splitting tv aerial

[owe]

hi just want a bit of advice

have a digital aerial mounted in my loft, it has 1 cable running down that is plugged into a tv with built in freeview.

I'm getting a couple more tvs for round the house and want to split the aerial signal between these other tvs (1 of them has built in freeview and the other will have a freeview box)

do I need a splitter or a booster... or a splitter with a booster??

many thanks

 

[peterduckett]

That depends on how good your signal is already.

Good signal splitter would be Ok for a couple
bad signal you will need to boost it before you split it. though saying that if you need to boost it the best way would be to get a mast head amp.

Very good page can be found here
http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/amps.htm

Oh and this should not be posted in electrics

 

[Taylortwocities]

Mods, pls move to Audio Visual. tks!

 

[bernardgreen]

This might be the answer.


http://www.screwfix.com/prods/86222...262-S-Distribution-Amplifier-2-Input-6-Output

And fit behind or well below the aerial so the aerial does not pick up any stray signal from the amplifier that might cause feedback and corruption of the digital signal.

As you have a loft aerial fit be prepared to have to fit this in a room and not in the loft.

I am sure this version can be fed with power over the coax lead from the main TV ( there is an adaptor provided )

 

[ericmark]

One would hope the aerial is not over size and so likely an active splitter is required. i.e. One which is powered. Most household have some sort of set top box. Either VCR, DVD, Sky, Free-to-air, or hard drive. In which case it is normally better to feed main TV then split to other TV's so the coax can also carry RF from set top boxes.

However the closer the pre-amp is to the aerial the better it works so mast head amp is best way to split signal but it may not be best for distribution.

Every house is different. But basic if you split normally you also need to amplify. Mast head amps don't have to be on mast. I have seen them in the loft. Main point is the power is supplied through the coax cable from a transformer normally near TV so handy when local power is not available.

This means some coax cables also have to handle DC but electrical storms can send static down aerial cable and give nasty belt so some wall sockets have de-coupling capacitors to stop the static which will also stop DC.

So I would suggest you get all you want from same shop and tell them what you want to do so you get correct type of sockets etc.

 

[Chri5]

Under no circumstances should you use a passive Y- type splitter.

They do much as you'd think- they drop the signal strength by 50% which for the majority of aerials means a really woeful signal.

If all you want is terrestrial to all rooms then aerial in to amplifier and cable out to each room using a decent solid foam co-ax.

If you'd like a simple Sky / Virgin round house then aerial in to TV box, RF1 out to the amp and rest of house from amp. You can then tune the TV to take terrestrial and the signal from the TV box.

Top end amps take various input signals from TV box, aerial, dvd, CCTV and via duplex or triplex plates push out all the signals to all cabled rooms.

Merry Chri5 mas