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Freeview TV

[Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 196
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in Freeview #1
Hi was wondering if anyone can help me, Just bought a freeview tv, and as i dont have an outdoor aerial, was wondering if anyone has an recommended suggestions of and indoor aerial that would work, i have checked all the usual places, but would prefer to have a comment from anyone that actually uses one.

thanks all.

Comments

  • chrisjrchrisjr Posts: 33,282
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    #2
    Indoor aerials only work well in areas of high signal strength. This is for a number of reasons. Not least the location, walls and floors attenuate the signal. Then you have to factor in the size of the aerial which is linked to the amount of signal they suck out of the ether. They are much smaller than an outdoor aerial so produce less signal.

    So the very worst place to use an indoor aerial is an end terrace on the ground floor with the aerial pointing to a transmitter at the opposite end of the terrace! Best case is an upper floor with a window giving direct line of sight to the transmitter.

    Avoid those horrid loop type aerials like the plague. Especially ones with a built in amplifier boasting 40+ dB of gain. In my experience they are completely useless unless you can actually see the transmitter out the window. If the signal is weak and buried in the noise no amount of amplification will improve it. The amplifier just amplifies the noise along with the signal.

    The best types are those that resemble a small outdoor aerial. Or if you have the means to conceal it a log periodic outdoor aerial would possibly be even better. They are more compact generally than most outdoor aerials so a bit easier to hide on top of a cupboard/wardrobe and should perform a bit better than an indoor aerial.

    But nothing beats a proper outdoor aerial.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 89
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    #3
    chrisjr wrote: »
    Indoor aerials only work well in areas of high signal strength. This is for a number of reasons. Not least the location, walls and floors attenuate the signal. Then you have to factor in the size of the aerial which is linked to the amount of signal they suck out of the ether. They are much smaller than an outdoor aerial so produce less signal.

    So the very worst place to use an indoor aerial is an end terrace on the ground floor with the aerial pointing to a transmitter at the opposite end of the terrace!     Best case is an upper floor with a window giving direct line of sight to the transmitter.

    Avoid those horrid loop type aerials like the plague. Especially ones with a built in amplifier boasting 40+ dB of gain. In my experience they are completely useless unless you can actually see the transmitter out the window. If the signal is weak and buried in the noise no amount of amplification will improve it. The amplifier just amplifies the noise along with the signal.

    The best types are those that resemble a small outdoor aerial. Or if you have the means to conceal it a log periodic outdoor aerial would possibly be even better. They are more compact generally than most outdoor aerials so a bit easier to hide on top of a cupboard/wardrobe and should perform a bit better than an indoor aerial.

    But nothing beats a proper outdoor aerial    .

    I live about 17 miles away from Winter Hill and get good reception on a cheap indoor aerial in my upstairs bedroom. Before digital switchover I had to use an aerial amplifier as well which I don't need now.
    Although it is line of sight through my bedoom window, I had to position the aerial to not point through it. The reason was that it is a large double glazed window and has some sort of metallic coating to reflect the sun and stop overheating in summer. This does not work very well, but does prevent a good tv signal.
  • a d r i a na d r i a n Posts: 28
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    #4
    I'm circa 4 miles from Crystal Palace and get good reception using an indoor aerial bought from Poundland!

    Reception on SD is solid, the only problem I have is watching HD when I get a brief signal breakup when a car passes outside.
  • MartinPickeringMartinPickering Posts: 3,711
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    #5
    This page covers the question: http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/best_aerial.htm#indoor
  • tony-wtony-w Posts: 487
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    #6
    chrisjr wrote: »
    Indoor aerials only work well in areas of high signal strength. This is for a number of reasons. Not least the location, walls and floors attenuate the signal. Then you have to factor in the size of the aerial which is linked to the amount of signal they suck out of the ether. They are much smaller than an outdoor aerial so produce less signal.

    So the very worst place to use an indoor aerial is an end terrace on the ground floor with the aerial pointing to a transmitter at the opposite end of the terrace! Best case is an upper floor with a window giving direct line of sight to the transmitter.

    Avoid those horrid loop type aerials like the plague. Especially ones with a built in amplifier boasting 40+ dB of gain. In my experience they are completely useless unless you can actually see the transmitter out the window. If the signal is weak and buried in the noise no amount of amplification will improve it. The amplifier just amplifies the noise along with the signal.

    The best types are those that resemble a small outdoor aerial. Or if you have the means to conceal it a log periodic outdoor aerial would possibly be even better. They are more compact generally than most outdoor aerials so a bit easier to hide on top of a cupboard/wardrobe and should perform a bit better than an indoor aerial.

    But nothing beats a proper outdoor aerial.

    I agree, I live in a strong signal area, about 15 miles from the TX, I can use an aerial that came with my DVB-T2 card (resembles a telescopic aerial that used to be on old transistor radios in the 80's.)
    This 300mm long and about 4mm diameter aerial can easily catch the main MUX's, it does however not get the new HD MUX (BBC4 HD, BBC News HD etc) and the local MUX.
    But the rooftop wide-band can easily receive everything.

    As winston stated in the above post, do not waste your time with indoor aerials, amplifiers and high quality COAX cable, get yourself a good quality wide-band installed, it will be worth it in the long run, especially if anymore MUX's appear in the future that are 'out of range'

    You can easily get a good quality aerial for £20, the main cost is the installation, if you are confident enough it is an easy task to install yourself (I did our rooftop aerial) but of course do not take any stupid risks, we all know what happened to Rod Hull (RIP)
  • technologisttechnologist Posts: 13,360
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    #7
    With the inevitability of the 700. MHz band clearance , wide band is a good move ....
  • tony-wtony-w Posts: 487
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    #8
    The reason I bought up the wide-band point is my Mum had to get an aerial upgrade back in 2011 when the DSO occurred, the installation engineer installed a C/D or possibly an E band aerial and everything was fine....
    Come May 2013 COM7 was launched on C31 (554mhz) which was of course out of band for a C/D/E aerial, she then had to spend another £150 to get it changed to a wide-band to be able to get the extra HD channels on COM7.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 196
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    #9
    so sorry took so long to reply, but thank you everyone for you help
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