<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV>I find the unsnipped nature of your replies very irritating. Is there any chance you could edit out any of the quoted text that is irrelevant to the points you're replying to? </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR><DIV><DIV>On 9 Jan 2007, at 12:03, Damian Surr wrote:</DIV><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000">...</FONT><BR> Can anyone offer advice on TV tuners for Freeview in the UK? Someone posted on another tread that I'd need a satellite dish. Is that right? I thought it came though a normal aerial.<BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV>I didn't state that you'd need a satellite dish.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I said:</DIV><DIV> The freeview-compatible Hauppauge cards are their "Nova-T" series.</DIV><DIV> The "Nova-S" can be used to get free-to-air channels using a Sky</DIV><DIV> dish. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I appreciate this can be confusing if this is your first adventure beyond the first 5 analogue channels. Don't worry! Your technical background should make this go smoothly.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Freeview is by definition digital TV through a conventional aerial. I believe that the aerial may need to have a higher gain than required for old-fangled analogue signals, but otherwise things are substantially unchanged. In order to get good reception for analogue channel 5 my mother had to - perhaps as much as 5 years ago now - replace her aerial. She now gets Freeview through that aerial. Perhaps it's the case that if you get channel 5 reception you can get Freeview through your aerial? Suck it & see is my advice, and be prepared to borrow a Freeview set-to-box (they're only £20 these days, anyway) if you run into problems. One would use a DVB-T (digital video broadcast - terrestrial) card to receive freeview using a computer.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>The Sky satellite also carries free digital channels. These are by definition NOT "freeview" because they're received using a dish rather than a traditional alooominum aerial, but many of the same channels are available using both reception methods. If one simply wants the BBC and ITV channels in digital format, plus a bunch of home shopping rubbish, then either reception method can be utilised. Channel 4 is not (yet!) available unencrypted from the Sky satellite, but Film 4 is (it is entirely free to watch); I believe Film 4 is also free on Freeview, but for some reason it always comes up blank when changing my mother's STB to that channel. A couple of (IMO) worthwhile channels are available on Sky that aren't available on Freeview. One would use a DVB-S (digital video broadcast - satellite) card to receive Sky using a computer.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Consider "freeview" a "brand name" for "digital TV through a conventional aerial". One might say (although please note that I didn't!) "one can get a bunch of freeview channels through Sky" the same way one might say "I have one of the new Sony iPods". One would generally interpret this as meaning "one can get a bunch of the same free channels from Sky" ("I have a Sony mp3 player), even though it's not strictly a correct way to say that. But if one talks about wanting to "receive freeview" without any mention of a dish then one would normally assume that the correct usage is being applied, and that they are being received using an aerial.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>The reason I mentioned in my original posting that "the "Nova-S" can be used to get free-to-air channels using a Sky dish" was simply that you were asking about the Hauppauge cards and because one could easily be confused over which models are suitable for which tasks. I didn't want to say "get a Nova-T card" and have you posting in a week's time "I've bought a Nova-S to replace my freeview set-top-box, but it doesn't work". Also because DVB-S is important to me personally - freeview reception where I live is quite poor, so a Sky dish is a more appropriate alternative.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Stroller. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>