new rewiring dish/aerial advise

[shah18]

hi all,i have recently rewired my whole house using coaxial and satallite wire.only have normal 1-5 channels + virgin in one room.Wanted more channels as have 6 rooms with tv'sIs there a dish i can buy that will transit more channels then 1-5 to all tv's without getting a set-top box for all tv's?ps. haven't installed an aerial yet is it neccessary or will a dish overide a aerial??any help appreciated

 

[rolfw]

A dish will feed a satellite receiver, this in turn will produce one channel output, although you have a choice as to what that channel might be. You can feed this channel, or more if you have more than one receiver into the system to serve different rooms.

With a notmal aerial and freeview boxes, you could have 30 odd channels on each TV.

 

[modman]

To get more channels on every tv with a dish, you can only have one set top box if you use magic eye type extenders. However you can only watch the same channel on all connected tv's at one time. If you buy a set top box for each room you will need a dish with a quad lnb. This means that up to 4 set top boxes can receive different channels at the same time. If you want 6 rooms you will need 2 dishes with 2 quad lnb's, Hope this helps

 

[shah18]

so if i buy a dish instead of an aerial would that work? if so which dish and receiver is most recomended? normally what channels extra do you get which not on freeview? would i have to pay a monthly fee with satellite receiver or one off?

cheerz

 

[modman]

If you are looking at English free to air channels you can get most of the ones on freeview and extra. You will get many more foreign channels. If you are not interested in foreign channels you can split the normal aerial in to each room and get cheap freeview boxes for about 20 quid.

 

[shah18]

ok,will probably go for normal aerial.will any wideband aerial do, or is there a recommended aerial i should purchase? does it depend on my area or signal strength ?cheerz

 

[modman]

I dunno in London i can use any old aerial because the signal is high. As long as its outside it works. For example at the moment i get full signal on a 10 pound, 10 year old aerial. Try to get one that has digital ready written on it.

 

[shah18]

i was advised to get a log-periodic mounted aerial?
is there any advantages of getting this aerial over a normal aerial or is this one normal?

 

[modman]

It depends on where you live. You can try a normal indoor aerial first. If you get a good signal with that next to an open window (like me) you live in a high signal area. Also try different places. If you get no signal it looks like you will need a special aerial. You dont have to spend loads of money. If i were you i would get a simple outdoor digital aerial and try it.

 

[Sharkadder]

too be honest with you dude an aerial is an aerial, you arnt going to pick out extra up by getting a fully top of the range aerial its just not worth the money.

I bought a roof aerial off ebay about 2years ago now for 99p, i think the postage was about £5.50 and it was wideband and digital ready.

Aslong as the aerial says wideband you are ok, generally all aerials are wideband which arnt over 30 years old. All aerials manage to last a long time (otherwise you'd be seeing them being changed all the time) so an aerial like the 1 i bought off ebay would last me at least 20 years even though ive never used it yet, just kept it as a spare.

Make sure you purchase a roof aerial and make sure it says wideband on it, next purchase some coaxal cable and some connectors and plug it in and you are away. Again theres no special type needed just normal coaxial cable from wilkos or wherever and some coaxial connectors.

If you dont fancy setting it up yourself get somebody in to do it but as i say with roof aerials nowerdays they all tend to do the same thing, just mount it to your chimney, point it in right direction and you will be fine.

 

[shah18]

cheerz mate

 

[rolfw]

Can I just add to this regarding aerials.

The fact that one person gets away with a 99p cheapo aerial, does not mean that another person will, it is purely down to location and not even general location, it can vary from street to street.

As a guide to what aerial you should install, have a look at your neighbours' aerials, particularly the ones which look like they have been recently installed and possibly ask them how well they receive Freeview. If you are near Twickenham (which I presume you mean by TW7) then a relatively small and cheap aerial (possibly loft mounted) may suffice, as you are not that far from Crystal Palace transmitter.

They still make grouped aerials, they are not all wideband these days, although the use of grouped aerials now tends to be limited to those installations which need to pull in two different transmitter signals. The term digital or "digital ready" applied to an aerial is not really accurate, only the installation can be called digital ready and that only when set up and tested, a high gain so called "Digital" aerial used in a bad reception area will not necessarily ever produce an adequate digital signal.

 

[shah18]

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/cat.jsp;jsessionid=NW4VHCXU3XYQICSTHZPCFFQ?cId=A331867&ts=49722 from link which would be most recommended.cheerz

 

[rolfw]

Plese read my post above.

 

[PaulR]

Regarding aerials and digital terrestrial I would go for one with a device called a Balun in the plastic box on the aerial where you connect the coaxial cable.

You don't need to know what it consists of, just that it matches the balanced aerial to the unbalanced coaxial cable to give the best possible transfer of the signal. It will also help to reduce the effects of impulse interference which is a severe problem with digital terrestrial. This quite often meant by a "digital" aerial but check.

I would certainly NOT go for a wideband aerial if possible. An aerial matched to the grouping will give better out of band rejection for unwanted signals and a better beam patttern for the signal that you DO want.

If Crystal Palace is your local transmitter then you should look for a Group A aerial. This is also sometimes known as a Red aerial.

 

[aba]

Regarding aerials and digital terrestrial I would go for one with a device called a Balun in the plastic box on the aerial where you connect the coaxial cable.

You don't need to know what it consists of, just that it matches the balanced aerial to the unbalanced coaxial cable to give the best possible transfer of the signal. It will also help to reduce the effects of impulse interference which is a severe problem with digital terrestrial. This quite often meant by a "digital" aerial but check.

I would certainly NOT go for a wideband aerial if possible. An aerial matched to the grouping will give better out of band rejection for unwanted signals and a better beam patttern for the signal that you DO want.

If Crystal Palace is your local transmitter then you should look for a Group A aerial. This is also sometimes known as a Red aerial.

If Crystal Palace is your local transmitter then you should look for a Group A aerial. This is also sometimes known as a Red aerialthats alright for analog tv but for digital tv best go for wideband

 

[PaulR]

thats alright for analog tv but for digital tv best go for wideband

No it isn't. It's the exact opposite in fact. If you can use a grouped aerial then you should for all the reasons I gave in the posting.

 

[rolfw]

We have to be careful with this advice, as it may well be in certain areas where a grouped aerial is at present appropriate, that out of band multiplexes will be added after the switchover.

 

[Llew]

A wideband aerial is certainly necessary in my area for receiving analogue and digital muxes at present from Sandy Heath (ch. 21-67)

After switchover, a wideband aerial will still be needed (ch. 21-52) although a Group K aerial should be OK if power increases.

Llew

 

[Alan Vickers]

The advice that signal reception can vary from street to street is very relevant. At this location the aerial is on the Pontop Pike transmitter. There are mumerous local problems with signal because of large blocks of flats being in the line of sight so much so that in some cases there are 2 or 3 aerials 'stacked' one on top of each otherr . A number of houses in the adjacent street are unable to receive a good signal from Pontop Pike and have aerials on the Bilsdale transmitter and these aerials are at almost 90 degrees to the Pontop Pike aerials. This means that the Bilsdale signals can be received at some strength on the side of Pontop Pike aerials, and vice-versa, which causes problems with tuning the TVs.

As far as I am aware there is no such thing as a 'Freeview aerial' which can sometimes be seen advertuised. The important thing is to have an aerial which suits the grouping currently received , bearing in mind that this grouping may change when changeover occurs and try and see that it will be suitable for this change also.

Alan Vickers.