What is a receiver? Easily explained
You often need a receiver to watch TV via satellite or DVB-T. This practical tip shows you exactly what that is, when you need a receiver and how CHIP can help you with receiver problems.
What is a receiver?
In general, a receiver denotes a receiver. Mostly it is a technical receiving device:
- A receiver receives and processes data.
- In particular, audio or video data are received and processed, but sometimes also text.
- Many receivers can receive data from multiple sources and process them for different end devices.
- Receivers often have different connections and protocols for receiving, processing and forwarding data to different playback devices.
- Receivers with such complex options for forwarding data to various devices are also known as set-top boxes.
There are these receivers
A household typically has one or more of the following receivers:
- Tuners, i.e. radio receivers, are often referred to as Reveivers if they can receive the radio signal, amplify it and transmit it to various devices or speakers. Radio receivers can send the signal via antenna or antenna cable, LAN or WLAN.
- AV receivers receive audio and video, for example via DVB-C and DVB-T, and forward them in suitable formats to end devices such as televisions, games consoles and loudspeakers. They often have transmission functions such as AirPlay, Miracast or WiFi-Direct and connections such as audio jack and cinch as well as HDMI, DVI and VGA.
- Satellite receivers receive the data from your satellite dish and prepare them for your television set. Satellite television is also known as DVB-S.
- In order to receive Pay TV channels like Sky, you also need a receiver that decrypts the content for you.
Practical tips on everything to do with receivers
In many CHIP home and practice tips, we will help you with problems with the four types of receivers:
- Here we explain how to connect your radio receiver via antenna cable. We will also show you the optimal settings for the equalizer and your subwoofer.
- We will show you the best AV receivers with Airplay, the typical wiring of AV receivers and the optimal sound settings for AV receivers in further practical tips.
- We advise you when buying an HD satellite receiver and help you if your satellite receiver does not receive a signal.
- We'll show you how to sort programs in the Sky receiver and how to connect an external hard drive to your Sky receiver. If there are problems with the Sky receiver, it often helps to reset the device
No matter which receiver you are, we will help you if it hums or does not respond to the remote control.