which freeview airiel?

[sargie]

hi guys trying o setup freview in my sons bedroom and i bought him an ariel today heres link

Digital Indoor TV Aerial

this made no difference hardly from the old analouge ariel which had one antenna snappped off lol i have sen this one

Indoor TV Aerial with Signal Booster

which has a built in booster will this work? or is there no indoor airiel hat will be strong enough? if there is any advice would be good thanks sargieboy.

 

[Rat]

i used this one m8 for the kids room and worked ok (for my area)
Shop for Telecam TCE2001 Wideband Indoor TV Aerial With Amplifier. at Argos.co.uk

 

[sargie]

i used this one m8 for the kids room and worked ok (for my area)
Shop for Telecam TCE2001 Wideband Indoor TV Aerial With Amplifier. at Argos.co.uk

cheers for that rat ill get one tommorow and try it out much appreciated

 

[X-Wolf]

or is there no indoor airiel hat will be strong enough?

That will depend entirely how far away from the transmitter u are, and if u have good line of sight to transmitter.

Most suitably quoted (digital) indoor aerials will work, but when it rains heavy,
or snows, u will soon see how well it works. In other words, no matter wot aerial u use, if u are receiving only a mid signal then bad weather will lose & breakup the digital picture.

This doesn't mean it will happen to u ... as I said at the start, it's all down to location, and how good a signal u are already receiving.

Hope u get up & running ok ...

 

[digidude]

an aerial is just an aerial, they call them 'digital' to sell more, they are just wideband aerials. you will get a better signal by using a correctly banded aerial for your area

 

[X-Wolf]

Not quite true ... an outdoor digital aerial is not wideband. It is at least half a length longer than a standard aerial, which increases the signal coming in.

For indoor aerials the term 'digital' means nothing on an unamplified aerial.

On an amplified aerial it would mean the signal is not distorted because of the circuitry.

You are correct in, using the correct aerial for the transmitter (band) for the area. The end cap colour of the aerial let u know the band of the area.

 

[sargie]

so is there anyway of finding out the signal strength in my area we ricive our signal from the belmont airiel its not that far away at all

 

[X-Wolf]

I'm sure ome of the better (expensive) freeboxes have a signal level indicator built into the software, to let you monitor level. My little cheapo thing doesn't have such luxury. Cant remember if the old OnDigital boxes had this feature (i think they did).

The only other method is for a meter to get stuck on the end of the cable, to read the incoming level. Usually only tv aerial installers that have such a box.

 

[digidude]

QUOTE=X-Wolf;693672]Not quite true ... an outdoor digital aerial is not wideband. It is at least half a length longer than a standard aerial, which increases the signal coming in.[/QUOTE]

an aerial is a passive device that just collects a wave from the air, it neither knows or cares what it is. the different designs in aerial allow some to do a better job than others by only picking up a certian frequency (different bands) or all of the available frequency (wideband), some are made for use in strong signal areas (10 element) whereas some are made for use in very remote areas (unix 100 element) both can be used for digital, depending on how strong your available signal is

most wideband aerials are longer than 'banded' aerials as they have a weaker gain over the whole frequency spectrum and need more elements to drag in a bit more signal to have a higher gain

its recommended by both the CAI and RDI that aerial installations where a digital signal is required be fitted with a wideband aerial as once analogue finishes the muxes ARE going to move, and if a group A aerial is fitted for an improved signal now then it may need to be changed as all muxes will be broadcast between channels 25-65

On an amplified aerial it would mean the signal is not distorted because of the circuitry.

any amplifier introduces unwanted noise into the signal, even a simple wall plate introduces noise. anything at all with electronic components will degrade the signal, thats why its so important to use quality cable etc

 

[X-Wolf]

a little thing called wavelength comes into play ... the elements orientation and spacing determins the peak 'incoming' signal. The aerial is peaked to a certain band of signals. The longer the aerial, the more elements u can fit = stronger signal.

wideband areals can be of varing distances between elements, or those hi-gain things with multi-elements.

 

[digidude]

yep

and the aerial is designed to pick up the frequency of the carrier wave, which it will do wether its carrying an analogue signal, a digital data signal, or nothing at all

its designed to pick up the wave, they call em digital to make more money, hell even i do it lol

 

[digidude]

banded aerials come in varying lengths as well

heres some from antiference, Rx12 and Rx20 in all bands and wideband. i use a lot of televes 43element A band aerials, as well as their 43 element wideband aerials

 

[X-Wolf]

hoho so u one of them type installers then roud: lol

U just reminded me of when I went with a mate to buy a digital aerial,
and the trade price for the real thing only a fiver, and it retails at over
twenty quid in the shops.

Was there a place called 'Clearview' anywhere neer you ?

 

[digidude]

nope, most places here charge £80+ for a 'digital' aerial, i fit em for much less then that and tell people thet theyre wideband i think the big one here is called action aerials £80 plus labour robbing gets

 

[X-Wolf]

ouch! :FRIGHT:

OK, don't want to hog the thread.
Let's wait and see how SargieBoy gets on.

 

[Jooooles]

I bought a indoor standard ariel for £8 from my local hardware store stuck it in the loft doubled up the cable on it and ran 3 cables into the 3 bed rooms the 25 mtr cable cost about £10 on ebay i then bought 3 free view boxes for under £50 this done me smashing for years untill cable moved into my area then the obvious upgrade happend do the cheapest easyiest way m8

 

[sargie]

ok i bought an airiel from tescos its a technika high gain amplified ariel. now heres the wierd thing my freview box does have a signal strength indicator and with this airiel it is right up near the top so almost perfect. But when watching a channel it is still blocky and choppy! i cant understand it almost perfect signal but no improvement on quality. any ideas what i shoul do next?

 

[digidude]

ok m8 it soulds like youre in a good signal area, but the quality is suffering (and thats whats important in digital) tv signals are broadcastboth horizontally and vertically, it may be just a case of twisting the top of the earial 90 degrees (it should go easy enough in its stand), this will keep the strength thats already there, and if you are trying to collect the signal on the wrong polarity then it will greatly improve the quality as well

 

[sargie]

ok m8 it soulds like youre in a good signal area, but the quality is suffering (and thats whats important in digital) tv signals are broadcastboth horizontally and vertically, it may be just a case of twisting the top of the earial 90 degrees (it should go easy enough in its stand), this will keep the strength thats already there, and if you are trying to collect the signal on the wrong polarity then it will greatly improve the quality as well

ok so basically i need to fiddle with it? it has two telescopic antennas then a oval part in the middle for uhf. ill have a play. bah so much hassle freeview in it

 

[digidude]

ahh one of them

on the middle ov the oval there should be 2 bits of metal, these should twist to be either horiontal or vertical