Indoor aerial

Hi - I was wondering is it possible to pick up DTV using an indoor aeriel?

Quite possible, not generally recomended as ideal and really depends where you are? What obstacles may be between it and the transmitter including the make up of your building, what floor it will be on and is it on the side of the building facing the transmitter.
 
If you own your home, cough up for an external aerial - it will last 25 years and will offer a fantastic signal quality.

If you rent...try to spilt the cost with your landlord, make an offer and see.

Signal splitter boxes will let you run 4 TV's from 1 aerial, may cost a bit but worth it in the long run.

Indoor aerial's are crap - don't waste your money.
 
Combatcolin said:
If you own your home, cough up for an external aerial - it will last 25 years and will offer a fantastic signal quality.

If you rent...try to spilt the cost with your landlord, make an offer and see.

Signal splitter boxes will let you run 4 TV's from 1 aerial, may cost a bit but worth it in the long run.

Indoor aerial's are crap - don't waste your money.

Thanks. I actually have SKY installed and a magic eye connected to this second tv I got for the bedroom. It was just a thought so that the wife could escape to bedroom to watch FTA channels (with sky sports on main TV)

If I was more DIY knowledge I would be able to run a separate cable to this second tv from sat dish as I have an additional sky box!
 
Thanks. I actually have SKY installed and a magic eye connected to this second tv I got for the bedroom. It was just a thought so that the wife could escape to bedroom to watch FTA channels (with sky sports on main TV)

If I was more DIY knowledge I would be able to run a separate cable to this second tv from sat dish as I have an additional sky box!
If it's just for occasional / casual watching it may be worth trying an indoor aerial but what area are you in and how far from the transmitter?

You could try a few foot length of wire and see if you get anything as a starting point, just push a bared end into the center of the aerial socket and do a scan.
 
Railway said:
If it's just for occasional / casual watching it may be worth trying an indoor aerial but what area are you in and how far from the transmitter?

You could try a few foot length of wire and see if you get anything as a starting point, just push a bared end into the center of the aerial socket and do a scan.

I did have a cheapish indoor channel which picked up no digital channels & some weak analogue channels. That is reason fort first post as I have seen some advertised >£20 that claim to pick up digital channels.

I am told I am in a bad signal area tho. Just seems a shame I have a nice new TV for bedroom that only has 1 analogue channel, admittedly it is hooked up via magic eye to my sky box.
 
I did have a cheapish indoor channel which picked up no digital channels & some weak analogue channels. That is reason for first post as I have seen some advertised >£20 that claim to pick up digital channels.

They will, in a good signal area, which you are not. No aerial will pick up digital channels better than analogue channels. Put simply, there is NO SUCH THING as a digital aerial.
 
winston2010 said:
They will, in a good signal area, which you are not. No aerial will pick up digital channels better than analogue channels. Put simply, there is NO SUCH THING as a digital aerial.

Ok thanks. I saw an indoor aerial in Tesco which seemed to suggest that you could get digital channels. I was sceptical which is why I posted on this forum.
 
Ok thanks. I saw an indoor aerial in Tesco which seemed to suggest that you could get digital channels. I was sceptical which is why I posted on this forum.
It is largely a question of geography. Indoor aerials will work (for digital or analogue transmissions - where they still exist), but you have to be in the right place. That means a location where the signal level from the transmitter is strong enough to penetrate to wherever the aerial is located.

It is impossible to be definitive about any particular aerial at any particular location, so it is a matter of suck it and see.

If the houses around you have large aerials mounted on tall poles up on the chimney stacks then it is a fair bet that the signal is pretty poor and the chances are that an indoor aerial will not work. However, if you know that there is a powerful transmitter just a few miles away and there is nothing large in between then the chances are far better.

It sounds as if you come in the first category.
 
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Sky dish feed to bedroom: You can make your own cables from good parts and - provided you can easily and safely access the dish/lnb - it's quite simple. Google will find guides on how to do it. satcure and aerialsandtv show how.
Alternatively, ask a local installer how much he'd charge... it will be cheaper than an aerial install and may not be that expensive if you take off the price of a set-top aerial, and the parts to d-i-y.
 
Rodders53 said:
Sky dish feed to bedroom: You can make your own cables from good parts and - provided you can easily and safely access the dish/lnb - it's quite simple. Google will find guides on how to do it. satcure and aerialsandtv show how.
Alternatively, ask a local installer how much he'd charge... it will be cheaper than an aerial install and may not be that expensive if you take off the price of a set-top aerial, and the parts to d-i-y.

Many thanks for this. I have had a guy do satellite work for me before and he is reasonable. May be the safest bet. Jealous of you techie guys :)
 
If you can reach the satellite dish you can fix the extra cable from it - no technical knowledge required. :)
 
If you can reach the satellite dish you can fix the extra cable from it - no technical knowledge required. :)
If the LNB is single output, and some might still be (or if all outputs are in use on a multi-output LNB), how can you add an extra cable?
 
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A1944 said:
If the LNB is single output, and some might still be (or if all outputs are in use on a multi-output LNB), how can you add an extra cable?

I actually have my panasonic TV hooked up via freesat, a SKY HD box connected and a 2nd sky box hooked up in a spare bedroom to the one dish (not the room we sleep in which is we're my new TV is and a magic eye connected & working to SKY HD box)

I do also have a second satellite dish with a second satellite receiver (for astra 19 & hotbird) hooked up to my panny.

So not sure I can do anything with this spare sky box.

Also I now have an additional new magic eye if anyone has any suggestions how to put it to use??
 
I actually have my panasonic TV hooked up via freesat, a SKY HD box connected and a 2nd sky box hooked up in a spare bedroom to the one dish (not the room we sleep in which is we're my new TV is and a magic eye connected & working to SKY HD box)

I do also have a second satellite dish with a second satellite receiver (for astra 19 & hotbird) hooked up to my panny.

So not sure I can do anything with this spare sky box.

Also I now have an additional new magic eye if anyone has any suggestions how to put it to use??
Option 1: Run a cable from the RF2 out of the spare bedroom Sky box to the TV you propose to let wife watch: control it with the new magic eye.
Option 2: Change lnb from quad to octo (4 to 8 outputs) and run cable to use Sky box there.
 

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