead of aerials as the council didn't like them (same as they don't like satellite dishes). ntl took over the administration of this in the early '00. If however something goes wrong with it, it is still BT engineers that go out)

The cable feed is built directly into alot of houses in Milton Keynes (not quite sure how far it goes out). They never had aerials

What you can pick up depends on what frequencies your TV scans

Other councils had similar arrangments for their estates. Some of the details for these have been lost in the mists of times (and several takeovers) ;)

[spiderplant]

Harpenden has the full set of VM services, so this isn't related to the Milton Keynes situation. You are just picking up the unscrambled analogue channels off the Virgin cable.

Check whether Freeview is available to you at http://www.freeview.co.uk/availability/. But I've just checked a random Harpenden postcode (AL5 1ET), and it says not available until 2011.

Is this any use? http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/specialoffers/freetv.html

[lostandconfused]

Harpenden has the full set of VM services, so this isn't related to the Milton Keynes situation. You are just picking up the unscrambled analogue channels off the Virgin cable.

Check whether Freeview is available to you at http://www.freeview.co.uk/availability/. But I've just checked a random Harpenden postcode (AL5 1ET), and it says not available until 2011.

Is this any use? http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/specialoffers/freetv.html

im not sure how accurate that website is, i checked it out for my parents house as tehy live in an area that is yet to get a mobile signal, it said not until 2011.

But they get the full freeview service.

[Jonnymeg]

Do you have a phone with Virgin Media? If so you can get a set top box to allow you free view channels free of charge!