Aargh!

[lproven]

Thanks to drplokta's generosity, I now have an OnDigital set-top box. It's a Philips.

I just plugged it in. It was more or less at this point that I realised that I have never used one of these things in my life and don't know how to. I'm not even sure how to connect it. I don't generally do television.


The TV has a SCART socket. Into that goes the PS2, which I use mainly as a DVD player.

It also has an ærial socket. Into that goes my VCR. The ærial was plugged into the VCR. This means I can watch TV with the VCR off, or tape TV programs.

Now, presumably, the STB needs to go "upstream" of the VCR if I am to be able to tape digital TV. Is that correct?

So I have connected Ærial -> STB -> VCR -> TV.

I've connected a SCART lead from STB to VCR as well, since it was there. In theory, I could therefore tape digital-quality TV without modulation/demodulation.

But how do I tune all this in?

What do you *do* with a STB? Do the digital channels carry the normal stations - BBC1/2, ITV, C4/5? So I don't need to use the TV's own tuner any more at all and only use the STB's digital one?

I'm guessing the STB goes on a separate TV channel. I think VCRs go on about channel 32 now; they were moved a few years ago to make room for C5. A little man came round and retuned my TV and VCR, before I sold the TV as I was never using it.

So I'd have the VCR on channel 32 (or whatever) and the STB on 33 or something, correct?

And then I need to tune in an extra channel on the VCR (for taping purposes) and on the TV too. Then normally, if I can get the terrestrial channels through the STB, I stick the TV on the STB channel and just use the STB's remote control to channel-hop, correct?

The STB also has a modem socket. Do I need to connect this to a phone line for it to download channel information or programme listings or something? If not, what's it for?

Needless to say, I have no manuals for any of the kit and little idea of HOW to reprogram them or anything. I do have a great many bits of cable dangling down the back of my bookshelves now, though. And unlike almost all the other bits of cabling in the house, I've only a tenuous idea of what it all does.

Damn this is humiliating.

EDIT: Sod it, I'm going to go out and ride my trike. I know where I am with that and the constant terror focusses the mind.