Hello all!

Okay so im sure this has been asked before but i cant quite find a specific answer.

I've brought over my english TV (which has built in freeview) and im unsure what to do when it comes to trying to watch tv on it. I know it sounds rather stupid but my boyfriends just been using it for playstation at the moment whilst we find out what we need to do to make it work as a TV (and he has an obsession with red dead redemption aswell :P)

I've been told that you have to buy special swiss boxes and ariels for english tvs to work over here (because apparently they have a weaker signal so they cant pick things up...? or something like that) and so im just asking if any of you have brought over your english TVs and what you had to do for them to work over here...if you have to do anything at all that is! :P

let me know what your thoughts are, getting a bit sick of playstation now! need TV again!! :P

thanks!

Your english tv will work. If you have an aerial, plug it into the TV. Find the setup menu on your TV and there will be some sort of auto setup that allows you to specify which country you're in, the TV will tune itself and you get all the regular swiss terrestial channels. Some channels here show english language programs which come with dual audio (german/english) that can be switched with the stereo/mono button on the remote.

The freeview won't work as far as I know.

thats perfect thanks for your help!! im guessing its just a normal ariel, i dont have to buy a different for over here? any tv channels is better than nothing at the moment! :P

The problem you have with your freeview box is that it is likely to be DVB-T - i.e. it's a digital receiver, but only for programs through aerials. It might pick up some channels, but you'd have to retune it. Most people in Baselland and Baselstadt get TV via cable, not by aerial.

If you do have a cable provider already in your apartment - which is quite likely in Basel - then you need to plug your tv into that. You'll probably find you have some analogue programming. To access digital TV, you'll need to buy a digital receiver for cable - DVB-C. Depending where you live, you may have digital TV supplied via cable for free already. I'm in Binningen, and my provider gives me BBC1-4, ITV1-4 and a whole host of other channels, for no additional payment. I know people who live in Baselstadt, who pay a small fee per month to get these channels to their provider - but got a "free" receiver with recording capability built in.

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Down with racism. Long live miscegenation!

We should mention Billag at this point, do a search on the forum and you'll soon understand what it's all about.

You can also in some places plug the TV aerial into the wall socket and do a channel scan. Well I did in Basel when I lived there. Cablecom supply most english channels if you are staying a while so perhaps worth considering.

we have a small box and a package that we rent from sasag.........for 6 CHF per month we can get the main english tv channels