cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Anonymous User
Not applicable

Do I need a new aerial for new Smart box?

My new black and blue Smart box arrived today. I am upgrading from the white box (chiefly because I want a wired connection to my broadband). I watch both live-to-air and Freeview programmes.

 

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:

  1. John Lewis Performance Amplified Indoor Aerial £25.00. http://preview.tinyurl.com/ma6an3l

 

  1. Vivanco TVA 402 Indoor Aerial for Full HD Reception, DVB-T and DVB-T2, DAB radio. £29.95.  http://preview.tinyurl.com/mwq77dk

 

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.

 
 
 

 
 

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
Andy
Legend 5
Legend 5

@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.

View solution in original post

7 REPLIES 7
4268
Legend 5
Legend 5

@Anonymous User yes you do need an aerial to use freeview on your smart box. You plug the aerial into your box, connect box as normal via HDMI. On the box you run a channel search. Try that before buying a new aerial.
Please take a moment to click thanks or marked as solution if this answered your question. I am a community contributor and pop on when I can.
SeeMoreDigital
Legend 5
Legend 5

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

Anonymous User
Not applicable

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.

 

Andy
Legend 5
Legend 5

@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.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

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.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

@Anonymous User, you seem to know more than the guy I spoke to at currys today! Does the live free-to-air TV include using the NowTv passes?

I have no ariel connection in my kids room and was thinking of buying them a NowTv box that they could watch the kids channels on via the tv pass, but wont bother im unable to do that; I know they can use the apps such as iplayer and youtube as these use the wifi to connect, so do the passes also only require wifi?

Many thanks in advance
Andy
Legend 5
Legend 5

@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

 

https://help.nowtv.com/article/now-tv-kids-month-pass