they *usually* come with a small ariel, but they are utter rubbish, you need an external ariel to get any real decent quality
(this is from my personal experience at home, not HGV)
Completely agree. I've got 4 different TV tuners around the house (2 x PCI, 2 x USB) and all of them require to be plugged into the roof aerial to pick up channels without breaking up and being unwatchable. I am in an aera that hasn't yet gone through the digital switch over, so my signal strength is on 1/7 of those that have gone through the switchover. This answer may be completely different this time next year (I hope!).
If you are parked under the broadcast antenna the little included aerial might work. If you are within a mile of three of the antenna then a little roof aerial that he could sit on top of the cab might work well enough, provided he's not near a building or a few trees in the way. Anything more than that and you will need a large aerial up high for this to work. He will also need to work out where the nearest antenna is every time he parks up, find the angle needed and point the aerial towards it, then run a channel scan on the laptop.
If you do decide to try a freeview stick, remember to get a DVB-T one - this is for freeview through the aerial. DVB-S is for a satellite dish, and DVB-C is for cable. Also, if you go with a dual tuner device you can watch one channel and record another (or record 2 separate ones), and Windows Media Centre is built into Vista & Windows 7 Home Premium & Ultimate and IMHO is great.
Hope you do get it working, but if I'm honest my advice at the moment is that it's going to be a lot of work to set up each time it needs to be used, and I am worried it will be a disappointment. Could you set up a PC at home to record programmes during the week through the roof aerial, then transfer them to the laptop every home stop to watch during the next stint on the road? Won't be any good for live events, but as long as you don't mind being a week or so behind it would work for sitcoms, soaps, and films?
