Freeview

[Grahame]

I've got a signal booster/distro in the loft, and the communal aerial is also through a booster/distro unit, so I don't think there's much mileage in installing another one.

Having discovered that the DVD recorder has a stronger signal and can get the channels OK-ish, I did try swapping leads around between that and the telly and the wall, which has improved things a bit. I can now get a picture some of the time, but the signal is a lot weaker than it was on those particular channels.

I might try investing in some better quality connecting cables, as mine are pretty old.

[Sunflower]

on this subject, has anyone had any trouble with channels as of the last month?

i no longer receive stv, ch4 and ch5 on digital, altho i do on analogue signal. this will be no use once the analogue signal drops later on this year. my friend not far from me had the same problem, but he decided to get virgin installed. a ploy by cable operators somehow?

Yep, this just happened to me today when I retuned following the insistent and annoying pop-up message on the telly. I now have no STV, channel 4 or 5 on digital. The channels are there, they're just not strong enough to hold a decent signal. Yet they were fine before I did the retune! Grrr....

It's pants!

Having read this I carefully didn't retune (in spite of the insistent and very annoying pop-up message).

Then last night both BBC1 amd BBC2 had disappeared. Cue much shouting at the box. Before throwing box and telly out the window I thought I might as well try retuning. Both missing channels came back and I don't think anything else has vanished.

So why do the poster ads say 22 June?

[Dexter St. Clair]

Having read this I carefully didn't retune (in spite of the insistent and very annoying pop-up message).

Then last night both BBC1 amd BBC2 had disappeared. Cue much shouting at the box. Before throwing box and telly out the window I thought I might as well try retuning. Both missing channels came back and I don't think anything else has vanished.

So why do the poster ads say 22 June?

That's when you retune again.

[Sunflower]

[Dons PPE]

Why all this effing about beforehand?

[Doffs PPE and runs]

[InkMan]

Is there a booster device that enhances a tv top aerial?

I bought my best friend a 1080p Digital LCD TV with built in DVD and Freeview. I set it up in her Living Room using the UHF aerial and it worked nae problem. When I put it into her bedroom the aerial she had been using wasn't powerful enough to maintain a clear signal. I bought a Philex booster which only works utilising the UHF aerial which isn't what I am looking for.

If this question has been asked elsewhere then apologies though I have used the search function.

Shuggy

[Dexter St. Clair]

take a longer cable to the UHF aerial. boosters don't work

[TA_Ealing]

Aye all boosters do is boost the crap signal.

[gordonjcp]

If you're going to use a booster, use a masthead one that goes right at the aerial. There's no point picking up a weak signal, losing most of it down crappy lossy coax, then attempting to amplify what's left. Those of you with a musical bent may be familiar with the term "gain structure" - this is exactly the same at RF!

Don't get a wideband preamp, they're crap. All they do is amplify all the clatter and noise from GSM-R if you live near a railway and TETRA if you're just about anywhere else. Also, get a good quality aerial - those V-shaped ones with the three rows of directors may look all funky and space-age but they're shite. If you're going to have to get up on the roof to fit an aerial, fit a good one. It's a potentially dangerous job, so you don't want to have to do it twice.

Incidentally, up north where I come from we needed a pair of 24-element TV aerials (about 7 feet long) stacked, and two signal boosters because of the length of cable run just to get any kind of picture at all. Now that the digital TV switchover has started, there is *no* terrestrial TV coverage at all. If you want off-air, you get satellite or nothing.

[InkMan]

Hey Folks,

I realise that I must be showing my ignorance here. The UHF aerial in my friends lift only seems to have one fitted point where the wire makes contact. This is then fed down the wall into the living room.

Is my best option then to buy a loft UHF aerial with two connection ports then to feed the second connection into the bedroom and if so can I connect this myself? Furthermore will this affect the quality of signal strength to the Living Room. The reason I ask the second question is that the Philex booster now allows her to receive ITV and a few other previously unavailable Freeview channels so I don't want to lose this.

Thanks

Shuggy

[Dexter St. Clair]

Must you have a loft aerial?

[InkMan]

I thought that the UHF aerials were the big metal devices which could only be placed on the roof or in the loft.

[Dexter St. Clair]

I thought that the UHF aerials were the big metal devices which could only be placed on the roof or in the loft.

You lose a good bit of signal strength by putting it in the loft.

[Grahame]

Hey Folks,

I realise that I must be showing my ignorance here. The UHF aerial in my friends lift only seems to have one fitted point where the wire makes contact. This is then fed down the wall into the living room.

That's correct. You need to split the signal from the aerial, but it's not as simple as just splicing in an extra wire. If the booster box you got is providing satisfactory results, and it sounds like it is, it would be worth getting a combination RF booster/distribution amplifier. I've got one of these installed in the loft; the aerial signal goes in and you get six or so amplified outputs that you can route to where you want them. Currently my 4 Freeview tellys are fed from one of these. I did have to install a mains supply for it in the loft, but it's been working up there for years now with no trouble whatsoever.

[tobester]

My dad has a freeview tv, and after the scan on the 22nd, he seems to have issues with itv4, film4 and viva, the pictures are pixelly and breaking up or showing no signal, the OSD shows up ~Quality as 10% or less, all other channels are ok, any ideas why....FYI hes in a tower block so its a communal aerial

*edited to add*

i have noticed that the channels are all on the same frequency 652000mhz

so i take its a frequency issue

[brickwall]

Freesat is where it's all at.