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Can anyone reccomend a decent indoor aerial?

Arizona

By Arizona,
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Arizona

Arizona

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Check the cable quality first. Some old cables can be very lossy, especially if they are bent or wet. An amplifier won't improve your noise figure or get rid of reflections. Can't you get an outside aerial fitted?

 

Unfotunately not, I'm in a rented flat. Will try a different cable though, thanks.

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Arizona

Arizona

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Okay, now have an indoor aerial, but have exactly the same problem. For some reason my TV is only tuning BBC channels in on freeview. It's litterally got them all (1,2, 3, 4, Cbeebies, BBC news, all the BBC radio stations etc) but nothing else. Can anyone explain that?

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Thedelldays

Thedelldays

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Okay, now have an indoor aerial, but have exactly the same problem. For some reason my TV is only tuning BBC channels in on freeview. It's litterally got them all (1,2, 3, 4, Cbeebies, BBC news, all the BBC radio stations etc) but nothing else. Can anyone explain that?

I had that problem and found all of the channels on numbers 801 etc and dont go in order...and it is still like that...odd

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JackFrost

JackFrost

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I had a problem where the picture on my digital TV upstairs would break up or 'flicker' and be very jerky occasionally. Plugged it into the socket downstairs (both sockets are connected to the roof aerial) and it is always fine.

 

It would never happen on any BBC or Sky channel and would only happen sometimes on any ITV, Channel 4 or independent channel (eg. Dave).

 

The flickering would be affected if I moved the aerial cable around, and sometimes blue-tacking it in a certain position would solve it.

 

I replaced the cable in the end with a new one and it has improved it a lot. It still happens occasionally but is nowhere near as bad as it was.

 

By the way does anyone know if picture breakup/interference can be especially prone with TVs that have a built in freeview box?

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Whitey Grandad

Whitey Grandad

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Okay, now have an indoor aerial, but have exactly the same problem. For some reason my TV is only tuning BBC channels in on freeview. It's litterally got them all (1,2, 3, 4, Cbeebies, BBC news, all the BBC radio stations etc) but nothing else. Can anyone explain that?

 

Each of the old analogue channels is used to provide a new digital bit stream in which several new digital channels are combined in what is called a multiplex. The BBC channels that you can receive are grouped into a multiplex on a different analogue channel to the ones that you can't get. It depends on the transmitter but I think that the BBC mux is on a much lower frequency to the ITV ones, so it looks like your aerial is picking up some frequencies better than others. What transmitter are you looking at?

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Thedelldays

Thedelldays

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Each of the old analogue channels is used to provide a new digital bit stream in which several new digital channels are combined in what is called a multiplex. The BBC channels that you can receive are grouped into a multiplex on a different analogue channel to the ones that you can't get. It depends on the transmitter but I think that the BBC mux is on a much lower frequency to the ITV ones, so it looks like your aerial is picking up some frequencies better than others. What transmitter are you looking at?

ahhhh good old multiplexing..

 

do you know if it uses time division on its signal..?

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Whitey Grandad

Whitey Grandad

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Unfotunately not, I'm in a rented flat. Will try a different cable though, thanks.

I assume that you have a communal aerial worth a distribution amplifier feeding all the flats in the same building? Ask the other occupants if they have the same problem. See if you can take your tv to one of their rooms temporarily. If it does pick up the other stations then at least it will have registered the programme list and may work when you get back to your own installation. If your feed is worse than the others then contact the property management. If it's a built-in freeview decoder then it will have been designed to be as cheap as possible, and they do vary a lot in terms of sensitivity. I had one decoder which used to 'notch out' the channel that it was tuned to so that all downstream receivers suffered. Try borrowing a separate decoder (set-top box) and see if that's better. If you do decide to buy one, get a PVR, i.e. one with a hard-drive, it will replace your video recorder.

You may just be unlucky, check your likely signal strength at http://www.digitaluktv.com/news/check-predicted-digital-tv-reception/

 

The good news is that when they eventually do switch off the analogue signals then the digital strength will be increased. The bad news is that they are going to switch off the analogue signals. Check if you are in one of the group who can receive free help: http://www.helpscheme.co.uk/ Even if you aren't eligible, someone in the same building may be.

 

Failing that, you can always deek professional help from someone with a signal-strength meter and spectrum analyser.

 

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

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