On the auction channels they're selling this Ikasu "digital Freeview booster":

http://www.bid.tv/ProductDescription...ype=Categories

As far as I am aware, a booster will only help if your signal is weak, but as other PVRs (Thomson, Digifusion, Humax, for example) have handled my signal better than my Digihomes do, I wondered if this contraption might be worthwhile trying?

parthena

Ths is a booster antenna, it is not a booster for your curent aerial. It is no match for an external aerial, with or without a booster. Boosters/amlifiers can be got for a lot less than £40.

They work for me, but if the quality of the signal is not there in the first place then boosting the strength will not help.

Thanks, Luis. To explain further:

It's the quality of Digihome's internal tuner that's at fault, it's "weaker" than the other PVRs mentioned above, and my Daewoo DTV has great reception. I've posted the question in this particular forum hoping that aficionados of the (otherwise excellent value) Digihome/Vestel family may know whether the tuner can be improved. Why is this called a "digital" booster?

An outdoor aerial is out of the question. The Crystal Palace transmitter's light is visible from the window inside which my gadgets are sat Reception has been very OK for quite a while, I'm just wondering...

parthena

I've never heard of any one upgrading their PVR's tuners. So I guess that you will not find anyone to give you a straight answer to your original question.

I still think you should try a normal booster attached to your present aerial.

I suspect that you already know that for good reception, digital signals are far more fussy about a line of site to the transmitter than analogue signals.

If you need to get an extension lead to reposition your aerial then different leads vary a lot in the ability to carry the signal without lose of quality. As I live in a so called non-freeview area I need something reasonable. I only wanted very short leads, but to my surprise cheepo 2 metre leads from a local shop were far better than far shorter leads I bought from maplin or, a 'deluxe' lead from homebase, (though I really like homebase's blue ribbon scarts).

There is no difference between boosters called 'digital' and those that are not ... so far. (The website of A.T.V (Aerials and Television) of Sheffield may give further similar opinions, as well as try to sell you a made to measure extension lead.)

And oh yes, different makes do vary enormously in their ability to pick up and interpret signals.
Last edited by Luis Essex : 08-04-2008 at 20:37

From what you've posted in the past, I doubt you need a booster at all. Didn't you have a distribution amp used unpowered with good results? That suggests you are luxuriating in strong signal, bearing in mind the signal losses that such an arrangement would incur. You risk swamping the tuners by having a booster feeding them.

What does your Digihome(Evesham?) box tell you about signal strength/quality? For that matter what are your current aerial arrangements? Is the 4-way unpowered amp still in service?

I don't think I need a booster, either, but the Digihome's tuner does. I wondered if the Ikasu "digital" booster was any different from other signal boosters.

I don't use that distribution amp any more, I've got an old OneForAll cheapo aerial feeding the TV and another (the Argos Telecam £9.99) feeding the 2 Digihome PVRs. Not necessary to have 2, I know, I just did it

I used to have a Digifusion and a Digihome fed by the same aerial, and when we had all those problems last year with the ITV channels (+/-), the Digifusion was not nearly as badly affected as the Digihome.

So nothing can be done to improve the dear old Digihome? There's nothing on the market I would swap it for, it's just that when there are problems with signal it's so vulnerable

And I thought that the Ikasu might be a new kinda gadget

parthena

LOL! Personally I think I need a booster more than my PVRs.

Colin

I thought I might be asking for trouble after typing those words, and in my younger days I'd have blushed at telling such a lie - but I've got over it now

parthena

You haven't said what signal strength/quality your Digihomes report?

Where does one locate the Digihome Signal Strength/Quality....must be in the MENU somewhere ?

It's is in the Menu but it's is a fair question as it is not obvious how to find it. Select Menu/Setup/Installation/Manual channel scan. The current "Channel number" (i.e. VHF frequency slot for the current MUX, not the programme channel) is displayed at the top of the screen. At the bottom of the screen is a "Signal quality" rating and bar graph showing "Signal level". To check the data for other channels change the Channel number settings using the numeric keys to the channels for the other MUXs in your region. Alternatively, if you don't know the MUX channel numbers just try each channel number in turn. Data will only be shown for active channels.

