25-05-2017 23:42
I am using a John Lewis amplified internal aerial which is about 2 years old, and no longer on sale. It doesn't have any sockets apart from power and coaxial. At the moment the coaxial is plugged into the television, which enables me to watch live-to-air programmes.
John Lewis has 2 modern aerials currently on sale:
Having set up the box, it appears to be working ok. However the tv says it has no signal for itself.
So do I need a new aerial for new Smart box? If so might one of those above be suitable?
Guidance appreciated.
Solved! Go to Solution.
26-05-2017 16:51
@Anonymous User
There shouldn't be any need to buy a second aerial.
You only need to plug an aerial into the NOW TV SMart Box if you want to use it to watch the live free-to-air channels. All the other apps on the NOW TV box work via the Internet and will work regardless of whether you have an aerial connected or not.
You have two choices, and there are advantages to both ways so it's really just a matter of personal preference.
1. Keep your aerial connected to your TV and connect the NOW TV box (without an aerial) to your TV via HDMI (just like you did with your white box). Use your TV to watch live free-to-air TV, and then switch inputs to your NOW TV box to watch NOW TV or any of the other apps on the box.
2. Plug the aerial into the NOW TV box and connect to your TV via HDMI. Scan for channels in the Settings menu of the box and it should find all your free-to-air channels. Now you use the box for both free-to-air viewing and for using the apps, you should never need to use your TV's internal tuner anymore.
The NOW TV box lets you pause live TV (although it can't record) which you may find useful if your TV didn't do that before, but some people find the interface too basic and might therefore prefer to leave the aerial connected to the TV and just use the NOW TV Smart Box like the old boxes. The choice is yours.
26-05-2017 7:23
26-05-2017 10:24
The quality (not so much strength) of the DVB-T/T2 signal is vital, so if you're using an indoor aerial the positioning will be most important.
Indeed, if your 'smart' box is connected to the internet via WiFi, the positioning of an indoor aerial will be even more important in order to avoid interference between the two signals.
As a general rule, try not to place an indoor aerial between your 'smart' box and your WiFi routers signal path - if that makes sense.
Cheers
26-05-2017 14:11
Thanks for the replies.
My current boosted internal aerial works ok. And the Now boxed is on a wired connection to the router. The new NowTV box is working too.
Where I am at the moment is that I can watch either free-to-air tv OR NowTV on catchup. (I don't want to watch live tv over the internet.)
When the coax cable from the aerial is plugged into the back of the tv, I can watch live free-to-air programmes. When the coax cable from the aerial is plugged into the NowTV box, I can watch NowTV catchup.
With the white NowTV box I could watch either without doing any unplugging. Unplugging seems like a retrograde step.
I was thinking of buying another coax cable. However, there is no HDMI port on the back of the aerial, and only 1 aerial port on the television (a Sony KDL42W) so not sure if that would work.
Am still flummoxed.
26-05-2017 16:51
@Anonymous User
There shouldn't be any need to buy a second aerial.
You only need to plug an aerial into the NOW TV SMart Box if you want to use it to watch the live free-to-air channels. All the other apps on the NOW TV box work via the Internet and will work regardless of whether you have an aerial connected or not.
You have two choices, and there are advantages to both ways so it's really just a matter of personal preference.
1. Keep your aerial connected to your TV and connect the NOW TV box (without an aerial) to your TV via HDMI (just like you did with your white box). Use your TV to watch live free-to-air TV, and then switch inputs to your NOW TV box to watch NOW TV or any of the other apps on the box.
2. Plug the aerial into the NOW TV box and connect to your TV via HDMI. Scan for channels in the Settings menu of the box and it should find all your free-to-air channels. Now you use the box for both free-to-air viewing and for using the apps, you should never need to use your TV's internal tuner anymore.
The NOW TV box lets you pause live TV (although it can't record) which you may find useful if your TV didn't do that before, but some people find the interface too basic and might therefore prefer to leave the aerial connected to the TV and just use the NOW TV Smart Box like the old boxes. The choice is yours.
28-05-2017 2:14
Aaah, now I see! I had just followed the instructions on the leaflet, which said to put the aerial into the box.
Option 1 is what I am looking for because I have edited the channel lists for live free-to-air channels extensively to suit my viewing preferences.
Thanks very much for your reply and for understanding my question.
28-11-2017 21:00
28-11-2017 21:05 - edited 28-11-2017 21:07
@Anonymous User
Welcome to the forum. The NOW TV app just streams using the Internet, no need for an aerial connection, so as long as you get a good wifi signal in the bedroom you'll be able to watch the NOW TV kids pass (which includes a selection of live and on-demand kids channels) on a NOW TV box.
PS if you're not going to be using an aerial connection you can go for the cheaper black NOW TV box rather than the NOW TV Smart Box, the only significant difference is the Smart Box has the Freeview tuner, more info here
https://help.nowtv.com/article/what-is-a-now-tv-box
http://www.nowtv.com/best-tv-boxes
More info on the NOW TV kids pass here