Digital

[scouse1979]

My Nan is worrying about the digital TV switchover in a few years time. She has an analogue TV but Telewest services into it. Does this mean she'll need to buy a new TV?

[Postdog]

No, if she has telewest, she can watch digital on that TV. However (and I don't have Sky or cable so I don't know for sure) but generally speaking what this will mean that you will only get ONE channel at a time, so you cannot watch one while recording another as you do now with analogue.

[froggequene]

Telewest is digital as far as I know but if she wants reassurance give them a ring to confirm it but cable is a service she's paying for on top of her licence fee.

She doesn't need to invest in a new tv but if she would like to ditch cable & stick with the terresterial channels, she might like to invest in one of the 'freeview' digital boxes, there are a number of boxes available in Currys, Argos etc.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/digital/tv/index.shtml

[vehelpfulguy]

Postdog, FYI

With a sky plus box (and an analogue TV) I can record one program while watching another, or record TWO TV programs at the same time, or even record one program while watching another I have previously recorded.

This is becuase a sky plus box had TWO sky feeds in the back, and a hard disk inside.

[aurelia]

I can't really see it every totally being cut off but you never know. I live in Scotland and we won't have Freeview here until 2010 - and the analogue signal can't be cut off until way after that so she has a while before she has to worry but there's no reason why she has to get a new tv. I have an analogue tv and I was previously with Telewest myself but now have Sky+ and it works fine with my telly and I have an analogue aerial. It's the aerial where the problem is - I live in a flat and have a communal aerial. When the switchover happens (if it does) then my local council will need to replace the exisiting aerial to one that takes digital.

My parents have recently had their aerial replaced to a digital one. If they did not do this and the switchover happened then they could only watch terrestial tv through their telewst digital box or their sky box - they have both. This would stop them being able to record a different programme if going through telewest system and going through the sky+ system would mean that they could only record one programme while watching the terrestial as that would count as their second proframme.

With Sky+ you can record two things at once while watching terrestial analogue tv or watching something else previously recorded using the Sky planner.

My parents and I had talked about this for a few years and when the guy came to put a new aerial up for my dad he asked about the digital and the guy told him that all new aerials are digital ready