TV in the UK – Your Questions Answered

For more on this subject, see our HDTV page

If you’re looking for information on 3D TV and what’s next, see our dedicated 3D TV in the UK page.

LCD and Plasma are the two leading types of TV screen, both being improvements over the original bulky Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) type of screen.

The terms LED TV causes confusion, as this refers to LCD screens, where LED (light emitting diodes) are used to backlight the LCD screen. If you see the terms LED TV, it actually means LED-backlit LCD screen. More on this confusion: LCD or LED TV?

If you’re looking for information on 3D TV and what’s next, see our dedicated 3D TV in the UK page.

See our dedicated TV Guides page

PC TV cards come in a variety of forms. Some go inside your PC case (these are normally PCI cards), and some are external boxes that plug into your PC’s USB port.

Taking the most basic situation, let’s assume you want to copy an extract from a video tape to an AVI file format on a computer, use a co-ax fly lead to go from the aerial out of the video, into the co-ax socket input of the PC TV card. From the PC card software, you’ll need to tune in the PC card to the signal from the video, so that you can get a clear picture. Then, use the video capture software supplied with the card to capture the video you want.

For more on watching and recording TV on your PC, see our TV on your PC page.

• Sky phone numbers seems to vary, but some boxes dial 0808 1001817
• TiVo uses a standard built-in analogue data modem to dial the number 0808 1050005.

For more, see our Satellite, TiVo, or PVR (hard-disc recorder) pages

Q. Can I get E4? Answer: E4 is currently available on Sky, Freeview and Virgin Media cable.

Q. What is UK Drama, and is it on Freeview? Answer: UKTV Drama rebranded to Alibi in October 2008. It is currently available on Sky and Virgin Media. It is not one of the Freeview channels. Click for details

To see which digital TV service carries certain channels, see our Channel Comparison page

For programme listing guides, see our TV Listings section.

Note that ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 stop being free-to-view in the second half of 2003. This is because the BBC have announced that they’ve moved away from Sky’s encryption system, to save themselves several million pounds. ITV and Channels 4 and 5 were benefiting from the BBC’s use of Sky, but are apparently unwilling to pay to be on Sky. For the story, click here.

If you’re looking to get BBC, ITV, Channels 4 & 5, plus other free-to-view services, consider the digital TV package from Freeview. No subscription, and no ties, for around 40 TV channels and 25 channels of radio. See our Freeview page.

If they don’t carry a replacement for your lost of broken remote control, you could also consider a universal controller, that can replace multiple remote control devices. Our favourite is the Kameleon range – but there’s a wide range of generic remote control replacements available from Argos or Maplin
Electronics.

For more, see our TV Remote Control page.

• Check the manufacturer’s website – they may well make a downloadable version available via their website. A quick search on Google should reveal the manufacturer’s website address
• Contact the manufacturer direct – if they have a spares department, they may well be able to supply a manual as a spare part (they will normally charge for this)
• Take a look on E-Bay… you quite often find that user guides and manuals are sold for a very small fee
• Try asking in our forum – a user may be prepared to part with their manual, or make a copy of the appropriate section.
• Finally… do you really need the manual? If you’re having a problem with one or two features, why not ask for help in our forum… hopefully a user will be able to guide you through the steps.

The answer obviously depends on the type of station – satellite, cable or digital terrestrial, but in brief, those wishing to run a TV station will need to have 1) a licence to broadcast, and 2) a technical way of broadcasting.

For licensing, you need to contact the regulator OfCom, and for transmission, you need to contact the carrier (bSkyb, Virgin Media or the Freeview multiplex owner), to negotiate a contract for carriage on their transmission system.

For more information, first off take a look at the OfCom TV licensing guidelines website for some general guidance and information on the requirements and how to apply for a licence. Then, then make contact with your preferred carrier.

• In Europe? If you’re in the footprint of the Astra satellite, you may be able to get the Sky channels (especially the free-to-view channels). See the entry on our Sky FAQ page for more.
• In the US? – BBC America may be your best bet – they are jointly owned by Discovery and the BBC, and import a number of UK shows. Also, check out the PBS channels that have a lot of British stuff.
• Internet TV – A small number of TV channels are available as a streaming video service over the Internet – See our dedicated page on this: Internet TV
• Slingbox – Here’s a clever one. If you have a friend (or office) in the UK with a broadband connection, you could get them to buy and connect a Slingbox to their TV aerial and Broadband connection – you can then watch TV that’s streamed from this box from any Internet-enabled PC in the world. A clever solution. More on our Slingbox page.

For more on watching British TV overseas, see our UK TV Abroad page.

For details on the cause, see our Digital Time lag page.

• On Freeview, the digital teletext services appear as TV channels – ITV Teletext is on channel 9, with the BBCi Interactive text service on 105 and Channel 4 Fourtext on 104.
• On Sky, use the red button on your remote on a channel that supports interactive services

Some people still want to access the old-style analogue teletext service, but find that they can’t after getting Sky TV or Freeview. You can still access the older Ceefax and Teletext pages… just not via your set-top box.
If you want to view the old analogue teletext, you’ll need to switch the TV to analogue TV (e.g. Channel 1 for BBC1, as opposed to the AV input for the feed from the digibox). As long as you’re viewing TV via the aerial input, and not via the SCART / AV input, pressing the text button on one of the five main TV channels, should get you back to the old-style Ceefax and Teletext services.

