Question Installing a New TV Aerial

[anotheruser]

We currently have freesat in the living room, which is fine.

Leaving Virgin Media for TalkTalk (not the best, I know but getting free TV box).

Old TV will go upstairs in the bedroom along with the TV box as the TalkTalk box doesn't accept freesat connections. Buying a new TV for the living room.

Bedroom upstairs has an aerial socket, which leads upstairs to the loft where the cable just ends.

Plan to use our existing home plug network to enable the bedroom TV to get Internet so we'll be able to use that to stream but I'd prefer to hook up an aerial if possible.

Don't really want to spend too much money so thinking about some sort of self install in the loft, attaching it to a beam somewhere.
I guess this will dampen the signal but hopefully not too much?

Apart from buying an aerial, is there anything else I can use?

Any other thoughts on this?

As a side note: We could give up on TalkTalk and go back to Virgin Media who offered a really good deal but no TV. I'm not sure how much it is to split the cable connection coming into the house - that would be the ideal situation. But want to investigate without this first.

 

[EndlessWaves]

Whether it'll work in the loft or whether you need an outside aerial will depend on how strong the signal is where you are (and your roof material of course).

Aerials are a cheap enough next to the cost of new TVs and internet though, so I'd just give it a go.

 

[Rodders53]

Location? Freeview predictions? Wolfbane predictions?
Provide a very close by postcode and we can look see for you.

The terrestrial network is planned around the use of directional aerials mounted outside at 10 metres above the ground (just above 2-storey roof height).

It's accepted that roof slates/tiles and lower height will lose 10dB (that's 1/10th of that available outside at the same height).

Loft aerials - A.T.V. Poles, Brackets, Clamps & Aerials and their other Knowledge pages are worth a read through.

Other than using internet to provide limited live and catchup TV (via smart TV, Chromecast/Fire TV sticks etc.,.) an aerial or satellite dish is essential. One aerial can be cabled to multiple TVs and recorders readily enough.

NB Homeplugs can be very hit and miss. Suck it and see but don't be surprised if they don't work between the two ring mains (down and up).
An ethernet cable would be far superior and a mesh network with node capability to connect wired devices in some rooms next best.

TT You View TV box needs a working TV aerial for full functionality Using YouView without an aerial

 

[anotheruser]

Location? Freeview predictions? Wolfbane predictions?
Provide a very close by postcode and we can look see for you.

Thanks for the links - I'll start reading.
I'll be doing more exploring on Friday to see what's possible and what's not.

There was / is a bigger plan to get a better connected home as behind the TV downstairs is an aerial socket that... you guessed it, goes up to the loft and just ends.
There's also sockets from the kitchen (on the other side of the wall from the downstairs TV) and two further bedrooms, so I need to see which go up to the loft and where they go.
Was going to change the downstairs TV socket to a network port, then run a cable from the router up to the loft to another router / switch, which would then run to each of the bedrooms giving a potential wired connection there, but may stick with the old coaxial sockets for now. Not sure. Although with a router upstairs, wireless should be pretty good / reliable so may not need wired connections.

Postcode near me is: LE10 0HB

I will need to be connecting to the WALTHAM transmitter though as the strongest one gives us the wrong regional news. When I lived here about 10 years ago, it automatically used Waltham. FreeSat connects to the correct region. But the reception suggests:

I may be able to attach an aerial outside the house (although it wouldn't be on the top of the roof), just a shame as I threw away some heavy duty outdoor cable (although it was Virgin Media cable), but if I did, could easily run a cable straight into the loft and connect all the odd TV aerial cables to it, as well as running down the side of the house and into the wall / new socket OR use the existing one (but still fancy pulling through some internet if poss).
Problem is, the only way to test whether it will work / what cable goes where is to lump a TV around the house

 

[mikej]

I guess you need to decide if you want the ability to watch live Freeview TV in all those rooms you mentioned. If so, then it sounds like you have aerial points in those rooms and so locating those coax cables in the loft, connecting them all to a distribution amp and installing an aerial should be all that's required.

If you have an aerial point in the lounge and need Freeview, then removing it wouldn't make sense unless the cable is damaged or sub-standard in some way ?

Your predicted Freeview signal strengths aren't great, so it's possible a loft aerial might not be sufficient. If you can't get to the top of the roof to mount an aerial, then you could always mount it further down but use a longer pole. Checking what the neighbours have might give you an idea of what you'll need and local aerial installers would presumably know.

The main issue with distributing an internet signal round the house is that the range of a typical ISP-supplied wi-fi router can be poor and they're often not suitable for good wi-fi coverage in medium to large houses. I've used BT wi-fi hotspot Homeplugs in the past in an attempt to get round wi-fi dead-spots but found them fairly unreliable and the speed drop-off was large, presumably due to the 'sender' and receiver/hotspot units being on different circuits. I've since installed Google Wi-fi and all my speed and connectivity issues have been resolved. Two Google Wi-fi mesh routers located downstairs (each connected via ethernet cable) now provide the maximum internet speed to all rooms in the house, including upstairs.

 

[Rodders53]

Test cables:
A multimeter on ohms range and a 'shorting plug or link'. The one that is shorted can be identified and marked up. Move the short and repeat. (Or a lamp, battery and same shorting idea to make a circuit).

A good idea to run ethernet cables to every room and have a switch to route things. Much better than all the alternatives. The aerial faceplates may be swapped for modular ones if you can get cables into the wall box via the cable route? One TV outlet and one RJ45/ethernet?

Postcode given is in Hinckley area: pretty near Sutton Coldfield (transmitter) and Birmingham. As the predictions bear witness. 61 dBuV/m field vs 41 dB for Waltham, if Wolfbane is correct (it still uses the old frequencies). But, that's 20dB difference = 100x as strong from SC!
Both transmitters are 'line of sight' which is good (no hills in the way).

Freeview does not predict signal levels (other than that they are above a bare minimum). Rather it is an interference prediction from other transmitters at the % locations within the 100m x 100m prediction square. Waltham is likely to suffer much more interference that Sutton Coldfield (on the COMmercial multiplexes).

FYI
The recommended signal level at a receiver is 45 to 65 dB.
Aerials give gain and cables, splitters and terminations give losses (as does the roof).
Aerial gain will typically just about make up for the roof material losses but there may be noise/lack of signal issues for Waltham and an amplified splitter solution will be required to feed multiple rooms.

SC, however, may feed a couple of outlets with a passive splitter.

It may be possible to have two aerials to get the local TV news variant you'd prefer as well as the better signal for most viewing using a filtered combiner (although they also introduce some signal loss).
Diplexer Channel 38 (UHF/UHF) - A.T.V. Poles, Brackets, Clamps & Aerials
Waltham on the low input 21-37 using a group A aerial (for best gain) and Sutton Coldfield on the high 39 - 55 using a group K.

However a good aerial and amplified splitter on Waltham may work well enough for you. It's most doubtful that the LocalTV Nottingham mux will work reliably with those predicted numbers (and maybe not at all). A group A XB10 aerial that ATV aerials suggests for lofts use still has decent enough gain at the Local mux ch41 frequency, as well. XB10A Aerial - A.T.V. Poles, Brackets, Clamps & Aerials

An aerial suitable for either SC or Waltham should be a group K or wideband currently.