tv ariel installation

[tinagmac]

i get really bad tv reception in my home, ok in the living room as i have cable tv but the rest of the house is a bit hit and miss. i have had a few companies around to give me a quote on installing tv sockets in the other rooms and keep getting conflicting advise. the last one said that to run 4 or more tvs off one roof ariel i need a amplifier which will need to have a power supply and switched on to get the tvs to get reception. no other companies have said this. who is right, can i get reception for say 5 tellys from one roof ariel, will i need a special roof ariel or will the one i have be ok. please can anyone help.

 

[seaop]

Boosters are normally only needed if your aerial is in your loft, otherwise you should be fine

 

[Mickymoody]

To get TV reception to 4-5 TV's from one aerial, then you will need some type of booster. Especially when digital TV is introduced country wide.

The quality of the signal is often overlooked, and this can result in excessive signal loss.

Or you could look at some internal distrubution system, whereby the existing cable receiver, distrubutes its signal to existing analogue TV's receivers?

I have Sky and Cable, but the Sky system has two outputs, so I run a RF cable from that upstairs, so I have Sky TV, via a cheap RF cable, in two rooms.

I have internet from Virgin, and a phoneline from them, and when paying the bill, they said, we will install free TV for you, so always worth a punt, at getting something that you might not expect?

 

[ChrisFrost]

Personally I'd agree with Mickymoody. A distribution amplifier is the correct tool to use.

Whenever a signal is split between two displays each gets a little less than half. That means less signal level compared to the noise; a worse signal to noise ratio. The level might still be within the TVs acceptable range when the aerial install is new. But as it ages then the signal level will also drop. The risk is the signal level becoming borderline. With an analogue system that meant a slightly snowy picture, but Digital Freeview is far more unforgiving. You'll have problems with pixelisation and freezing.

There are a couple of different ways to provide enough signal level to run several TVs from one aerial. One popular solution is a Masthead amplifier/splitter. The other is a loftbox amplifier. Each have their advantages...

Masthead amp: closer to the aerial - better signal to noise ratio. Simpler installation. Lower cost (but only by a few tens of pounds)

Loftbox amp: more flexible. Ability to send TV, DAB, FM to all TV points. Ability to distribute satellite/cable box signal to other rooms so you can watch in a bedroom. Usually 6-8 outputs, so room for expansion at low cost.

All of my installs use loftboxes because most of my customers have a mix of Sky and Freeview in the same system.

Have a read here and make up your own mind which solution suits your needs. Satcure

 

[tfish]

what loftbox's do u use?

 

[ericmark]

If you get an aerial with very high gain you could in theory run all TV's from one aerial but in practice this is not normally the case and an amplifier is normally required.

 

[Mickymoody]

To counter what I say, getting a high gain aerial, and splitting the output is equally a problem, as that then overloads the system, and you won't get a picture either!

Maybe offsetting the direction of a high gain aerial, may result in 'reasonable' results overall, but a distribution amp, or masthead amp aren't going to be more expensive, but will have better results.

Freeview reception, on a good aerial, in a good area, with a decent receiver, after the analogue system has been turned off, to one TV is suspect. There are no shortcuts, and the system is so flaky, that you either receive pictures or not, not like the traditional system, where the picture was viewable, albeit, poor quality. I think the Government got it so wrong to introduce digital, but it's all money based.

'Let's sell bandwidth - but everyone has to have an extra box in their house, consuming electricity' nice!

And guess what? The Government are getting rid of FM radio too, so your car radio is defunct. How many cars have a FM radio in there? All will have to be replaced.

 

[ChrisFrost]

And guess what? The Government are getting rid of FM radio too, so your car radio is defunct. How many cars have a FM radio in there? All will have to be replaced.

...and DAB can be marginal when stationary, so quite what sort of reception you'll get when moving from the sort of plug-in adapter that might be used to convert and FM car radio to DAB (if such a thing exists)... hmmm.

 

[Monkeh]

There are no shortcuts, and the system is so flaky, that you either receive pictures or not

Actually it's quite possible to receive a partial stream. And it's not flaky, it's the reality of digital transmissions.

not like the traditional system, where the picture was viewable, albeit, poor quality. I think the Government got it so wrong to introduce digital, but it's all money based.

So better quality television is a bad idea?

'Let's sell bandwidth - but everyone has to have an extra box in their house, consuming electricity' nice!

Wow, a watt or two on standby and less than a normal lightbulb in operation. Huge expense.

 

[plugwash]

Amplifiers are a mixed blessing. An amplifier amplifies the signal but it also amplifies the noise AND introduces noise of it's own.

