Is PVR9200T cleverer than other digital receivers?

T

Tony Norton

New Member
Hi All,

can anybody explain this slightly weird discovery: -

If I disconnect the aerial lead from the Humax to the TV, at the TV end, and plug it into an old analogue TV (one with no SCART connector) it is possible to tune said analogue TV to receive exactly the same signal as is being transmitted via the SCART cable to our main (digital) TV set.

If have tried this trick 2 other digi-boxes (Sony and Sagem) and it doesn't work.

I always thought that the 'daisy chain' aerial connections were just by-passing anything between the aerial and the TV set, but this seems not to be so in the case of the Humax. The Humax seems to be processing the signal to match the SCART output, and I get exactly the same on the analogue TV as I get on the main set. All menus can be pulled up, sound is synchronised, everything exactly the same!

I'm not proposing to switch our 42" LED Sony for the analogue 14" CRT we have in the bedroom, but it does look as though, come next March when the South goes fully digital, I may have to move the PVR9200 from lounge to bedroom. Good excuse to buy an HD Hummy for the lounge!

So, who out there knows exactly what is going on in the Humax that isn't happening in standard digiboxes?

Cheers

Tony N
 
You are able to do this because the PVR9200T has a built in RF modulator, which allows you to do as you say.
At one time, all VCR's and most PVR's had an RF modulator built in, but more recently, manufacturers seem to be producing their PVR,s without this useful feature.
 
brian said:
You are able to do this because the PVR9200T has a built in RF modulator, which allows you to do as you say.
At one time, all VCR's and most PVR's had an RF modulator built in, but more recently, manufacturers seem to be producing their PVR,s without this useful feature.
Click to expand...

Thanks Brian,

curiosity satisfied. Sounds as though, to get this facility, I would have to use a digital PVR (were VCRs ever digital?) rather than a plain 'digi-box', or get a cheap digital TV for the bedroom.

Thanks again

Tony N
 
You can buy an external RF modulator quite cheaply, which you connect to your digibox via scart, and your TV via RF cable.
 
Or you can use any old VCR you may have laying round as an RF modulator. Even if it can no longer play tapes.
 
I've found the onboard RF modulators in Hummys and older VCRs better than standalone modulator boxes. Don't know why, just is.

The PVR9200T and various basic Humax Freeview boxes have an on board modulator. Very few other digiboxes do in my experience. However, I do have a very samll (cigarette pack size) TVonics box which ONLY has an RF modulated output (e.g. no SCART).

To my knowledge later Hummys don't have this capability. I guess when analogue transmissions are turned off it will be assumed that there is no call for analogue and so the manufacturers won't go to the added expense. In the not too distant future, I can see the TVs themselves won't have an analogue tuner (so a modulated RF output from something like a Hummy won't be much use anyhow).

Now, as it happens, I specifically use the Hummy RF output to feed other TVs around the house (it was cabled up with co-ax long before alternative methods became available). So we can watch the same playback in several rooms concurrently.
 
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