Secondary TV in a bedroom.

[Benchwayze]

Google doesn't seem to understand what I am looking for.
My TV at the moment whilst fully digital, is connected to an aerial.
I want a 26" flat screen TV that is DVD compatible in the spare bedroom.
(Sick of being banished to my PC corner and iplayer, so I can watch what I want to watch. )

Well not all the time! But when we do need separate viewing, it would be nice to have decent sized picture!
So:


a) Do I need a new aerial for a second TV?
b) Can I buy some kind of 'splitter' to share the existing aerial?
c) Can I buy 'indoor' separate aerials for digital reception?

Thanks in Anticipation.

 

[Blister]

I would go for option no 1

New aerial , when its fitted they should point it in the direction of the digital transmitter and use a meter to get it spot on for best reception

 

[Dibs-h]

Given it's a digital aerial - I'd be tempted to fit a splitter and see how you get on.

You could just split the end and test both TV's side by side and see if there are any issues. Considering a splitter is a quid or 2 - got to be worth a punt?

HIH

Dibs

 

[jasonB]

If you are getting a good signal from your existing aerial then just get a splitter box and possibly a booster, got one aerial in our house that feeds 10 outlets.

J

 

[whiskywill]

I live in an area with poor digital reception but I receive every channel, that those who know say I should, with a powered indoor aerial.
A bit like this one. http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/p ... 352090.htm

 

[nev]

a) Do I need a new aerial for a second TV?
b) Can I buy some kind of 'splitter' to share the existing aerial?
c) Can I buy 'indoor' separate aerials for digital reception?

Thanks in Anticipation.

a. probably not
b. yes
c. yes

as mentioned , if you have a medium to strong signal you can split it. you can do this in the attic and drop a aerial cable into each room or, if you just want to feed one other tv, you can take it from the back of your existing tv.
one of these or preferably these will do the trick, (1 in, 2 out)
if you have a weak signal then you can get an amplifier/ distributor, which as the name suggests amplifies the aerial signal and then distributes it evenly between 2, 4, 6, 8 or more dependent on how many rooms you want to feed. this is usuall located in the attic and will require a 240v socket to work.
Indoor aerials are a bit hit and miss and usually only work if you have a strong signal IME.

unplug aerial lead from tv.
plug that into the 'in' on the splitter .
then connect one of the outs to one tv and the other to the other. simples!

these may help and are widely available.
http://www.philex.com/catalogue/category/?id=1065
http://www.philex.com/assets/downloads/ ... 1_2_ol.pdf

 

[Racers]

Hi, Benchwayze

You need a good signal for digital analogue TVs where much more sensitive, so a splitter isn't the way to go. I have a amp in the loft feeding all the TV’s in my house and I was getting problems with some channels it was because I had a join in the cable, made with proper plugs, but it was enough to cause problems so a ran a new continuous cable up through the house and it solved every thing. You need at least 50% signal to receve digital with the picture breaking up in to blocks etc, a resistive splitter will reduce the signal and probably cause you problems.
Amp or second aerial is the best thing.
Do you have a Sky box? They have a second output that you can run another TV from, and watch what channel its set to, that’s what we do.

Pete

 

[RogerS]

It depends a lot on where you live relative to the transmitter and also the sensitivity of your receiver. I needed to replace the hard disk drive in our Humax 9200 today. Took it all apart and replaced the drive. My wife was recording something else on her machine at the time and I didn't want to break the aerial feed (we loop through from Freeview box to recorder to recorder etc. But I thought that I could at least fire it up to check it would boot up etc.

It worked fine but now comes the interesting bit. I started watching TV on it. Ok...it was a teensy-weensy bit blocky and I thought that maybe with all the rain, the transmitter might have suffered. Completely forgetting that I'd not got an aerial lead plugged in. Just the leakage from the coax connectors floating near the aerial socket was good enough !

 

[devonwoody]

I am running three flat screen digitals , 40, 26, 22 of off one aerial with splitter, a loft aerial and lots of cable.

good reception.

 

[Benchwayze]

Thanks folks,

There is a lot of useful stuff to go at there. Thank you all for taking the time to respond. It is appreciated.

I am a bit rickety to go crawling around in the roof space, so if I need to do that, it will have to be No. One Son again!
At the moment I am using the same aerial that I used for analogue reception. It's acceptable, except for the occasional blip of what I call 'glass-block' wall appearance. But that never lasts for longer than a second or so. I usually moan about stepping back to the infancy of television and it's attendant problems, and 'suck-it-up'! I suppose' up with this, I must put!

I think I might settle for an indoor aerial though, because it sounds the most conwenient; as Sam Weller would have said!

Thanks again folks.

 

[RogerS]

John, somewhere in the menu system on your Freeview box/digital TV will be something labelled Signal Quality or similar. Have a look at that and see what you get for the channels that you usually watch. You may also get a measure for signal strength but that is less important than quality. Quality needs to be as high as possible.

Often you may find that your aerial is OK but the downlead cable is not suitable for digital.

 

[Mike.C]

If you are getting a good signal from your existing aerial then just get a splitter box and possibly a booster, got one aerial in our house that feeds 10 outlets.

J

Ditto with the booster

Cheers

Mike

 

[dickm]

Huh. With two outside aerials, each amplified, we just about get a decent signal most of the time on two separate sets..........
And we are only about 30 miles from the Durris repeater, with only small hills in between. Suspect the people who now run the transmitters reckon there's not enough people up here for it to be worth spending money on putting out a strong signal.

Cable? Don't be silly.....