Welcome to the forum, I've moved your post to the freeview forum 
For freeview you need an external antenna pointing towards one fo the public transmitters (same ones as youre normall bbc/itv/c4/c5 signals come from) No freeview digital signals are available via the VM cable apart from the ones you can pick up on your VM box.
Which does the dvd recorder have a SCART input? If so then use that for your cable recordsings and the RF from an antenna for your freeview..