Anyone know anything about Freeview?

[Brightness]

OK then this is a general question as I am considering getting my boys a freeview set each for their rooms.

We've got an aerial in our loft but it's not very good so we've got Sky downstairs that we watch tv through and also a second sky box in our room that we all use.

As the kids always want to watch something at the same time as their Dad and youngest has usually got one of his revolting mates here I don't really want them all in my bedroom. Do these Freeview sets need a good aerial or not? Or will they use the Sky dish as a receiver?

No one I've spoken to seems to know does anyone on here?

 

[Steve]

www.freeview.co.uk type in your postcode. it said we need a new ariel, but i borrowed my grandad's box and it worked fine. Then again, the ariel is fairly new, just not a very good one, but it worked.

EDIT: no, you cant use the sky dish as a reciever. why would you want to? just a good ariel will do.

 

[Brightness]

Thanks Crafty I went there and looked. It said we'd need a new aerial too but apparently this aerial was only about 6mths old when we moved in here 3 years ago. Don't really want to have to fork out for a new aerial as well

 

[wemyss]

Its a bit hit and miss Brightness. As you probably know you can go to their site and enter your postcode to see if you can receive freeview in your area.
Having said that a mate who lives in a town 25 miles away found he was not able to receive in his area but went along and bought one.
He only has a aerial in the roof space but tells me he receives excellent quality Freeview.
If possible I would try and borrow a Freeview box from someone and see what you get rather than buy one.
I haven't got a Sky dish so can't answer on that one.

 

[Brightness]

Oooh that's a good idea wemyss. Thanks, I never thought of that. Now I wonder who's got a freeview box I can borrow....

 

[Steve]

it partly depends which direction / transmitter your ariel is pointing at. We live in the middle of 3 transmitters here. Belmont, the closest, used to be most popular pre-channel5. Then we all found we couldn't get ch5, so over the years most people on our street have had the ariels turned to face the other direction, at Emley Moor, but this transmitter is further away so we all needed bigger, taller ariels This transmitter also has freeview, dont know about Belmont. We have 2 Sky boxes now

 

[Steve]

Oooh that's a good idea wemyss. Thanks, I never thought of that. Now I wonder who's got a freeview box I can borrow....

i did mention it:

it said we need a new ariel, but i borrowed my grandad's box and it worked fine.

 

[hermes]

We just got one. The signal is a little bit hit and miss but a neighbour said theirs was the same but they fixed it by getting a wideband aerial and now it's fine.

 

[big-all]

you do need a wide band ariel to get a good picture

absolutly nowt to do with sky or cable

you will probably need a booster with multi tvs

my set up ariel in loft to booster in upstairs bedroom then to living room
digi box then video 1 and2 then distributed via another booster to the other 6 tvs in the house back up to bedrooms and round the house[further booster to tv in shed]

 

[Moz]

"and youngest has usually got one of his revolting mates here"

What was he revolting about ,your cooking by chance ...any way young lads will be playing lad type games anyway ...with rich tea digestives ...or something slogger told me ...

 

[suffolklad]

hi every one told me i couldnt get free veiw where i live as i live along way from transmitter. but i bought a high gain wide band 52 element aerial with new coax and got 10 db booster and wow got all channels perfect reception and aerial is in loft too

 

[Brightness]

Oooh that's a good idea wemyss. Thanks, I never thought of that. Now I wonder who's got a freeview box I can borrow....

i did mention it:

it said we need a new ariel, but i borrowed my grandad's box and it worked fine.

Sorry Crafty There xxxxxx to make you feel better