aerial

[spoonse]

Hi there,

i have a regular tv aerial on the roof and was wondering how would i go about connecting it to my boys tv's in their rooms.?They have freeview and the indoor aerials don't really do the job...any ideas? thanks Lloyd

 

[ericmark]

There are 100's of ways to use a single aerial for many TV sets. In the main you will need a unit which is powered as each time you split the signal the power is reduced unless the splitter is active.

The active booster/splitter are loosely split into four main types.

1) Requiring power to unit direct.
2) Split into power supply and booster when power supply is local to TV and booster is feed through coax cable it could be on mast head.
3) With through connection for DC devices as needed when using Digi-eye etc.
4) With filter which combines FM, DAB, TV, and SAT all into one cable.

There are some combinations of the above and what you need to do is decide what you need? For example if the aerial cables will run outside then mast head splitter/amplifier would likely be best option.

If you also have DAB, SAT etc and want to be able to remote change channels then a all singing dancing loft box may be what you need.

If you have power in loft maybe a cheap 4 way splitter/amp is all you need although I would recommend if you ever think you may get Sky you get a box with digi-bypass.


At £19.99 the price is very little different to this at £24.99 the more expensive type will work with digi-eye the cheaper one will not. So I would go future proof and pay little extra so can use digi-eye. However One of these at £90 is likely OTT.

If you have no power where you want to split then These do not need local power but use These Local to TV to power it so you need both £10.44 + £16.14 you need pair.

I take aerial to main TV and use small booster (In my case part of Sky box) then second cable into loft and another 6 way booster that feeds every room. This way I can watch both Sky and the Hard-drive/DVD recorder/player in any room plus the Freeview on TV's with it built in.

Much depends on design of your house and how you can route cables. My Mother has mast head amp as all her cables are outside.

I hope that gives you some ideas.

One down side with my system is my wife can change channel on Sky+ down stairs from her bed room and if she does it during adds I have returned with cuppa without realising and missed end of program. It did take some getting use to. Now we record near everything so can always watch latter.

 

[spoonse]

Thanks for your reply Ericmark,blimey i feel totally lost with all of your expert knowledge but i understand roughly whats going on...i think.

The aerial is on my roof and runs the usual cable down to the lounge to the box on the wall which we now don't use anymore as the sky now goes into the telly.So would i need one of the gadgets you featured to connect on to my tv aerial outside and then run the cable to the rooms as the freeview is all we need for the rooms at the moment and if so what box would you recommend,?

many thanks Lloyd

 

[ChrisFrost]

David,
Eric's reply is very comprehensive. If you want it boiled down in to something a bit easier to digest then here's how I'd do it for my customers...

TV aerial connects to the Sky RF input.

A TV aerial wire goes from Sky box "RF 2 output" to the input of one of those dark grey SLX boxes.

Any TV connected to one of the outputs from that box will get normal TV channels + Freeview and, as a bonus, also whatever channel is being watched on Sky. If you don't want Sky available on the children's TVs then simply don't tune up the extra analogue channel (I use 6) and the TV will only receive analogue 1-5 + Freeview.

The final thing you do is run long lengths of coax from the grey SLX box to the other TVs. Job done.

 

[spoonse]

Thanks for that mate both have been really helpful i'll get it moving once the weekend comes,cheers Lloyd