TV aerial point

madlyn

i have had an extra aerial point so i can have a TV in the bedroom.
instead of taking the connection from the aerial on the roof.
he has split the cable that comes into my lounge, which has an amplifier on it as i live in the dip of a hill, taken it outside and into the bedroom.
so if i want to watch the TV upstairs, i have to switch the ampliefier box on downstairs. which is not an issue jusy abit of an inconvienience.
so could i fit and ampliefier to the cable upstairs and get the same result?

TonyMMM

Why not leave the amplifier on all the time ....that's what they are normally designed for ?

kwikbreaks

So long as it works then I'd say leave it alone and leave the amp on all the time as they use negligible power.

In the main the closer the amp is to the antenna the better it will work so the ideal for a distribution amp would be in the loft with feeds to each TV point needed. Putting it in the bedroom would be fine too. You'd need it on for the downstairs TV to work. The setup would be the aerial coax to the amp input then coax from one output to the bedroom TV and another to the TV downstairs.

A.Penny.Saved

As already stated, an Aerial amplifier should be as close to the Aerial as possible, Masthead amplifiers are usually fitted on the Aerial Mast and receive power along the Coax cable either from a separate power supply or directly from a TV/Freeview settop box.

Another alternative is a loftbox which can accept signals from a TV Aerial, DAB radio, FM radio and sometimes other sources such as RF modulated for things like security cameras and Satellite inputs which mine does.

============

Splitting a signal does lower the signal level which can mean there is insufficient signal until the Freeview power is increased after the Analogue TV is switched off. That is probably why you require an amplifier to offset the losses of splitting the signal but the setup you have doesn't sound like a very professional way of doing it. It sounds more like a DIY job by someone who doesn't know too much about it.

But it could be due to building regulations and him not being qualified to do electrical work. He could fit a plug in amplifier but could not add wiring in the loft. Done the way it has been means he doesn't have to comply with building regs. Having cables go outside avoided him having to lift floor boards and do the job in a tidier way.

In answer to your question:

The problem with fitting amplifiers further away from the Aerial is that the amplifier also amplifies any noise which worsens signal quality. The signal nearer the Aerial is cleaner than further along the cable where is can be subjected to household noise from electrical circuits.

So fitting an amp upstairs is even worse than one downstairs, which itself isn't a great idea.

The best solution would be a loft box, tidier as it is in the loft and the cables can come through the roof into the bedroom and down the wall and those can be covered with some suitable trunking or embedded into the wall if redecoration or replacing one piece of wallpaper isn't a problem.

Then the Aerial would feed directly to the loft box and outputs from that can go to multiple rooms such as lounge, kitchen, bedrooms etc.

But it's a bigger job and would cost more money. Which is why I DIY'd.

Note that HDMI is the new in thing for signal distribution so if you were going for something more advanced, having HDMI/networking cabling might be worth considering/investigating.

Inactive

Just leave it switched on, they hardly use any power and are designed to be left on.

kwikbreaks

A.Penny.Saved wrote: »

So fitting an amp upstairs is even worse than one downstairs, which itself isn't a great idea.

Absolute rubbish. Fitting the amp as I suggested is virtually the same as in the loft. Also the disadvantage with fitting an amp at the bottom is that the signal is attenuated by the cable but natural thermal noise remains constant and that is what reduces the snr rather than noise pickup on the cable.

A.Penny.Saved wrote: »

Note that HDMI is the new in thing for signal distribution so if you were going for something more advanced, having HDMI/networking cabling might be worth considering/investigating.

I'm rather bemused by this as it has nothing to do with feeding a signal from an aerial to a TV. Long HDMI cables are bad news too.

A.Penny.Saved

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Absolute rubbish. Fitting the amp as I suggested is virtually the same as in the loft. Also the disadvantage with fitting an amp at the bottom is that the signal is attenuated by the cable but natural thermal noise remains constant and that is what reduces the snr rather than noise pickup on the cable.

You seem to have missed the point that the Aerial feed is down to the lounge FIRST and then goes outside and up to the bedroom. So fitting an amp upstairs is useless and will lower the signal quality by the time it has picked up stray electrical interference and been attenuated by the cable. It might work but the signal would be worse and be the worse of any outside electrical interference.

If the Aerial went to the bedroom first and then was amplified as you suggested then it would be almost as good as a loftbox but it isn't done that way and would require work to change the cabling arrangement for your method to work okay.

I'm rather bemused by this as it has nothing to do with feeding a signal from an aerial to a TV. Long HDMI cables are bad news too.

It was a suggestion that madlyn might look into it if she had any more work done as it might come in useful. No one mentioned long HDMI cables but you. Home networking and HDMI distribution can be done if needed. Thinking ahead for the next five years is always worth doing if the opportunity arises. This was just an adjunct to the main points which were totally valid and correct.

So get your facts straight before jumping in half cocked!