This is my first skirmish with Freeview since, technically, I live in a
non-freeview area.

I've inherited an Alba STB2NS from my son, since he has no signal at all in
the flat where he lives - in Cambridge.

Despite Freeview not being 'available' where I live (just outside Warwick, a
long way from the Sutton Coldfield transmitter, on the wrong side of Hatton
Hill) I can actually get quite a reasonable signal, and can get all the
channels except those on Mux D. [And that's with a standard Group-B aerial
rather than a wide-band jobby].

I have a couple a questions which I hope that owners of the same model of
STB may be able to answer. At the moment I have it connected to a single
TV - using a Scart cable - and also have a co-ax cable from the RF
loop-through socket to the TV's aerial socket.

If, with the STB running, I select a normal terrestrial channel on the TV, I
get a picture divided into 4 with a big black cross in the middle - plus all
the symptoms of vertical hold not working. If I put the STB on standby, the
terrestrial channels are ok. Is this normal, or is something wrong with it?
I had assumed that the signal coming out of the loop-though socket *should*
be ok, even with the STB in use - because you may want to record a digital
channel whilst watching a terrestrial channel. Am I missing something?

I haven't yet tried to record a digital channel, or even to connect a VCR to
the second Scart socket. But I note that the remote control has a button
labelled DTV/VCR. The only explanation in the manual says "used to switch
between digital TV and video". What does this actually do? Currently, when I
press it, the STB goes onto standby (allowing terrestrial channels to be
viewed). If I had a VCR connected, would it stay in the 'run' state (green
light) when this button was pressed - but allow terrestrial channels to be
viewed? How would I select the channel to be recorded? [The manual says SFA
about recording from the second scart!]

TIA.
--
Cheers,
Roger
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