Buying a new TV

[stewy]

I'm back in Finland after a few months at home and I've decided that my 11'' TV needs an upgrade. I live in an apartment block that has a cable connection and was wondering if someone knows what I'd need to get in order to use a DVB-T TV because there isn't too many DVB-C TV's on the market. I have a digibox suited to the cable connection already, but don't mind getting a new TV that has the built-in box. I heard there's some SCART cable I can get that will allow me to set up a DVB-T TV. Any idea how much extra on top of the TV it would cost to set it up like that?

[sinikala]

I'm back in Finland after a few months at home and I've decided that my 11'' TV needs an upgrade. I live in an apartment block that has a cable connection and was wondering if someone knows what I'd need to get in order to use a DVB-T TV because there isn't too many DVB-C TV's on the market. I have a digibox suited to the cable connection already, but don't mind getting a new TV that has the built-in box. I heard there's some SCART cable I can get that will allow me to set up a DVB-T TV. Any idea how much extra on top of the TV it would cost to set it up like that?

If your DVB-C digibox has a female SCART connector (would be really surprising if it hasn't) ... it will look like this



but have holes instead of pins.

Then you can buy a fairly basic TV (with neither DVB-C nor DVB-T ... just a bog standard telly) which will also have a female Scart connector ... then a SCART-SCART lead (depending on length) will cost about €3 to 5 for a 1.5m, up to about €12 to 15 for a 5m long lead.

All depends how far apart you want to put the box and your telly.

[Jukka Aho]

 
More pictures for the Google-challenged:

• A female SCART connector (on the left)
• Another female SCART connector (on the right)
• A SCART cable (rather short specimen, I might add)
• More information about SCART connectors, cables, and signals than you’d ever want to know (Wikipedia)

Regardless of whether the set has a built-in DVB-T tuner, a built-in DVB-C tuner or only an old, analog PAL tuner – which would be useless now for most of us – it is likely to have a SCART connector (or two, or three) on its back.

[stewy]

I'm back in Finland after a few months at home and I've decided that my 11'' TV needs an upgrade. I live in an apartment block that has a cable connection and was wondering if someone knows what I'd need to get in order to use a DVB-T TV because there isn't too many DVB-C TV's on the market. I have a digibox suited to the cable connection already, but don't mind getting a new TV that has the built-in box. I heard there's some SCART cable I can get that will allow me to set up a DVB-T TV. Any idea how much extra on top of the TV it would cost to set it up like that?

If your DVB-C digibox has a female SCART connector (would be really surprising if it hasn't) ... it will look like this



but have holes instead of pins.

Then you can buy a fairly basic TV (with neither DVB-C nor DVB-T ... just a bog standard telly) which will also have a female Scart connector ... then a SCART-SCART lead (depending on length) will cost about €3 to 5 for a 1.5m, up to about €12 to 15 for a 5m long lead.

All depends how far apart you want to put the box and your telly.

Thanks. Is it possible to use the SCART connector with a DVB-T TV though? There's hardly any 'basic' TV's on the market, well at least in Gigantti, Markantalo etc, that are in my price range

[sinikala]

Thanks. Is it possible to use the SCART connector with a DVB-T TV though? There's hardly any 'basic' TV's on the market, well at least in Gigantti, Markantalo etc, that are in my price range

I dont' see why not. But why pay extra for a DVB-T TV, when you already have a decoder, and you aren't going to use the DVB-T function?

There are plenty of TVs on the market without built-in decoders, In the last year I've bought two, as we have cable digiboxes, and we connect them with SCART cables.

1) a 32" LCD Toshiba Regza (HD ready - not full HD) €599 from Gigantti
2) a 42" plasma Philips (also HD ready) €899 from Citymarket, but can now be found for €799 in Gigantti

Perhaps we can be of more help if you tell us your price range and we can suggest models / places to buy.

[Jukka Aho]

Is it possible to use the SCART connector with a DVB-T TV though? There's hardly any 'basic' TV's on the market, well at least in Gigantti, Markantalo etc, that are in my price range :D

Yes. The SCART connector(s) will function just the same way regardless of which kind of a built-in tuner the tv has.