TV to bedroom

TheKnat · 25 Jun 2008 at 15:50

For some reason, when building my flats, they never thought to put an aerial point in the bedroom. This has left me trying various ways to get a decent reception in there.

So far I have tried 2 different in door aerials, a flat and a standard rabbit ear style one. These both worked ok but would randomly lose signal after being fine for a few days. Even when they got the best signal they could they still didn't pick up all the freeview channels.

Now I'm onto a Phillips wireless TV sender unit, transmitting from my sky box. This again is ok, but because there is about 4 walls between the sender and receiver, the signal is always a distorted and sometimes disapeers altogther. I've tried placing the box in lots of different positions, but there is no difference in the signal quality.

So now I'm stuck for ideas on what to try next. What I was mainly wondering is if there was a way to transmit my sky signal over my network, which runs into the bedroom. This would probably be the best way for me to do it, but I've got no idea on what products I can use.

So does anyone have any ideas to solve my TV related woes ?

mjer1984 · 25 Jun 2008 at 16:16

did you use a booster indoor aerial or just a standard one. I used to struggle for a decent signal but since i bought a little booster it works fine.

cokecan · 25 Jun 2008 at 16:25

all the indoor aerials i tried gave results as you've described (loosing signal etc) so in the end i bought a medium sized (say around 60cm long) outdoor aerial from a local electronics retailer and stuck that on my shelf. I've not had any problems with it since I got it, no loss in signal except bad weather and you get a fairly decent booster with it. cost me £30

TheKnat · 25 Jun 2008 at 17:12

did you use a booster indoor aerial or just a standard one. I used to struggle for a decent signal but since i bought a little booster it works fine.

Yeah they both were booster ones.

all the indoor aerials i tried gave results as you've described (loosing signal etc) so in the end i bought a medium sized (say around 60cm long) outdoor aerial from a local electronics retailer and stuck that on my shelf. I've not had any problems with it since I got it, no loss in signal except bad weather and you get a fairly decent booster with it. cost me £30

Can't really do that as all the old buggers in the building would complain about me

(think I'm joking, but they complained that people were putting out clothes horses on their balconies)

Thought about a Slingbox, but the sling catcher still isn't out yet and paying loads of money for a Slingbox + Sling catch (or small pc with sling player on it), isn't thrilling me atm.

sk3lph · 25 Jun 2008 at 17:41

I take it that running a cable from your sky box to the bedroom is not an option? I did that and bought an additional remote with the reciever so the channels can also be changed from the bedroom.

TheKnat · 25 Jun 2008 at 17:47

sk3lph said:
I take it that running a cable from your sky box to the bedroom is not an option? I did that and bought an additional remote with the reciever so the channels can also be changed from the bedroom.

Do you mean a normal aerial cable from the back of the sky box ?

If so, its going to be hard to get away with that because its about 50 miles (i live in a big flat) and would involve holes going into walls. Not really sure the landlord would approve.

sk3lph · 25 Jun 2008 at 17:59

TheKnat said:
Do you mean a normal aerial cable from the back of the sky box ?

If so, its going to be hard to get away with that because its about 50 miles (i live in a big flat) and would involve holes going into walls. Not really sure the landlord would approve.

I did mean that, yes - 50 miles is indeed a big flat.

If its at all feasible (cable under floor boards maybe) then I still think thats the best option. Hope you get it sorted.

carpmaster · 25 Jun 2008 at 21:04

There are ways of converting the RF signal from the Sky box, putting it into Cat5 cable and sending it over a network, but it's prohibitively expensive for domestic use at the moment.

There are also much better AV senders on the market but again these aren't cheap. I'm assuming you've tried altering the frequency of the AV sender to minimise inteference?

Why not just get a long length of decent coax, connect it to the Sky box and run it around the flat (over skirting / doors). Not exactly pretty but would give you a perfect signal and you can remove it without damage at any time.

carpmaster · 25 Jun 2008 at 21:07

Forgot to add that you could send the RF directly, but it means rebroadcasting the signal using some homebrew kit so perhaps not the best idea. Listen for the neighbours whacking their TV set if you go down this route.

TheKnat · 26 Jun 2008 at 09:54

carpmaster said:
There are also much better AV senders on the market but again these aren't cheap. I'm assuming you've tried altering the frequency of the AV sender to minimise inteference?

Yes tried all the frequencies and I've got it on the most stable one

carpmaster said:
Why not just get a long length of decent coax, connect it to the Sky box and run it around the flat (over skirting / doors). Not exactly pretty but would give you a perfect signal and you can remove it without damage at any time.

This may be my only option left. Its going to be a lot of work, but I think its the only way I'll be able to get the signal in there without causing damage.

I did think about just throwing the cable from the bedroom window to the balcony in the front room and having it just sort of dangle there. Don't think that would go down to well though