Aerial signal booster - advice needed!

vairo

vairo

vairo

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Joined
12 Nov 2006
Posts
627
Location
London
Hi all,

Quick question:

I've got an indoor arial (One for all SV-9305) that I am using. The signal is that bad that evey single channel is messed up. Do you think there is a point to buy some sort of aerial signal booster and if yes what would you recommend?

Searched around but there are so many of them that makes it hard to choose one.

I'd liek to stay in price range from 10 - 30 quid. Is there anything you recommend I could plugin between my teli and aerial to get better signal?

Would SLx 27841R 2-Way Plug-in Aerial Amplifier be any good?

Cheers in advance,

V.
 
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Is the signal bad because it's low quality, or low power?

A signal booster will only help if the signal is too weak, if the signal is poor quality the booster won't help much as it'll just be boosting a poor quality signal.

Depending on your set it may have a quality indicator and a strength indicator for the channels.
[edit]this assumes you're talking about TV[/edit]
 
B&W said:
you are using a freeview box aren't you? digital switch over and all that
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I've got freeview channels which work fine on the third floor with the same aerial but as soon as I bring the aerial down to the first floow - signal is way too poor.
 
Is the signal bad because it's low quality, or low power?
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Not sure how to answer to that but picture quality is good only it isn't stable. It comes and goes and creates annoying noises and pixels on the picture if you know what I mean.
Depending on your set it may have a quality indicator and a strength indicator for the channels.
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Don't think I've got that.
 
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Monkeynut said:
Does your TV come with an integrated booster? I have a cheap Tesco one that does actually have it in the menus.
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I've got a Toshiba that I bought from Tesco too. Don't think I have an integrated booster - will go through all my menus once more just in case.

Thanks

@challengedavid

Will take that on board.

Cheers
 
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Agree with challengedavid.

I suffered and tried all sorts to try get a better signal, gave in and got a proper aerial up and its been perfect since.
 
The aerial signal for Digital TV needs to be at least a minimum power level or else you get the effects you are describing. Those of us in the aerial trade would describe that as a marginal signal. On the third floor it's just above the minimum level. On the ground floor there's too much in the way. As others here have said, a booster isn't going to cure that. Don't waste your money.

The fact that you have a watchable signal on the third floor is a good sign. Many of these indoor aerials have negative gain. That means they actually reduce the signal strength a little bit. If you still have a watchable signal when on the third floor then there's a good chance that the signal in your area is reasonably strong.

A proper aerial is the right answer for you. This could be either chimney mounted or screwed to the fascia boards, or positioned in the loft. If it's going in the loft though you want something decent rather than the cheapest. Have a look online or drop me a message in trust if you'd like me to sort you something out decent.
 
Thanks for your feedback everyone, especially lucid - mutch appreciated!

I've got some sort of cables wired down to the first floor (those look like sat cables but I don't have one - confused) from the loft. Will explore my loft this weekend. Perhaps I can figure out something or find something new lol.
 
You're welcome :)

FYI: A lot of new build houses have aerial cables from the main rooms back up to the loft, but the building firms never fit any gear. (Just as well really given the appalling quality of the cable they use). They leave it up to the house buyer. I also see a lot of houses change hands where the previous owners remove the aerial distribution amps when they leave. If you find yourself looking at a bunch of cables connected to nothing then this could be what's happened.
 
Do you have a signal distributor in your loft or do you use countless £2 cable splitters? If the latter that will be the problem. Buy a decent loft distributor (£30?) All you need to do is plug your aerial output in the distributors input, then plug all your individual room feeds into the signal distributors 'output' :)
 
lucid said:
You're welcome :)

FYI: A lot of new build houses have aerial cables from the main rooms back up to the loft, but the building firms never fit any gear. (Just as well really given the appalling quality of the cable they use). They leave it up to the house buyer. I also see a lot of houses change hands where the previous owners remove the aerial distribution amps when they leave. If you find yourself looking at a bunch of cables connected to nothing then this could be what's happened.
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I think that could be the case! :)

@ Meatball, I will find out this weekend. Thanks for your input.
 
If you please look at the image.Those 3 black cables go outside the house and are conected to two satelite type anthenas. To start with I thought those are my neightbors but turns out they are attached to our part of the house pfff....just on the edge!

Anyway, I tried connecting all three of them just like in the picture and then conect other cable to my TV + tune it. Didn't work.

I am guessing I might need some sort of transmitter/satellite receiver that I can connect to those sat cables and only then TV?

r89kxy.jpg


Any help will be appreciated.

Cheers guys
 
It looks like your house is wired up for an aerial and satellite signal distribution system, but that's not in use. You've got three satellite signal feeds - Two through the wall and a third via the plate. Maybe the previous owner was a bit of a bodger or just didn't understand how to get things working right.

Presuming the satellite dishes and LNBs are okay, then the simplest solution is a Freesat tuner box or a Sky box with their free-to-view card. It's a one off payment of about £20 for the card I think.

The alternative would be cheaper, but take a bit of time: Remove the wall socket, see if there's a second feed buried in the wall that goes up to the loft, then hook up an aerial in the loft or outside.
 
Presuming the satellite dishes and LNBs are okay, then the simplest solution is a Freesat tuner box or a Sky box with their free-to-view card. It's a one off payment of about £20 for the card I think.
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Hi lucid,

I've been trying for Google Freesat tuner box but couldn't find anything priced as near as you mentioned. Or was that just for the free-to-view card?

Any chance you could link me to an affordable option? Perhaps one that has build in free-to-view card.

Thanks for your input - much appreciated!

Would this one do the trick: ebay.co.uk/itm/BUSH-BFSAT02SD-FREESAT-SD-DIGITAL-SET-TOP-BOX-/350489372220?pt=UK_ConEle_SatCableFreeview_RL&hash=item519acb663c
 
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Lol... okay, I'll break it down in to chunks...

"a Freesat tuner box"



"or a Sky box with a *Free-to-View card*"



"the *Free-to-View card* is a one off payment of £20 I think."




So one option is to go find a secondhand Sky box. Buy it. Then telephone Sky. Ask to buy a Free-to-View card. They'll ask you for £20 or whatever the cost is. Just a basic Sky box will do. Don't spend extra on a Sky+ or a Sky+HD box thinking that you can use the recording feature. You can only use the recording feature if you sign up and pay Sky a monthly subscription.

Another option is to go buy a Freesat tuner box. I think there's a Grundig on Ebay brand new for about £32 + £8 delivery. You won't need a viewing card with that. It's already setup to receive the channels.

Both of the above will let you watch the Free-to-View satellite channels. If you want to record something then you'll need to hook up your DVD recorder or a VCR if you have one, or buy a Freesat recorder. This is a box that both receives and records.
 
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