Hi, its sk THE cat again. I have only Sky coming into the house, NO Ariel or Cable, No ariel because I have a phobia for Lightning striking the highest point! and No cable because our street is cabled but not Digitaly (the reason I changed to sky yrs ago) Can you get a set-top ariel so I could get freeview as well (My LG 37inch has it built in) ???

Thanks once again from

sk THE cat

Stick your post Code into the Wolfbane predictor...

http://www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/tvd.exe?

and see what it recommends as the aerial required. It's not guaranteed to be 100% accurate but if it comes up with something like High Gain Amplified or similar then you may struggle to get anything on a set top aeria.

The problem with such aerials is that they are lower gain than a roof top or loft aerial and in general mounted low down and indoors. These two factors conspire to reduce the amount of signal you get out of the aerial. The more walls between the aerial and transmitter the worse it will be.

And it is lack of signal that is the killer with digital, not helped by the low transmitted powers to start with.

If you have a loft space then why not fit an aerial in there? Fitting a roof aerial is the best option and to be honest your chances of having the telly fried by Lightening are pretty remote (though not as remote as winning the Lottery apparently ) And of course there is nothing in the rule book that says an aerial HAS to be the highest point on the building either. If circumstances allow then you could mount the aerial to a wall below roof level. Like that it would be as vunerable as your Sky dish.......

dont worry about having an indoor portable aerial that is not labeled as "digital" - it wont make any difference - the signals work in the same way - its just the pictures and audio that are digitally compressed (like a JPG file on the computer).

The main issue is the smaller size of portable set top aerials, and their location (lower down, and walls between the signals and the aerial) all of which drop signal strength. If possible, you would stand an improved chance of picking up freeview if you had a proper aerial in the loft space - maybe with a Masthead amplifier as well (if required - depends on how strong the signals are where you live).

Dave

get an external aerial! take the risk! You have a greater chance of being run over in the street by a blind lesbian labour voting Bosnian former prostitute driving a Prius who happens to have been distracted by Terry Wogans's floral dance playing on radio 1. Sorry if this takes the p*ss out of your phobia- I know, next thunderstorm near Jblink towers and....bang!

Nice reply, made me chuckle, and some work colleagues! I may look at a loft ariel that may be a decent enough compromise.

Regards

sk THE cat

For two years I have had my flat "sting ray" style portable tv ariel sat next to my TV pointing towords the same direction that all the other house ariels pointed (obviously pointing to the nearest transmitter) an I had every freeview channel with no 'crackles or pops at all'.

It was only when I moved from the country to the city I had to mount my ariel in the loft?? But all this included was punching a hole in my cieling (mum dosent know yet!) and threading a few metres of coaxial cable through and wiring it all up through a terminal box to my freeview box. Saved 50 quid and looks professional!

Hope it helps!

DNZ711