TV Ariel

denwyn

Moving to bungalow in next three weeks,only TV ariel there is a sky dish. I had thought of buying a Free-sat PVR, but as our Humax Freeview PVR is only about 18 months old and does the job very well it's probably better to stick with it. Her indoors is asking for a TV in Kitchen / breakfast room as well. I've had a couple of quotes around the £180 - £215 mark which to me is a rip off for a bungalow. I've put Ariel's up on previous properties myself. I am more an capable of fitting Ariel and brackets to gable end of bungalow,just unsure on cable connections,can I connect lounge TV and kitchen at connection point on Ariel,one would then run down wall outside and through wall behind TV in lounge,other would go through gable end into loft and on to the kitchen. Would this work ok,or should I put two Ariel's on mast. Were in strong signal area for reception,so not big Ariel's. All advice appreciated

kwikbreaks

I personally wouldn't use two aerials but it would certainly work. If it really is a strong signal area you could use a simple passive coax splitter. A cheap distribution amp probably wouldn't cost any more than an additional aerial.

Not recommendations just first of type on eBay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-WAY-TV-AERIAL-Y-ADAPTER-COAX-COAXIAL-SPLITTER-DUAL-CONVERTER-Buy-2-get-1-F-/182598198470

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/One-for-All-SV9602-Two-Way-Digital-Freeview-TV-or-Radio-Signal-Booster-Amplifier-/391754329186

Hermione_Granger

denwyn wrote: »

Were in strong signal area for reception,so not big Ariel's. All advice appreciated

So not this big then

psychic_teabag

denwyn wrote: »

Were in strong signal area for reception

Worth trying an indoor ariel for the kitchen ?

System

denwyn wrote: »

just unsure on cable connections,can I connect lounge TV and kitchen at connection point on Ariel,one would then run down wall outside and through wall behind TV in lounge,other would go through gable end into loft and on to the kitchen. Would this work ok,or should I put two Ariel's on mast. Were in strong signal area for reception,so not big Ariel's. All advice appreciated

You shouldn't. That alters the impedance of the cable which for technical reasons that we don't really need to go into in detail means more losses. It MAY work if you are close to the TV transmitter but if you are not then there is a likelihood you will have issues as you end up with a far weaker signal going to both.

As mentioned, use a passive coax splitter. It contains some components which account for the impedance issue and correct it thus resulting in a stronger signal to both TVs.

shaun_from_Africa

One thing you may need to be aware of. (having a bungalow myself, this is something that I have experience of).

You may well require a mast to raise the aerial a couple of metres up from the top of the bungalow if there are two story houses close by that will be blocking a direct line of site to the transmitter.
Getting the mast fitted with the aerial attached to it can be a bit of a handful and really needs a couple of people to do it safely.

denwyn

Bungalow is raised well above all housing, nothing in line of site at all, so hopefully it would be ok, i planned to use a 4 to 5 foot mast, well secured with two stand off brackets attached to gable. i'll look at the ebay items, and wont go down the two cables on one ariel route now. Indoor ariel in kitchen is a definate no, i did mention it, but other half wont here of it at all. I'm trying to put her off a tv in there, as to be honest with the ammount of noise from cooking, loading dishwasher, banging pans around its not worth the bother, not having much look though. In the house we are in now which is not far from were we are moving to, we had an ariel in the loft. Never a huge sucess, worked fine on HD channels, but not so well on the others, depended on the weather ??.
Thanks for all the advice

Kernel_Sanders

denwyn wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice

Although not all of it acted upon

Maybe install a spellchecker, as Shaun from Africa obviously has?

denwyn

The eBay items are good but not for outdoor use. I think my only option is two ariels on the mast with separate cable to each TV. Still working on her for no TV in kitchen, fir me the radio is enough. Would make my job easier with one TV as we have now.

A.Penny.Saved

denwyn wrote: »

Bungalow is raised well above all housing, nothing in line of site at all, so hopefully it would be ok, i planned to use a 4 to 5 foot mast, well secured with two stand off brackets attached to gable. i'll look at the ebay items, and wont go down the two cables on one ariel route now. Indoor ariel in kitchen is a definate no, i did mention it, but other half wont here of it at all. I'm trying to put her off a tv in there, as to be honest with the ammount of noise from cooking, loading dishwasher, banging pans around its not worth the bother, not having much look though. In the house we are in now which is not far from were we are moving to, we had an ariel in the loft. Never a huge sucess, worked fine on HD channels, but not so well on the others, depended on the weather ??.
Thanks for all the advice

It would be worth checking for planning issues as I seem to remember that a TV aerial cannot be above the highest point of a house, which in most cases is the chimney stack. You see aerials fitted above the top of chimney stacks but those were fitted before the regulations came into effect. I had to take this into account with my satellite dish when I fitted it above my roof so that it did not go above the chimney outlet which I had considered removing as it is a metal tube and not a brick stack. After fitting the dish I decided to leave it as it was.

[edit] it might not be an issue depending upon your roof pitch. Mine is quite a low pitch which makes the dish come around the highest point of the roof. The chimney adds a bit of extra room.

You could fit a loft box but it would be a little more expensive. This could also take a radio feed such as FM and DAB and feed down the same coax as the TV and split at the wall with a suitable wall plate with TV/FM/DAB and or Satellite. They were around 50-£60.

emptybox

For a small kitchen TV you could do away with an aerial connection entirely, and use something like an Amazon Fire TV stick or a cheap android box that connects to your router via wifi, and use the live TV and catchup TV apps that you can install on those, to stream TV over the internet.
(Provided your internet download speed is at least 2 Mb/s)