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Connecting It All Up

This is where the fun start, remember at this time, we are talking about the standard coax connection, not using any scart leads at all. You may need to use coax and scart leads, depending on what your equipment has available, some digital TV's have 3 scart sockets !

Amplifiers, may help pick up Channel 5, they will also improve reception of other channels. Installing one might mean the difference between getting a poor digital signal, or no signal at all. You may also need to change your Aerial for one designed for Digital TV.

When you add a VHS recorder to your system, you will need to tune in your TV for its signal, remember we are using coax, see the manuals for how to tune in your TV, and if you can move the output frequency of the VHS recorder.

Free to air Digital TVBefore you can view these digital channels, on your existing equipment, you need a digital TV converter. These take the digital signal from your Aerial and convert it into signals your television can decode. Many companies now produce these boxes, for around ?40

 

Shows connection in and out of the equipment using coax cable

Aerial To TV out

inout

 
Line Amp Added out

inout

in

   
Add Freeview Box out

inout

inFree to air Digital TVout

in  
VHS Recorder Added out

inout

inFree to air Digital TVout

inout

in
           

Two Televisions

out inFree to air Digital TVout inout

inout
Has 2 outputs

in
 
in

In the last circuit showing two televisions, you can see the line amp has been moved to the end, this is because its being used as a splitter for two televisions. The line amp would have Aerial IN, TV 1 out, TV 2 out marked, if you have 3 Televisions, then you would buy a line amp with 3 outputs.

The line amp will still amplifier the signal, it would be better at the start of the circuit, but will function almost as good at the end. You may realise now, why scart connections are used instead of coax. Note, you should not use a Y connection to connect up two televisions, they need to be electrically isolated.

The last circuit, will show the output from the VHS recorder on all televisions, you will be able to record Freeview channels on the VHS recorder, you will be able to see Freeview on both Televisions.

Coaxial Y Splitter 1 Plug To 2 SocketsWhen they finally switch off the analogue channels, all new televisions, VHS recorders and DVD recorders will all have digital tuners, but at the moment its difficult to record an analogue channel while watching a digital.

You can use these coaxial splitters, but they should not be used to connect 2 TV's

In In the above last circuit, you can feed output 1 from the line amp into the Freeview box, which then feeds the VHS Recorder, which then feeds the Y splitter input 1 (Shown Red) While the second output from the line amp can go direct to the TV, this way you can watch a analogue channel, while recording any other channel.

Although the last circuit is not very practical, you can see a method of bringing the Aerial direct to the TV. So if all else fails, you would still have the analogue channels coming through, just like before :)

Using just coaxial cable means there is going to be a lot of signal drop on each connection, so keep the connections to a minimum, you will also find that some Freeview boxes pass though the analogue signal as well as the digital, while some don't have a coaxial output at all, and a scart plug needs to be used.

There are never two installations the same, there may be 3 VHS recorders, and two televisions, your equipment may or may not have Coaxial outputs, you need to visualize the signals travelling along the circuit, and arrange things as you want them, remember when the analogue signal is finally switched off, your going to need to re-think the installation, if your still using equipment without digital TV built in.

Finally this last circuit shows the analogue going direct to the TV's coaxial socket (Blue) while the digital signal is fed to the VHS recorder via a scart socket, with the output of the VHS recorder coming out of another scart socket into the TV's scart socket (Green). This is a much better method..

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