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[theolodian]

freeview boxes are dirt cheap, have a nosey through your yellow pages for a company that will fit an extra roof aerial onto your house

thats what i've done, aerial was about £50 (held onto the chimney properly and not drilled into the brickwork!), freeview box was lifted from my mates when he got sent down, to cover an outstanding debt

Have freeview in the TV, can't do much with the aerial.  I'd be happy to tie into the existing aerial, but that means snaking wires through the walls of a rented house.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.  Guess there's no sure answers.  :-/

[Vamps]

Our Caravan, a static, is in Ripon and quite high, normal aerial and freeview seemed to depend on the weather. Last year I had a reeview aerial fitted, same height, and no further problems, you do need a decent aerial.

[theolodian]

Our Caravan, a static, is in Ripon and quite high, normal aerial and freeview seemed to depend on the weather. Last year I had a reeview aerial fitted, same height, and no further problems, you do need a decent aerial.

Theo wanders off to find pictures of freeview aerials to see if it looks different . . .

[TheBoy]

Our Caravan, a static, is in Ripon and quite high, normal aerial and freeview seemed to depend on the weather. Last year I had a reeview aerial fitted, same height, and no further problems, you do need a decent aerial.

Theo wanders off to find pictures of freeview aerials to see if it looks different . . .

No different, only tend to be WB and a little more powerful/selective

[Marks DTM Calib]

No such thing as a freeview or digital aerial.

Its a wide band aerial thats required and you wont be able to tell the difference between a grouped aerial and a wide band one by simply looking at it.

Leamington is a tricky one to get good reception round but, a DAT45 with MRD works well round there as long as it has decent coax (digital is not tolerant of multipath)

[Entwood]

Different transmitters require different classes of aerial ... many "cheap" aerials/cowboy fitters just stick a generic one up. This is usually ok on analogue signals but just falls apart on digital

This site may help ..

http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/help/technical_help/aerial_test

or here

http://www.stevelarkins.freeuk.com/freeview_digital_tv.htm

HTH

[Vamps]

No such thing as a freeview or digital aerial.

Its a wide band aerial thats required and you wont be able to tell the difference between a grouped aerial and a wide band one by simply looking at it.

Leamington is a tricky one to get good reception round but, a DAT45 with MRD works well round there as long as it has decent coax (digital is not tolerant of multipath)

Can't get technical byt the aerial on my house is from the orginal digital and is very different to 'normal' aerials. The one at the caravan is very different again, you can walk round the site and see who is using freeview rather than normal tv.

[theolodian]

No such thing as a freeview or digital aerial.

Its a wide band aerial thats required and you wont be able to tell the difference between a grouped aerial and a wide band one by simply looking at it.

Leamington is a tricky one to get good reception round but, a DAT45 with MRD works well round there as long as it has decent coax (digital is not tolerant of multipath)

Hmmm.  The bigger problem would be re-doing the coax.  :-/

Think it's a standard wideband up there now.

[Marks DTM Calib]

Different transmitters require different classes of aerial ... many "cheap" aerials/cowboy fitters just stick a generic one up. This is usually ok on analogue signals but just falls apart on digital

This site may help ..

http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/help/technical_help/aerial_test

or here

http://www.stevelarkins.freeuk.com/freeview_digital_tv.htm

HTH

Not actually true either, the analogue channels were grouped as A, B or C/D. When digital was fired up the digital channels had to be slotted in away from the local analogue ones so a wideband (W) aerial is required and these tend to be lower gain for the same size.

[TheBoy]

No such thing as a freeview or digital aerial.

Its a wide band aerial thats required and you wont be able to tell the difference between a grouped aerial and a wide band one by simply looking at it.

Leamington is a tricky one to get good reception round but, a DAT45 with MRD works well round there as long as it has decent coax (digital is not tolerant of multipath)

Can't get technical byt the aerial on my house is from the orginal digital and is very different to 'normal' aerials. The one at the caravan is very different again, you can walk round the site and see who is using freeview rather than normal tv.

There is no physical difference - it matters not whether analogue or digital - the tuner still has to lock on and decode. Thing with digital, rather than grainy picture, you get nothing with substandard.

'Digital' aerials is a marketing scam.

[theolodian]

So, to sum up, the cheapest way to get freeview is a 55 quid antenna and a few hundred in installation and rewiring?  It's gonna be more than the TV!

[Martin_1962]

You don't want to know what I did in a rental bed sit.

But you can use normal aerials in a house if you want.

How long are you renting for?

Might be worth asking the landlord if you can play with the aerial

[FRE07962128]

I am in a weak digital signal area but what I did to obtain a very good signal from our block of flats communal ariel (that incidentently should be, most importantly 'high gain' in a 'weak' signal area is:

1. Rewire with new digital standard cable from the ariel / junction box

2. Install a SLx Masthead booster at the point of cable entry into the property (if you cannot get onto the roof and rig the ariel, that, to repeat must be 'high gain' in a weak signal area, as I have previously done when living in a house).

3. Install a powered 2/3/4 Maxview booster and distributor box, after the Masthead box, in main cable feed.

4. Lay separate digital cable trails to each tv point required.

5. Plug in any good (Philips, Hitachi, etc,..NOT the cheap crap ones!) digital receiver box per tv.

This will give you a greatly enhanced signal that in most areas (unless the digital signal is pityfully weak!) should give you digital reception of a good standard.

All the parts mentioned are available from B & Q, and the above system also worked in my previous houses if we didn't have Sky.

[theolodian]

We expect to be here 12-18 months.  I don't mind doing a little bit, but it starts to add up quickly.  The main thing that I need is a new aerial point in the bedroom.  That means getting a guy in.  Replacing what's already there would then drive the cost up even more.  Then we can't be sure how much it will help!