Freeview woes: portable aerial
 

I have recently bought a Freeview set-top box for the old portable analogue CRT telly in our upstairs bedroom. I set it up with the old plug-in aerial, but could only get a couple of channels, which didn't altogether surprise me. I then plugged in a new Philips 38db amplified portable aerial, which I expected would solve the problem. This gets me loads of channels, but none of them will receive correctly for any length of time (i.e. they will all pixelate/freeze every few seconds), no matter how I position the new aerial. In fact reception varies dramatically during any given day and from channel to channel from NO SIGNAL to a perfect image & sound.

What is likely to be the problem? I also have Freeview via the main chimney-mounted household antenna and set-top box in the living room and that works OK at least 95% of the time. I also have a (currently unused) satellite dish mounted up there from the previous owners, so should I be looking at Freesat?

I don't want any pay TV packages like Sky etc. and am trying to avoid having to put in new wiring if I can avoid it.

Otherwise it will be more of the Big Switch Off for me rather than the Big Switch Over when the time comes.

You need a good quality rooftop ariel by the sounds of it. Indoor ariels are rubbish and the amplified ones can actually be worse.

Unfortunately amplifying the signal works okay for analogue as your TV will be fairly good at filtering out a lot of the noise.

For digital receivers, not so good, the amplifier will just amplify everything, signal and noise, it's the noise bit you don't want :( In fact all amplifiers will add a bit of their own noise to the signal to a lesser or greater degree thus worsening the situation.

Either get a distribution system that is marked as being suitable for digital for your existing aerial. Though the existing aerial doesn't sound great. Or get a second aerial mounted on the existing pole under the main one for your bedroom telly.

Luckily in my house there is power in the loft, the main aerial feed comes in and gets split four ways through a powered distribution box and fed to the lounge and two of our bedrooms leaving one slot spare. Works really well.

OK thanks guys. I think I'll take the amplified aerial back for a refund then and look into a more reliable system.

if you have the dish on the roof you may as well get freesat box, many more channels than freewiew + I think HD feeds

If you are using an amp, you need to ensure that it is suitable for digital transmissions. Having very little knowledge on this, we went into our local TV shop and received their advice. The portable digital TV + amped aerial works great for my aunt.

So, for at least some people, it is possible that they work.

However you are receiving the signal, it just does not sound strong enough.

Les