Much better to have an aerial that gives enough signal that after splitting you still have enough.

 

[Monkeh]

Amplifiers are a mixed blessing. An amplifier amplifies the signal but it also amplifies the noise AND introduces noise of it's own.

Much better to have an aerial that gives enough signal that after splitting you still have enough.

That's one hell of an aerial in a low signal area. Masthead amps don't amplify much noise, and a good quality one adds very little noise of its own.

 

[Mickymoody]

There are no shortcuts, and the system is so flaky, that you either receive pictures or not

Actually it's quite possible to receive a partial stream. And it's not flaky, it's the reality of digital transmissions.

Either digital works, or doesn't, and a weak signal breaks up the picture, and freezes.

not like the traditional system, where the picture was viewable, albeit, poor quality. I think the Government got it so wrong to introduce digital, but it's all money based.

So better quality television is a bad idea?

What better quality? A digital picture in my eyes has less clarity, than an alalogue received signal.

'Let's sell bandwidth - but everyone has to have an extra box in their house, consuming electricity' nice!

Wow, a watt or two on standby and less than a normal lightbulb in operation. Huge expense.

So everyone in the country HAS to have some type of add-on box, that's over 60 million people, and contrary to popular belief, putting a box into standby does nothing other than turn the display off, and put a red light on the front - they are still processing the picture, as if still switched on, which is more than 'just a few watts'..so add up those watts, to the millions of consumers.

Did you disembark off the last boat, or have you been living in a cave? All your arguments fail at the first hurdle.

 

[Monkeh]

There are no shortcuts, and the system is so flaky, that you either receive pictures or not

Actually it's quite possible to receive a partial stream. And it's not flaky, it's the reality of digital transmissions.

Either digital works, or doesn't, and a weak signal breaks up the picture, and freezes.

not like the traditional system, where the picture was viewable, albeit, poor quality. I think the Government got it so wrong to introduce digital, but it's all money based.

So better quality television is a bad idea?

What better quality? A digital picture in my eyes has less clarity, than an alalogue received signal.

'Let's sell bandwidth - but everyone has to have an extra box in their house, consuming electricity' nice!

Wow, a watt or two on standby and less than a normal lightbulb in operation. Huge expense.

So everyone in the country HAS to have some type of add-on box, that's over 60 million people

Funnily enough, every TV you can buy now has DVB-T support. And you've had the option to buy them for most of the last decade.

and contrary to popular belief, putting a box into standby does nothing other than turn the display off, and put a red light on the front - they are still processing the picture, as if still switched on, which is more than 'just a few watts'..so add up those watts, to the millions of consumers.

So explain the tuning delay when I turn on any of the set-top boxes I have..

Did you disembark off the last boat, or have you been living in a cave? All your arguments fail at the first hurdle.

And your arguments don't?

 

[Mickymoody]

There are no shortcuts, and the system is so flaky, that you either receive pictures or not

Actually it's quite possible to receive a partial stream. And it's not flaky, it's the reality of digital transmissions.

Either digital works, or doesn't, and a weak signal breaks up the picture, and freezes.

not like the traditional system, where the picture was viewable, albeit, poor quality. I think the Government got it so wrong to introduce digital, but it's all money based.

So better quality television is a bad idea?

What better quality? A digital picture in my eyes has less clarity, than an alalogue received signal.

'Let's sell bandwidth - but everyone has to have an extra box in their house, consuming electricity' nice!

Wow, a watt or two on standby and less than a normal lightbulb in operation. Huge expense.

So everyone in the country HAS to have some type of add-on box, that's over 60 million people

Funnily enough, every TV you can buy now has DVB-T support. And you've had the option to buy them for most of the last decade.

and contrary to popular belief, putting a box into standby does nothing other than turn the display off, and put a red light on the front - they are still processing the picture, as if still switched on, which is more than 'just a few watts'..so add up those watts, to the millions of consumers.

So explain the tuning delay when I turn on any of the set-top boxes I have..

Did you disembark off the last boat, or have you been living in a cave? All your arguments fail at the first hurdle.

And your arguments don't?

Your comments don't warrant a reply, really, as they are so leftfield, and obtuse! Where are you getting this information from? Are you totally deluded?

 

[Monkeh]

Your comments don't warrant a reply, really, as they are so leftfield, and obtuse!

You mean you can't come up with a way to refute what I'm saying.

Where are you getting this information from? Are you totally deluded?

What information? The fact that I actually know how my equipment works, that I know when Freeview was introduced, that I know what TVs are on sale?