Recommendation TV aerial (indoor)

[RubyToogood]

A friend has given me his old TV but no aerial. What sort of thing should I get? I suspect the signal may not be great as the living room is quite basementy but I can't see myself shelling out to install an outside aerial.

 

[cupid_stunt]

I suspect the signal may not be great as the living room is quite basementy/

That's not a good starting point, IME little indoor aerials are crap unless you live near to a mast transmitter, and ideally in 'line of sight', e.g. assuming you live in London, can you see the Crystal Place mast from where you live?

It certainly wouldn't work for me in Worthing, as the main transmitter is on the Isle of Wight, about 40 miles away.

but I can't see myself shelling out to install an outside aerial.

I am guessing you don't have a loft?

Although not ideal, I know decent loft aerials, i.e. the massive ones you see on roofs, but in the loft, work around here.

 

[Elpenor]

Use a Chromecast and solve the problem?

 

[RubyToogood]

That's not a good starting point, IME little indoor aerials are crap unless you live near to a mast transmitter, and ideally in 'line of sight', e.g. assuming you live in London, can you see the Crystal Place mast from where you live?

It certainly wouldn't work for me in Worthing, as the main transmitter is on the Isle of Wight, about 40 miles away.



I am guessing you don't have a loft?

Although not ideal, I know decent loft aerials, i.e. the massive ones you see on roofs, but in the loft, work around here.

It's worth a go I think. I just wondered if there was some kind of aerial that gives the signal an extra boost or something.

 

[platinumsage]

You don’t need a loft to have a roof aerial indoors, you can just buy an external ariel and put it by a window or external wall.

Assuming you're Crystal Palace the best you could get would be an XB16A:

Crystal Palace Transmitter – A.T.V. Poles, Brackets, Clamps & Aerials

www.aerialsandtv.com

 

[pesh]

i'm thinking this could be a little unwieldy to have in a flat pointing at the window, as it's a basement i'd probably get an external aerial or freesat dish installed or just go with streaming instead.

 

[TopCat]

I used to use a bent coat hangar

 

[Puddy_Tat]

you can get indoor aerials with an amplifier built in (you need to plug it in to the mains as well as the telly) and amplifiers to put between the aerial and telly (i have one here, as i'm fairly close to the bottom of a valley) but can be a bit trial and error.

may be worth seeing if you can get anything on freecycle / second hand, or alternatively find out if retailer will accept returns if it doesn't work for you.

with analogue, you'd get a fuzzy picture if reception / aerial wasn't great, but with digital, chances are it just won't see some / all channels. although you can sometimes get results if you do the setup thing with the telly somewhere with a better signal then move it to where you want it.

depends where you are in south london - at mum-tat's place (between catford and eltham, but on fairly high ground) you could just about get a signal on analogue telly without plugging even an indoor aerial in. she needed a slightly better indoor aerial when it went digital - i passed her on the one i'd been using that wasn't good enough (here) to pick up digital.

roof aerials will get the best signals, but loft aerials are less of a pain in the tail to install and less likely to fall down if it gets windy, but could be a pain in the tail if you don't have somewhere for the cable to go.

 

[editor]

Use a Chromecast and solve the problem?

Definitely the way to go IMO - RubyToogood - have you got decent wi-fi in the flat?

 

[cesare]

I used to use a bent coat hangar

Story of my childhood, whose turn was it to hold up the aerial and/or bent metal coat hanger.

 

[cesare]

My mum and dad had sky so we still now use the sky dish as an ariel even though we don't subscribe to sky.

 

[RubyToogood]

Definitely the way to go IMO - RubyToogood - have you got decent wi-fi in the flat?

I find it a bit sketchy watching Strictly on the laptop on a Saturday night, lots of pausing and buffering, so am hoping the TV will be an improvement.

 

[Biddlybee]

I've got an indoor one I don't use if you want to try it. It's quite old but did the job.

 

[editor]

I find it a bit sketchy watching Strictly on the laptop on a Saturday night, lots of pausing and buffering, so am hoping the TV will be an improvement.

Who supplies your broadband? You could probably get an improved router if you say you're unhappy with your coverage - or you could buy a cheapo repeater to boost the signal.

 

[RubyToogood]

I've got an indoor one I don't use if you want to try it. It's quite old but did the job.

Thanks very much. It's definitely worth a go.