help with Aerial instalation

marrittm

Hi just a quick question, I have already put up and connected a digital loft aerial to 1 TV which works fine but now my daughter has had new TV with free view in and wants me to wire it up to loft aerial, so I thought while I’m at it I might as well connect another one to my main TV. I’m clear on how to do all the wiring and stuff but my question is regarding the type of splitter to use, I don’t want to lose much picture quality but at same time I don’t really want any type of splitter/amplifier that requires any electrical mains connection as it would be in loft. Is there any alternative to this or any type of splitter I have not heard about?


thank you

ruds46

If you're only ever going to link 2 tv sets to the 1 aerial I'd personally go with the Y splitter, £1 the loss of picture quality should be minimal.

lucylucky

You can put an amplifier at the aerial and the power for it stays at the TV end so there is no electrical wiring in the loft.

If you have a strong signal though a Y splitter may well do the trick. You won't know until you try.

Oh - and you don't have a digital aerial, there is no such thing.

marrittm

all together there will be three tvs connected, its just one of those things the more you read on internet you get information overload, i was going to use a normal splitter but then i read that i need a amplifier as picture quality will decrease.

lucylucky

You will lose an amount of signal strength the more you split it and an amplifier of some sort would undoubtedly be better.

marrittm

so what sort of amplifier would i need as i dont want anything electrical in loft?

lucylucky

Some info here

http://www.aerialsandtv.com/loftaerials.html#AmplifiersAndSplitters

Hammyman

marrittm wrote: »

so what sort of amplifier would i need as i dont want anything electrical in loft?

You can get amplifiers that fit in the loft and get their power supply through one of the aerial leads connected from the telly to the amp. They typically run off 5-12V so nothing too bad. You merely plug the lead from the wall into an adapter which then has another lead that goes to the TV socket on your telly.

A.Penny.Saved

Get a loft box as it will allow a number of TV's typically from 4 to 10 to be driven from one Aerial. Depending upon your reception some can supply 12Volts along the Aerial lead to a Mast head amplifier if needed. But be aware that some, especially the Proception StarBOX which I have do need a return from something like a freeview receiver back to the loft as this supplies the signal to the other outputs. Or a direct connection between the main output and the return lead in the loft but that loses one connection. They also need a power connector in the Loft but quite low powered so feeding from a light fitting is usually possible.

I have fitted two Aerials and a Satellite dish on my property with another dish to be fitted as soon as the weather improves. One Aerial was recently replaced with a new Log-Periodic Aerial which works better than my previous Aerial. It all goes into my Proception StarBox. The Starbox didn't provide enough power for the Mast head amplifier which was used with my previous Aerial so it's not perfect but working much better with the new Log Periodic without the mast head Amplifier.

There are a number of other makes available, search google for Loftbox or tv distribution unit. They are around £40 and you could run feeds to each bedroom and lounge/kitchen etc.

Some freeview boxes can provide power to amplifiers along the Coaxial cable but it can be insufficient for anything but basic mast head amps which is what the power is intended for.

Check eBay for some fairly good prices on Loftboxes.

thescouselander

As said every time you split the signal it will decrease and you risk having insufficient signal at the TV. When I was dealing with this problem I decided to put up a second aerial in the loft - it only cost me £15 off Amazon and it saved me having to run electricity into the loft to power an amplifier. This was the simplest solution IMO.

Fifer

thescouselander wrote: »

As said every time you split the signal it will decrease and you risk having insufficient signal at the TV. When I was dealing with this problem I decided to put up a second aerial in the loft - it only cost me £15 off Amazon and it saved me having to run electricity into the loft to power an amplifier. This was the simplest solution IMO.

Except you don't have to "run" power up to the loft for a loft amp. The existing coax aerial cable carries the power. Your solution becomes rather wasteful with more than two or three TVs.