Aerial Assistance
Hello - I'm trying to help my mum, but I don't know anything about digital TV reception and was hoping someone here could help me.
She is in the Midlands region and has a new digital TV in her lounge which she loves and gets great reception from an aerial in the loft.
The problem is that she wants a TV in the kitchen - she currently has an analogue portable in there with its own aerial. When she replaces that with a small digital TV, will she need to get someone to come and create a new aerial socket in the kitchen, or is there a portable aerial I can get for her that would avoid the need for that ?
Apologies for these questions, but I have no idea how these things work
She is in the Midlands region and has a new digital TV in her lounge which she loves and gets great reception from an aerial in the loft.
The problem is that she wants a TV in the kitchen - she currently has an analogue portable in there with its own aerial. When she replaces that with a small digital TV, will she need to get someone to come and create a new aerial socket in the kitchen, or is there a portable aerial I can get for her that would avoid the need for that ?
Apologies for these questions, but I have no idea how these things work
0
Comments
The best type of set top aerial to get is one that looks like a small version of a roof aerial. Those loop types are often no good because they simply don't suck enough signal out of the air. One thing you could do is try a set top aerial on the living room TV. If it works then there is a chance it may work in the kitchen. Though the best test would be to try it in the kitchen.
The kitchen may be on the same side of the house as the transmitter so stands a better chance of getting something. If it is on the opposite side of the house to the transmitter then the extra walls the signal travels through may attenuate it too much.
If all that fails then it is not too difficult to add a new feed from the aerial. A two way amplifier, or if the signal is good enough a simple splitter, is all you need. Plus a bit of cable down to the kitchen.
However the analogue signal your mother presently gets on the set top aerial in the kitchen will be a guide. Is it good? If so, then following digital switchover in your region - if it's the Sutton Coldfield transmitter this is in just a couple of weeks from now - there is a chance that a set top aerial will work though it might need careful postitioning to receive all muxs. (mux = multiplex, meaning a signal containing groups of programmes) You might even be able to cannibalise the old aerial off the portable set - by the way, you do realise that the portable set can be converted using a set top box? No real need to buy a new TV - even if it does not have a SCART socket, though you would need to buy a particular sort of set top box in that case rather than just any box.
It really does depend on the strength of the signal. If the present main aerial is in the loft rather than on the roof, that's a clue that we might be talking about a location with pretty strong reception.
Telecam are not the easiest to find in the shops but you should get one on-line (Amazon sold them last time I looked). They do two versions, the more expensive one has an amplifier. I personally would not bother with the amplified version, if the signal is weak, all it will amplify is the interference and noise.
Good luck, post back here with how you get on.
I hope it works out well for your Mum. As others have already said, there is more chance of success after digital switch over as the transmitter power will be increased then.
1. BBC1, BBC2, BBC News (any BBC channel in fact!)
2. ITV1, Channel 4, Channel 5
3. ITV3, E4, QVC
4. Sky News, Dave, Pick TV
5. Yesterday, Film 4, ITV4
If the signal strength is good, the exact positioning of the aerial might not be too crucial but if it's not so good, you might have to do a fair bit of experimenting to get the exact position where reception of all those five muxs is good, and in those circumstances you then need to make sure it's somewhere you can't knock it out of alignment! Frankly if the latter is the situation, a set top aerial probably won't be ideal, but it does sound as if we might be talking about an area with strong reception, so it's worth a try.