Digital signal through old aerial..??

Alot_does_not_exist

The guy at the TV shop was quite adamant:

"Your old aerial is fine for digital tv now they've boosted the digital signal after switchover".

This would save me a couple of hundred poundsworth of aerial engineer visit.... BUT is he right...??????????????

Hammyman

Probably. There is no such thing as a "digital TV antenna" - its the biggest load of horse manure going.

The antenna has no way of knowing if the signal it receives is analogue or digital. The only thing that matters is the antenna covers the frequencies that the digital channels are transmitted on HOWEVER if you are in a strong enough signal area, even a wet piece of string will work. On most transmitters, the signal strength has been increased on digital between 4 and 10 times the original power after analogue switch off.

santer_2

" There is no such thing as a digital aerial "

http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/how_do_i_switch/your_aerial

If you already have a Freeview service and have poor reception, it is likely to improve at switchover when the power of the digital signal will be increased.

http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/how_do_i_switch/your_aerial/the_condition_of_your_aerial

closed

try it and see

nickj_2

i've not changed my aerial , i can get a reasonable signal but i can't receive all the basic freeview channels , all the main terrestrial channels and their +1's E4 etc i can get + a few others probably 30ish altogether . i think all the "digital" aerials do is pick up more channels , having said that the more channels = the more trash you have to trawl thru

Shaun_d123

We had no freeview signal in our conservatory until a couple of weeks ago.

Managed to pick up BBC channels & Radio stations during 1st phase of switchover in Leeds

Retuned last week after 2nd phase and have now received all the remaining channels since the signal has been boosted

yorksguy11

Its not just the aeriel, its the coaxial cable too. Old coaxial cable is not screened.

bob_a_builder

i think all the "digital" aerials do is pick up more channels

as already stated no such thing as a digital aerial - whether its in quotes or not
your aerial is either in-band or out of band for your particular transmitter
in some cases, like nickj, some muxs are in-band on their aerial and the others not - a wide band aerial likely to be the answer in such cases.

'coax' isn''t that by definition screened ?
but unlikely to affect which muxs are received or not

Owain_Moneysaver

yorksguy11 wrote: »

Its not just the aeriel, its the coaxial cable too. Old coaxial cable is not screened.

Of course it is, it wouldn't be co-axial otherwise.

yorksguy11

By screened i meant foil screened as well as braided.
Old coax does not have the foil screen which does help with digital

DUTR

Alot_does_not_exist wrote: »

The guy at the TV shop was quite adamant:

"Your old aerial is fine for digital tv now they've boosted the digital signal after switchover".

This would save me a couple of hundred poundsworth of aerial engineer visit.... BUT is he right...??????????????

The reason you should believe the guy in the shop and others that have said you don't need a new aerial, is because you won't, as you have suspected, the guy in the shop could have had a nice easy earner on your beliefs.
Perhaps your current aerial is pointing to a relay, although that should change after DSO in your area, a digital signal from a transmitter will be always of analogue nature, hence there is no such thing as a digital aerial.