Upgrading my TV aerial, i have a new digital aerial fitted and the fitter told me when i get an amplifier, not to get anything that is above 8db as will be too strong and to get a variable gain if possible.
I find it strange that all the TV guys i asked, they all used different aerial manufacturers, he said he only fitted PROception amps, i have read that loft boxes are good and another told me that he only uses Wolsey.
Wolsey do a 8 way amplifier with a 0-10db variable gain
Loft box seems to be fixed at 8db and so does the PROception. I did wonder why he recommended PROception when he also advised a variable gain which they don't seem to do.
Any recommendations from anyone ?

There is no such beast as a digital aerial. In the days when analogue transmissions were still with us there were tales of less than scrupulous fitters charging gullible punters much more for a so called "digital" aerial which in fact is no different to any other aerial designed to receive UHF band frequencies. One hopes you were not ripped off in this manner.

Just as important as gain is noise. Get an amplifier with as low a noise figure as possible. especially if the raw signal from the aerial is weak to begin with.

The main types of loft box I have seen are used where you want to distribute the RF out of a Sky box along with the aerial signals. They often require two feeds to the living room. One to send a mix of satellite and TV aerial signals down to the living room where they get split out again and a second to return the Sky box RF out to the loft box to distribute round the house.

If you don't want that sort of set up a simple UHF in multiple out put amp will do the job. Though mounting it in the loft where it is closest to the aerial so gets the best possible input signal is never a bad idea, as long as you can get power to it obviously.

What box a fitter recommends could be simply personal preference or just what he can get for the best price with the biggest mark up when he sells them on (or is that being too cynical )

I keep calling it a digital aerial for some reason and everyone corrects me on that, as you did, can't get it out of my head but there you go.
It's been a good few years since i touched the system so just had a look at it. I think what i have done is ran the tv aerial, straight down to the Sky HD box, then ran the cable from the RF out, back up to the loft and had that as the main input for the ancient maxview amplifier that is up there. That way i had Sky around the house although not in HD. Is that still the only way i can do it and get Sky around the house.
All the cabling to the Tv's is done with PF100 cable.

I use PROception distribution amps when installing. I like them because they're very compact and they can be powered either directly or via the coax cable. I use Wolsey masthead amps, and again that's just personal preference.

For what you need then a Wolsey LTE 8 Way Distribution Amplifier (product code: 334015) would fit the bill. It is adjustable 0-10dB.

The reason to be careful with the gain is that digital TV works within a Min-Max range. If you're already getting lots of signal from the aerial then all you need from the distribution amp is enough compensation to cope with splitting the signal and then a small amount of boost to compensate for the signal loss in the cables to the various TVs. Cable loss can be calculated for good coax (Webro WF100) because the loss per metre is pretty constant at 0.15dB. Therefore 10m of cable results in a 1.5dB loss. Cheaper cable (RG6) isn't so predictable. A simple Rule of Thumb guide is that if there's too much gain from the amp then the TV's signal Quality measure will fall. Reduce the gain and you'll see Quality increase as measured by the TV.

Pretty much that is the easiest way to send Sky round the house. Unless you want to invest in some sort of multi output HDMI splitter and HDMI over CAT 5 cable distribution system to feed the HDMI out of the Sky box everywhere, which would give you HD. Running CAT 5 (AKA ethernet network) cables is probably easier and certainly cheaper than HDMI and can allow longer length runs as well. But the other bits likely cost a far bit as well

A loft box unit is not that different to what you have already. The main difference is that it combines one of the satellite dish feeds with the UHF aerial (and optionally VHF and DAB aerials) onto a single cable that goes to a special wall plate that splits them all out again. So saving on the amount of cabling you need to install.

Thanks for your help, think i will stick the Wolsey amp in, the main reason for the new aerial was that there was some pixilating so variable new amp and aerial should fix that. Cheers

To distribute sky around the house in HD use an HDMI modulator.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Edision-HDM...hdmi+modulator

That looks a good piece of kit, is a pity Sky box does not transmit a channel while watching a recorded program, then i could watch footie in HD in another room while wife watches her recorded soaps on the main TV. There is always multi room but then that's another cost, might come to that though.

There's always SkyQ.

