Actually, I bought the Echostar box on Monday! I had a good read up about it on previous threads here on Digital Spy, and decided to go for it.
Yes, it has a much better hold on weaker signals, and is vastly better than my Thomson box, so it has taken pride of place in the kitchen. The boys have therefore gained the Thomson box to their bedroom now instead of at Christmas.
Interesting point: The aerial on the roof is the original one from when our house was built in the 50s. We used to have a Panasonic box, which broke up terribly, so we decided to do something about the aerial (on the Freeview site, it says we CAN get Freeview, but most likely need to change our aerial), so we bought a HUGE high gain digital loft aerial because my hubby didn't fancy climbing up the roof, and the chimney looks a little dodgy to fix to. So, we connected the new loft aerial to the TV in the kitchen, attached a couple of boosters, and things improved. The Panny box blew up, and we got the Thomson one in exchange under the guarantee, and things were about the same. But over the past year, and since BBC did a move around with their channels and you had to retune for them, the BBC channels had really gone to pot.
Now, the boys' TV in their bedroom was still connected to the roof aerial, because the analogue picture was fine. So when I got this new Echostar box and saw how good it was in the kitchen, I thought I'd try both boxes upstairs. Guess what? UPSTAIRS, the Thomson box works perfectly, so I haven't even had to try the Echostar up there.
This leads us to believe that the co-ax cable going down to the kitchen from the roof aerial was worn out, and therefore, the cause of the problem in the first place, so my hubby is going to get the necessary bits to tee into the line at the boys' bedroom at the weekend, and run a new lead down to the kitchen from the roof.
Hopefully after that, we will be able to enjoy all Freeview channels on both boxes without glitches! BTW, the living room TV and our bedroom TV are only linked to Sky Digital, which is why I haven't brought them into the equation.
P.S. can someone please invent a wireless connection system because the wires at the back of all our TVs are HORENDOUS!!!
Whenever I have to install a new piece of hardware into one room or another, I usually break out into song..."The foot bone's connected to the ankle bone..."etc etc. It needs sorting because it attracts so much dust and somehow all the leads end up tangled up...never have worked out how that happens!
At the mo, the only channels still breaking up, tho not as badly as on the Thomson box, are BBC1 & BBC2. I will let you know how things have faired after my hubby has reconnected the kitchen box/TV to the roof aerial.