Colin

Sorry, PTD Mine:

22, 25 = Good
28, 29, 32, 34 = Very Good

I may have missed out some.

I wonder how they can vary when they're all coming from Crystal Palace?

parthena
Last edited by parthena : 11-04-2008 at 13:12

Six is perfect. Any more may mean you have interfering signals from another transmitter.

Good to very good is what I get on my Hitachi with no reception problems. I presume the signal level (white bar on black background) hovers around the 75-85% mark? Reason I ask is that if it was always 100% it would mean your signal could be too strong, which is as bad as being too weak. (There are no actual % marks btw, you have to guestimate them, in case anyone was wondering).

If the readings are reasonable I wouldn't say you have a weak tuner. Possibly it may be more sensitive to interference, particularly as you have to use an indoor aerial. There's not a lot you can do about that.

Correct.

I imagined that the tuner couldn't handle the signal at that strength. I obviously don't understand the first thing about it

parthena

One thing I would point out is that the Telecam, being a wideband aerial has its lowest gain at just the bands you are trying to receive. You might get a slightly improved performance if you swapped with the OneForAll (unless that's also wideband).

What you really need is a nice little group A hung outside your window.

Is this because wideband aerials have a poorer response at the lower frequencies, that parthena is receiving, in order to cover the high end? Hence making a group A aerial a better choice for her range?

Colin

Yes, widebands are relatively constant across the spectrum but do fall off quickly at the low frequency end, and are lowish gain anyway even at their peak frequency.

There's a good diagram on this site about 1/5 of the way down, showing the typical responses of aerial types across the spectrum.

I'm sure I already posted something resembling the following, but it's disappeared (maybe I got carried away in the middle of it, Googling the aerial, got led to a Singaporean bird watchers' site ):

Show me how, PTD, without killing myself.

parthena

Easy, get someone else to do it . Smile sweetly at the window cleaner next time he's round while you pass him the power drill. Mind you for the fourth floor he's either got a very long ladder, or good at abseiling.

But point taken. A powered flat antenna might be the better option after all.

Remember when we had those problems with ITV/C4 channels, coinciding with me being covered in scaffolding for months? Well, I was dying to ask the builders to put an aerial up for me but... I didn't dare I know, I know, it's terrible being so timid.

At that time I bought the OneForAll flat powered aerial, which didn't help at all. I reverted to the Telecam (that's very interesting about wide band/lowest gain).

If only there were an aerial that could be dangled out of the window!

parthena

I've meaning to ask, isn't there provision for a communal aerial system for your building? I presume not, but has there ever been? I'm not sure how these things are managed, but would it be worth looking into?

This is a Victorian building converted in the 1960s into 10 flats - it would have been 15 flats if they'd done it in the 1980s, I'm quite lucky. These days we all share ownership of the freehold but there's rarely agreement on anything, and some owners are incredibly mean when it comes to spending anything on the building that's not mandatory.

There is quite a cluster of Sky dishes on one side of the building - the only wall that allows them to face the satellite. Don't know how they get erected, there isn't much space between that wall and the house next door.

I've got my own loft, any good? Would I have to drill thru the ceiling?

parthena

Hard to say, probably not on balance. What you gain by using a proper aerial would be counterbalanced by what you lose through the roof/wall material, so you might well end up no better off than the direct indoor one. That also assumes there's no lead cladding or similar metalwork up there which would rule it out altogether.

I'm not helping am I.

Awww, never mind, you tried

I don't want to start a new thread but I'd like to log somewhere that my trusty T810, which seems just as good as the T816 re Event recordings, has entitled every episode of Elizabeth R (UK History channel) "The Lion's Cub - Part 1". And I didn't realise until I'd deleted a couple of what I assumed were duplicate recordings

Grrrr.

parthena