I had the new aerial fitted and then installed the new Wolsey distribution amplifier which has a 0-10 db variable gain on it. I ran the aerial cable straight down to the sky box, then ran the RF out, back into the loft and into the distributor. It is generally a fantastic picture, you get no break up apart from some on ITV HD and small amount on CH 5. Are these the weaker signals?, i turned the gain on the amp down to 0 and it did seem to improve it a bit, the aerial fitter did say it was a really strong signal and not to boost by much. All the TV cables i have used are PF 100 so they have screening. The interference is not often and maybe it is impossible to rule out entirely.

Channel 5 is in the same group of channels as ordinary ITV and Channel 4. If you're having problems with one channel in that group and it was caused by too little or too much signal then I'd expect the other channels in the same group to be affected equally since they're all delivered as a single package (a multiplex or 'mux' for short) at one frequency. Are you seeing those other channels affected?

The next mux is at another frequency and has a package of different TV channels, and the mux after that repeats the same process. The mux that includes ITV HD also includes BBC 1 HD, Channel 4 HD, Ch5 HD. The same principle applies; if one channel is affected then all the rest in that mux group would experience the same issues. You can see a list of the various mux groups and the channels they contain here.

I'd always start by doing a "First time install" where the TV completely wipes out the existing channel allocations and retunes from scratch (make a note of any picture and other settings so you can re-enter them after).

If you're still having problems then have a look at the TV's signal Quality and signal Strength display. Ideally the Quality should be somewhere in the region of 80-100%, Strength is absolutely fine at 50-70%. Anything over 80%can start to cause problems with some TVs. If you find that you have 100% Strength but less than 80% on Quality then I'd be tempted to look at trying a variable attenuator at the aerial socket of one of the affected TVs. Reducing the signal Strength when it's too high will often result in and improved signal Quality result.

The Samsung TV shows 100% strength and 100% quality ?

It's what I said above then: There's still too much Strength. I'd look at.putting the attenuator on the feed from as it goes in to the UHF input on the Wolsey amp. That way you'll lower the strength to all the TVs. They do versions of these attenuators with the.screw-on type connections.

Thanks, i will get one of those attenuators. As i said, the tv aerial cable goes straight from the aerial to my sky box (no joins), then back up to the amp in the loft. Does it get any sort of signal boost from the Sky box ?

Yes, the Sky box boosts it a 'little' - if you're adding an attenuator I would suggest you do it at the input to the Sky box, as doing it at the input of the amplifier would drop the RF level from the Sky box as well - and if the signal is truly that high, then it 'could' be overloading the RF amp in the Sky box.

Sounds good, saves climbing in / out of the loft everytime i make an adjustment.

I would suggest you don't need an amplifier at all, just a passive splitter.

I would suggest, as usual, you don't know what you're talking about

Try reading the thread fully.

You're also unlikely to find an 8 way passive splitter on the high street.

I have noticed that you get more regular break up during the live football matches, there is also some on Sky HD as well so maybe some of it is more to do with the live transmission than what i am picking up.
Regarding the amp, if it is switched off, does it just become an 8 way splitter ?

A live outside broadcast could have additional issues with whatever link they are using to get the pictures back to the broadcast centre. Radio links potentially could be more susceptible to interference and weather related issues than cable links (copper or fibre optic). But by far the bigger problem is the bit between the transmitter and your aerial and the bit between your aerial and TV (or satellite and dish as appropriate)

The amp is likely to become an 8 way signal blocker if you turn it off. If the signal is exceptionally strong going into it you might get something leaking through the electronics but severely attenuated and more than likely too weak to be usable.

You suggest wrong. You probably can't get any decent (fully screened) splitters on the high street. Answer go to a speciallist shop.

I use an 8 way passive splitter at home and it is perfect. Get severe overloading if I connect a set direct to the aerial.

Again, read the thread fully and you'll (hopefully) see where your suggestion fails.

Just because you live in a rare exceptionally strong area also doesn't mean that many other people do.

Would I be right in thinking that an eight way inductive, as opposed to resistive, splitter has 12db loss per o/p? I could get away with that as I can see Winter Hill out of my bedroom window but I suspect that most people couldn't.

Most people certainly couldn't, but Winston lives in his own little world and doesn't consider anything other than his own situation.

As for the OP, sticking an 8-way passive splitter on the output of his Sky box is going to make it unusable

As I said before, if his signal is truly that strong, then stick an attenuator on the input to his Sky box.

Thoroughly recommend it. We were discussing this last year in the satellite section.