TV Aerials, digital upgrade, freeview and why you do not need special equipment..

Gangstabird

Not sure if this has been done before but I just saved a ton of money doing this myself. We purchased a TV with freeview but it just wouldn't work with our current aerial. After speaking to someone else they told me that I needed a 'digital aerial and that their aerial man put theirs up for £220.00.

It sounded alot to me, so I googled aerials and found out that you do NOT need a special aerial, just maybe an upgrade. After all our aerial has been on the roof for over 25 years.

Also, due to illness, hubs couldn't get up on the roof so it has been fixed to a wall outside an upstairs window.

I get every single freeview channel and a crystal clear pic. The aerial cost £35 from Argos including fittings & cable.

Apparently the cable does deteriorate with age etc but this one will last through the digital switch as well.

Having phoned one or two aerial people who are professing that you need a special digital one, I just wanted to share this with you all as I definitely saved heaps of money on this one.

I have also posted this in techie stuff but decided to replicate it here as it seems a more diy-ish thing.

Steve_xx

Sometimes you may need a special aerial, but it's debatable. I can get Freeview with an aerial I found in a skip. A lot will depend on the signal strength. If you're near to a transmitter then a set top aerial will be sufficient. If you're in an area that generally has a poor TV signal then you might need a more specialised aerial or at least have it as high as possible.

I went into B&Q last week and bought an excellent satellite dish kit that came inclusive of all the gubbings necessary to receive the Freeview channels. I mounted the dish on the wall at about 8 feet from ground level and hey presto we can receive all of the freeview channels and more from the Astra satellite. We can even get BBC4 which we can't get with the freeview aerial we bought some years ago. The kit cost me £40 and I'm very pleased with it.

Dolly-Rocket

Really glad I saw this as here is a thread I started last week http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1467303
Thanks for the tip.

Gangstabird

I read that thread which was what started me on the aerial thingy.

On the way back from argos I drove my friend mad, she was talking about Gaza and I was saying things like 'oh my god, they definitely don't have a freeview box', 'oooooh he has a nice one', 'omg, this lot are gettting NASA', 'they have such a huge one they must be chavvy'. In the end she told me to !!!!!!'.

Thankfully she laughed but I know more about aerials than I ever wished to know to be honest.

ormus

there have been many threads on this subject in last few years on MSE alone.
do a search on tnet, before spending any money theses days!