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[Martin_1962]

Mines all copper.

[Andy B]

Mines all copper.

Mine's all fuzzy in the front bedroom but OK in the others, despite the Heath Robinson set up in the loft  

[Marks DTM Calib]

Well thats a plus as most is not.....the best also has the foam core but again, there are two types and one of them absorbs water.

Plus some copper plate teh central core.

Coax is a minefield....and the vast majority of stuff, no matter what so called designation it has, is often pretty average.

[dippydave]

there's a big section on 'digital' here http://www.aerialsandtv.com/digitaltv.html i find it riveting reading!

you're right bout the digital mux's from Sutton Coldfield being channels 41-55 so almost all within band B. but loads of other areas have big variance!

i heard from a fitter that it was channel 5 that messed up most of the installs in the country, not the digital transmissions, due to it having to be placed outside the original narrow bands of channels!

i know analogue gives a better picture than digital but can't wait til it's off and the digital stuff can be finalised!

[dippydave]

Well thats a plus as most is not.....the best also has the foam core but again, there are two types and one of them absorbs water.

Plus some copper plate teh central core.

Coax is a minefield....and the vast majority of stuff, no matter what so called designation it has, is often pretty average.

hear hear. i've used great cable and had rubbish pictures and used cheap(ish) cable and got on fine. last job i worked on had two projectors, 4 plasmas and 20 tvs. but least it was only video and no RF needed! happy days. rg59 all the way............

[platty]

Wow! A few more replies than I expected! Thanks for all the info.

I only rent my house, other wise I would have been on the roof and whacked the aerial up. However, mine is in the loft as high as i can get it. The signal strength is of no real concern because on a direct lead it was excellent quality.

So it seems that I will have to try and trace the split - is it likely to be under the floorboards? I might try that.

[dippydave]

how bout use a wireless sender from a direct lead in the loft?

i have no idea what is available and whether any are great or not, but in maplins they have allsorts and they'll take it back if you cant get it to do what you want!

try http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=44469
and http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=222153
but there are loads!!!

[doog]

I am trying to sort the aerial out in my house. When I moved in there was an old UHF aerial, big long thing in the loft which was replaced by a new aerial especially for digital signal.

I first ran a cable out of the loft and straight into my Digibox. Tuned it all in and got great reception on all channels once I had pointed the aerial in the right direction.

But, when I swapped the cable back to the original one and plugged the Digibox into the wall socket - the reception wasn't very good on perhaps half of the channels    I then established that the signal strength must be deteriorating somewhere along the route.

I have got 2 further sockets, in the bedroom and in the kitchen. There must be a splitter somewhere - but where do you think I could find this?

Sorry about the long post  

To start with all the cable should be of digital quality, not the old analoge stuff.

Then you need a power driven multi-set booster box in your loft to distribute, via separate (ditigal) cable, the aerial signals to each room/tv.

All splitters should be disregarded as they dissapate the strength of the signal.

DO not use any form of preamplification when using a freeview unless you have to   your asking for problems.
   avoid a masthead amp  get a good quality  wideband antenna and a good quality distribution amp if you really need one (if argos sell it then its no use)


Doug
Doug

[BigAl]

this site http://www.wrightsaerials.tv/ has some good info on various coax specs, TV distribution and lots of pics of shoddy work

[Nickbat]

Was chatting to SWMBO about going for Freesat.

http://www.freesat.co.uk/

We've got a Philips HDTV and this would be a one-off payment (rather than monthly with Sky). I fancy HDTV!  

Any thoughts?  

[Marks DTM Calib]

Satellite does not support true HD.....yet.

In fact its quite a disappointing picture....but its so heavily compressed thats its no surprise.

[Martin_1962]

Was chatting to SWMBO about going for Freesat.

http://www.freesat.co.uk/

We've got a Philips HDTV and this would be a one-off payment (rather than monthly with Sky). I fancy HDTV!  

Any thoughts?  

£300 for a box then the cost of a twin LNB dish, if you can get a box (we are still looking)

[Nickbat]

Was chatting to SWMBO about going for Freesat.

http://www.freesat.co.uk/

We've got a Philips HDTV and this would be a one-off payment (rather than monthly with Sky). I fancy HDTV!  

Any thoughts?  

£300 for a box then the cost of a twin LNB dish, if you can get a box (we are still looking)

As I understand it, the £300 box is only if you want a recorder. £140 if you don't.

http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=10001&catalogId=1500001001&langId=-1&searchTerms=freesat

If you just got a £140 box, could you still record onto a DVD recorder's HDD? (albeit non-High Definition).

Don't understand what a twin LNB dish is, Martin.  :-?

Could you enlighten me?

[Martin_1962]

Nope - you need a PVR to record it - I cannot see any point in buying anything which doesn't record.

It needs 2 or more LNB thingies

I bought something like this
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=47174

Just need to find a PVR

[Nickbat]

Nope - you need a PVR to record it - I cannot see any point in buying anything which doesn't record.

It needs 2 or more LNB thingies

I bought something like this
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=47174

Just need to find a PVR

Thanks, Martin. I'm enlightened!

I have just read up about the Humax PVR, here.

http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/4717

They reckon on a 7-10 day lead time. I've read elsewhere that Freesat PVRs are in very short supply.