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Digital Aeriels?

hayley1471
Posts: 225 Forumite
in Techie Stuff
Sorry if this has been asked a thousand times, but here I go anyway.
I bought my daughter a 2nd hand tv for her bedroom, and a super duper uber digital arial. Unfortunately the picture still isn't very good. So I thought I might get a digital box for her room.
So I had a look on the BBC Digital website and it said:
What you need: EITHER a set-top box (from around £40) which you simply connect to your existing TV by plugging in a lead, OR a new digital TV set (from around £100). You pay only for the equipment; you don't need a subscription.
Your aerial: you may need to pay to upgrade your rooftop TV aerial. An indoor aerial on top of your TV is not likely to be good enough.
HOWEVER
Also on the BBC website it says:
Question: Will I just need to buy a digital box?
Digital Doctor: In many cases - yes. 73% of the UK can receive digital television through an aerial - Freeview - and the simplest way to get that is to buy a set-top box for your TV. A minority of people may need to replace their aerial to get a good picture.
So, my question is - If the digital aerial that I bought doesn't pick up a good enough signal at the moment - will buying a digibox and plugging it into the tv top aerial mean that she can watch TV in her room?
Given that I have already spent £80 for a non-lcd tv and aeriel I want to check before throwing good money after this endeavour.
I bought my daughter a 2nd hand tv for her bedroom, and a super duper uber digital arial. Unfortunately the picture still isn't very good. So I thought I might get a digital box for her room.
So I had a look on the BBC Digital website and it said:
What you need: EITHER a set-top box (from around £40) which you simply connect to your existing TV by plugging in a lead, OR a new digital TV set (from around £100). You pay only for the equipment; you don't need a subscription.
Your aerial: you may need to pay to upgrade your rooftop TV aerial. An indoor aerial on top of your TV is not likely to be good enough.
HOWEVER
Also on the BBC website it says:
Question: Will I just need to buy a digital box?
Digital Doctor: In many cases - yes. 73% of the UK can receive digital television through an aerial - Freeview - and the simplest way to get that is to buy a set-top box for your TV. A minority of people may need to replace their aerial to get a good picture.
So, my question is - If the digital aerial that I bought doesn't pick up a good enough signal at the moment - will buying a digibox and plugging it into the tv top aerial mean that she can watch TV in her room?
Given that I have already spent £80 for a non-lcd tv and aeriel I want to check before throwing good money after this endeavour.
0
Comments
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freeview wont make it any better. You'll need an external ariel or at least something in the loft.0
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It all depends on your location.
There is no such thing as a " Digital Aerial ".
Certainly a properly installed external aerial will always perform better than an indoor one.0 -
I am still confused
Do I need an aerial with a freeview box? Does the picture depend on the Freeview box or the aeriel or both together?
And the aerial box definitely says 'Digital' !0 -
We've got a freeview box for our main tele downstairs and that runs off the main outdoor airial. The lad we care for has been bought a freeview box for his tele (his tele is a little portable)..............it doesn't seem to work and he says he has to get a special kind of indoor airial. I know nothing about this sort of thing. Is there an indoor airial for these freeview boxes or do they all have to run off the main airial ?Mary
I'm creative -you can't expect me to be neat too !
(Good Enough Member No.48)0 -
I have seen on QVC, and flat indoor airiel that "they" say will fit behind a picture and it is supposed to be the best thing out. It costs under £20. I suppose you could do a search on QVC for it. You have a 30 day money back it it doesn't. work,
I've found it, it is £15 and hopefully this link will work:-
http://www.qvcuk.com/ukqic/qvcapp.aspx/app.detail/params.item.420215/walk.yah.UKEL-UK21This is a system account and does not represent a real person. To contact the Forum Team email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com0 -
hayley1471 wrote: »I am still confused
Do I need an aerial with a freeview box? Does the picture depend on the Freeview box or the aeriel or both together?
And the aerial box definitely says 'Digital' !
Both, and the " Digital " on the aerial box is just sales blurb.;)0 -
We've got a freeview box for our main tele downstairs and that runs off the main outdoor airial. The lad we care for has been bought a freeview box for his tele (his tele is a little portable)..............it doesn't seem to work and he says he has to get a special kind of indoor airial. I know nothing about this sort of thing. Is there an indoor airial for these freeview boxes or do they all have to run off the main airial ?
It depends on your location, an indoor aerial is never going to give the same performance as a good quality external aerial.0 -
You will usually require a better quality signal ( = aerial !) for digital use than for analogue.
BUT - to confuse matters, the digital transmitters are not transmitting on full power whilst they are still also transmitting on analogue. So you may find that your present aerial isn't good enough for digital at the moment - but it may be, when they switch off the analogue signal - but you won't know that until it happens !0 -
You need a good quality metal aerial. Not a black plastic one that says on the box that it is the best aerial ever!
look at this link type in your postcode, it will tell you where you nearest transmitter is and what compass bearing to angle your aerial at.
If you already have a proper aerial (on your roof or in loft) then you could run some co-axial (normal aerial wire) to daughters room.
Do you consider yourself to live in an area with a good or bad reception?.....0 -
I bought this ariel:
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5343243/Trail/searchtext%3ETV+AERIEL.htm
I have tried pointing it in different directions, but gets lots of white blobs on the TV screen.
Downstairs, my TV is plugged into an outdoor ariel on my roof and that gives me a great signal. i wouldn't be confident about running cable form this - I have no head for heights!0
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