Alternative to Sky TV

[davhill]

'Morning All,

I tried this in the TV, etc forum. No-one answered so I'm giving it a try here...

The time has come to find something less costly than Sky TV. Here are my details and if anyone can suggest good alternatives,I'd be ever so grateful bow

Kit:-

32" Samsung flatscreen, HD ready
One Terrier Bite Sky box, with on-demand WiFi thingy
Sky dish
Ancient Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop (if relevant)
LA9 6QX post code

What I like to watch :-

Usual terrestrial stuff: Beeb, ITV, C4, etc.
Watch/Discovery for Wheeler Dealers, How It's Made, Mythbusters, etc.
Dave
Gold
Film 4
Yesterday
Drama

I don't care about the sports channels and have zillions of films on DVD. I'd like to be able to record TV if possible.

I haven't connected the laptop to the TV (dunno how).
I don't need any of the smut content - seen less silicone under a touring car's bonnet.

Gentlemen, the floor is yours...

[davhill]

Wow, thank you people. I is impressed, especially with the input of gpo746.

OK, I did some investigating. Round the back, my TV has:-

1: Dust

2: These...







Meanwhile, old Dell (new in 2006) has these...



From what's been said, I'm thinking VGA to VGA, unless that's a DVI output on the right? If so, where would
the HDMI end go into the TV, given I'd need to connect up whichever box I use. The other big cable comes from my Samsung Home Cinema box.

Re. Laptop to TV, does the length of the hookup cable make a difference? To fit neatly, it'd have to be loooong (10M or more).

I have a TV aerial but this is rigged to a Freeview TV downstairs, which I don't have access to. Assuming I can use the Sky dish, I'd like to record and watch the stuff I mentioned. There's no need for anything like 1TB of capacity.

Is it best, then, to...

Keep the Sky box and Freesat it?
Change to a Humax?
Combine the two somehow?
Do something else?

Is there a market for a used Sky box
Am I on the right track to get what I'm after?

Thanks again, all, I look forward to your knowledgable replies.

[davhill]

Great, thank you

I take it the DVI to HMDMI cable gives digital output to the TV but not audio. Therefore, two cables will go from the Dell to the TV. Please correct me if I'm wrong

Re recording, it looks like the Humax-type box is the way to go. I'm assuming again but I think I could plug one into a spare HDMI port (there are three) and try it out before getting rid of the Sky box.

Meanwhile, I'll keep researching

[davhill]

Thanks again sir,

Well, well, guess what he found in his box of bits...



And at http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/COMPUTER-LAPTOP-TV-HDMI-...

There's this, for £5.95...



Makes a start, methinks.

[davhill]

Stop Press!!

A little word with Sky (about giving notice on my account) inspired them to offer me half price for the next 10 months in exchange for staying 12 months in total.

Result!

And the laptop to TV cable is en route, so I can play big monitor too.

Result 2!

[davhill]

Not admitting anyfink we didn't already know (work it out)!

If mammaries memory serves, HDMI1 is occupied by the home cinema cable, while HDMI2 is Sky. I can try it and figure it out. Just not sure where the audio feed should go.

[davhill]

'Morning Gents,

Hardwared up but connections = a bit frustrating.



I've put the DVI - HDMI cable into the top connector here, labelled HDMI IN 3. Result, kind of. I get the laptop's monitor image on the TV screen but there are black borders, 25mm top and botton, 75mm each side. Bah.

I tried the audio connectors on the sockets at the bottom of this same rack. Zip.



I also tried the audio conns in DVI IN (HDMI 2). Zip, even when I selected HDMI 2 as the output.I also
tried COMPONENT IN audio, at the foot of the panel. Errr, zip.

I've had a bit of a play with screen resolutions on the laptop, and menu screen changes. Different sizes but no
full screen as yet.

Tired now, so I'll fergit it for the moment. I've downloaded the Samsung TV manual and will have a look tomorrow. However, if anyone has a quick fix?

Thanks!

STOP PRESS: Found this on the net...

'Buy a cable that has two black male ends (looks like the end to a headset). Plug that into the audio beside the visual outlet. This means you DO NOT use the red and white end cables that are usually associated with audio. The plugs for visual and audio are side by side under the PC heading.'

IE, put a double-ended 3.5mm jack lead from Dell's headphone outlet into the socket (labelled AUDIO) beneath the blue 'PC' socket on the back panel. Seems logical to me.

Night, night.

Edited by davhill on Thursday 6th November 01:40

[davhill]

Hi All,

Done lots of testing but it isn't quite right yet.

On the TV, I can get full screen by going into the Intel graphics media accelerator for mobile.
If I choose 'Intel (R) dual display clone'and select 1280 x 720 as the resolution, I get full screen.
The laptop then has black borders top and bottom. If I then select 'Notebook' under 'single display', I can make the laptop go back to normal.

It seems odd that the only options under the 'Digital TV' tab are refresh rate and rotation. Shouldn't I be able to set the resolutions up independently for each device?

As for sound, I got myself a male-to-male 3.5mm jack lead. One end's connected to the laptop's headphone out socket, the other to the TV's audio socket under 'PC'. The laptop sound is muted when the plug's in but from the TV? Not a peep.

So frustrating! Any ideas, folks?

Ta

[davhill]

Thanks again, people,

As I said, I've done a deal with Sky so that's all fine for 10 months

I've now got the TV to work as a monitor for Dell the laptop, with an acceptable screen size/resolution. This is now about getting an audio signal to the TV - the suggested double-ended 3.5mm jack lead isn't working. I put my ohm meter on the lead and all three connections have continuity so its a bit of a mystery now

I'll study the TV instruction PDF next...wish me luck

[davhill]

Latest update!!!

I found from the PDF that for DVI/HDMI, I have to connect to HDMI 2. Tried and it makes not a jot of difference - same pic tweaks needed and till no sound. So I've tried another approach. Connecting the SVGA sockets on the laptop and TV gives a perfect pic with no need to mess with the resolution.

Moreover, connecting the 3.5 to 3.5mm male jack lead gives sound! Why the SVGA lead's being connected makes this happen is a mystery but the problem's fixed now.

Anyone in the market for a 10-metre DVI/HDMI cable?

[davhill]

gpo746 said:

LOL
Sorry I didn't respond to your audio issue before but was away most of wseekend.
I bet that cable only cost ya what ........ a fiver ??? Lol

All I need to do now is get rid of those irritating ads on You Tube...

...and patch the audio through to the home cinema...

...and lead the cables...

...and clip them neatly...

and...what's the word?

...Lol

Seriously, many thanks all