[swhxd06]

Hi, can anyone please suggest a good (not too expensive) indoor aerial. My son has a tv in his room, but no aerial & I rellay don't want to run an external one in there. At the moment, I beam SKY to his room via the box in the kitchen, but of course, if the kitchen box is already in use, he's knacked! I would like to give him access to terrestrial tv in his bedroom via a decent internal aerial.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Thanx

[Fudge]

Unfortunately no indoor aerials have been approved for Freeview as yet, partly because the transmitters are on low power and partly because there isn't a testing system in place. Unless you can see the transmitter from the bedroom window, or at least it's on the same side of the building and only a few miles away, you could end up with a really frustrating experience.

Amplified aerials aren't too good either, as they might increase the signal strength, but also the noise, so you end up with no better signal quality.

I have used a Maxview indoor unamplified Contour flatpanel aerial successfully, but then I can see the transmitter from the window.

http://www.maxview.ltd.uk

[swhxd06]

Thanx Fudge. Yes, it would be nice to give him Freeview, however, I would be happy to give him a decent signal from the main analogue terrestrial channels (BBC1 & 2; ITV; C4 & C5) for now.

Any suggestions?

[David (2)]

If analogue recpetion is also poor using indoor aerials, then you really need to start thinking ahead to switchover. Chances are you will need a proper aerial outside, and a multi-room booster to get a decent level of signal to all the tv's in the house.

On the other hand, if analogue is quite good on an indoor aerial, but not freeview, at switchover it might be good enough to get Freeview.

Dave

[kev]

Could you not connect a Freeview box to the sender thingy you are already using and get him Freeview that way (assuming there is a decent signal in the kitchen). [or move the sender thing to the main TV and put a freeview box there]

[swhxd06]

My main tv has built-in Freeview, so perhaps the best bet would be to connect the video sender to that.

Thanx for the suggestions chaps.

[chrisjr]

Originally Posted by swhxd06

My main tv has built-in Freeview, so perhaps the best bet would be to connect the video sender to that.

Thanx for the suggestions chaps.

Problem with that is that you will both be restricted to watching the same channel! Always assuming the TV can output a signal to feed the sender in the first place. If it does it is most likely to only feed what you are watching on the TV at the time. So if you both want to watch different channels you are stuffed.

At best you may be able to feed the output from the TV's tuner to the sender while you watch Sky via SCART. But then what happens if your son wants to change channel? Can't be done without disrupting what you are watching most likely.

As has been suggested above a completely separate Freeview box hooked up to the sender is probably the optimum solution if you really cannot run a coax lead into your son's room.

[Fudge]

Originally Posted by swhxd06

Thanx Fudge. Yes, it would be nice to give him Freeview, however, I would be happy to give him a decent signal from the main analogue terrestrial channels (BBC1 & 2; ITV; C4 & C5) for now.

Any suggestions?

The odd thing is that an indoor aerial won't give me a watchable analogue signal, it's all snow and ghosting and I had to move the aerial for each channel, even though four come from the same transmitter. The Freeview signal was clean enough to be stable and so provided a decent service.

I don't think anyone can give you any assurance about the performance of any indoor aerial, there are too many things inside a house to cause signal reflections, or block it all together.