1. Coverage – To receive Freeview, you must be in a Freeview coverage area.
   To check this, enter your postcode at digitaluk.co.uk/postcodechecker.
   Even if you are in an area reported as having good signal, local obstructions, or the quality of your TV aerial may make a difference to your reception. See our guidance on this below.
2. Box – If you are in coverage, you’ll need to get a free-to-air set-top box. Boxes cost from under £30 and can be bought from high-street stores such as Currys.
   Shopping online for a set-top box is often the best route, as there are some good bargains to be had.
3. Connect – Plug your new Freeview set-top box to your existing TV aerial.
   Connect another lead into your TV’s SCART socket, and you should be ready to go. Note that in some cases, your TV aerial may not be suitable and may need upgrading.
4. Setup – Follow the instructions supplied with the set-top box, and scan for available Freeview channels.

We recommend: YouView from BT, for a Freeview recorder plus on-demand TV shows

For more on Freeview, see our New to Freeview page

• For details of Freeview’s channel line-up, see our Freeview Explained page.
• For details of the channels that are available on the Sky satellite platform without a subscription to Sky, see Sky’s Free-to-air satellite channels list.
• For details of Sky in general, see our Free Satellite TV page, or go to www.sky.com

• RF/Co-ax: If connecting to a TV set via a co-ax lead, you need to tune one of your TV presets into the channel that the video or set-top box ‘modulates’ (more details below). With this type of connection, picture quality is worse than SCART, and you won’t get stereo sound
• SCART lead. If using a SCART cable, you don’t need to do this, as the picture can be seen via the TV’s AV or Line In feed. Using SCART gives you better picture quality, widescreen switching and stereo

Each ordinary TV signal (BBC1, BBC2, etc) is on a dedicated channel (a number between 21 and 68), and you need to tune your TV preset buttons into each channel. If a set-top box or video has a co-ax output, it’s capable of generating its own channel (between 21 and 68), which you have to tune a TV preset into. Your box/video is doing something known as ‘modulating’ on a channel of its own.

Box generating interference? – When using a set-top box or a video, it’s not uncommon to find that when it’s switched on, you lose one or more of the channels that you have tuned in on standard TV. A common example would be switching on the video causes you to lose channel 5, or turning on a set-top box means you can’t see the video. This means that your video or set-top box is ‘modulating’ on the same channel number as another channel, and the clash generates interference. This was common with video recorders when Channel 5 started… many video recorders had to be retuned from channel 37, so channel 5 didn’t interfere with the video signal and vice-versa.

If you are experiencing interference because of this, you’ll need to change the channel that the box broadcasts on. You’ll find details of how to do this in the manual (look for RF modulated output channel, or UHF channel – something like that).

Note that this is only a problem if you’re trying to watch via standard TV channels, as opposed to the SCART (which doesn’t use a TV channel). If you try the following, you should see the benefit of SCART.

1. Switch your TV to line input (the AV switch – Av2 perhaps?). Play a video to make sure you can see the video recorder on the AV channel.
2. Stop the tape, and change the video input (as if you’re recording a certain channel) into Av2. Your video should now be looking for a signal from the Freeview box. As your video is tuned into Freeview, and your TV can see the video output, you should see Freeview without any interference.

• Group A – Channels 21-37
• Group B – Channels 35-53
• Group C/D – Channels 48-68
• Group E – Channels 35-68
• Group K – Channels 21-48
• Group W – Channels 21-68

A Wideband aerial is optimised to receive TV channels anywhere in the UK TV band. In areas of weak signal, a wideband aerial may not be as effective as a high-gain aerial designed for the specific band you’re trying to receive (a mast-head amplifier may be needed to help boost the signal). If you’re looking to upgrade aerial, getting a good quality wideband aerial is usually the thing to do, so that if additional services (such as Freeview) appear elsewhere in the band, you’ll be able to get them.

High gain aerials can be used to reduce certain types of problem – including weak signal, interference and ghosting. They do this by getting the most out of the signal. For best results, high gain aerials aren’t  wideband, and should be pointed directly at the target transmitter. For a wide range of aerials, connectors and amplifiers, go to www.maplin.co.uk

1. Look for equipment that has an RF modulated output – this will allow you to use a standard aerial cable to plug into your existing TV co-ax socket. Once connected, you can then tune one of spare channels on your TV into the channel being used (i.e. ‘modulated’) by the Freeview box, in the same way as you would tune in an ordinary TV signal. We recommend the Icecrypt T5000 – a small Freeview receiver that doesn’t require a SCART lead
2. You may be able to connect your equipment via something that has a modulator. Most old video recorders and some DVD recorders have built-in modulators, so you can connect via something
   that does support SCART – For example, if you have a video recorder that has a SCART socket, you can connect the equipment into the video SCART, switch the video recorder to the SCART input (AV/Ext), and watch on the TV’s video channel.
3. You can make use of something called a UHF modulator – this is a box that converts SCART signals to a signal that can connect into your TV’s “aerial in” socket. Plug a SCART socket in one end of the box, and a flylead to your TV in the other, and all should be well. You then tune your TV into the channel that the UHF modulator generates. We use a Universal Modulator from Maplin Electronics with excellent results. We’ve also found a cheaper modulator at TVcables.

For more help on connecting to a TV without a SCART, see our No SCART page.

SCART plugs have 21 pins, and carry video, audio and switching signals.

If you need a SCART lead, SCART adapter or a SCART switcher, head over to the Maplin website.

For more on SCART sockets, switches and splitters, see our SCART Switcher page