Help me tune my indoor TV aerial!!!

[JazzFunk]

Can't get TV upstairs as the coax is connected to my old aerial and always was dodgy, anyway.

All I want to do is watch telly on my upstairs HDTV (which has built-in Freeview). I got a SilverCrest DVB-T indoor aerial from Lidl this afty and it's a right bastard to get my TV to recognise any digital channels (I have set the 'Source' to DTV, btw), I still haven't found a signal yet, though if I point it in certain areas, the channel search kind of lags for a bit (yet still shows I have no signal). It *does* pick up analogue channels as I switched to a standard TV search and got some crime show in cracklevision.

The aerial/receiver I'm using is exactly the same as this one on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SILVER-CREST-DVB-T-INDOOR-MAINS-AERIAL-/280649383659

I've been trying to tune using both the antennae and the ovular, rotating bit - do I need to use both to get a digital signal or just one or the other? Plus, how 'wide' is the field of reception - does it have to be pointed dead-on or more in just the region of?

As always, any help'd be greatly appreciated.

[SmokeMeAKipper]

My girlfriend has a portable in her room (1st floor) with just an indoor aerial and before the digital switchover she could get most digital channels okay. Since the switchover however she's really struggled and has to constantly move the aerial about to find channels and get them watchable. Sorry that's not very helpful but at least I feel your pain as I can never watch TV when we're in bed!

[koopatroopa90]

I have a poundland one in the bedroom and it really depends on the weather, if there are cars outside/things that can interfere with the signal and of course, where you have the ariel facing. I can often get every channel no problem though, it just depends on where you live and the signal strength etc etc. When I lived in Brighton and had piss-poor signal even from a main roof ariel I found this website which is quite useful - find your nearest transmitter and you should be able to work out its general direction and what channels you can give up on ever getting!

[NW2013]

Yes, as the others have said indoor aerials are generally rubbish. I had one when I lived with my parents and it was rubbish so bought one that was recommended on avforums and that wasn't much better. Don't know if there are any recent improvements. I have the same trouble as koopa in that you have to move it for different channels. Luckily this is just on the bedroom tv.

[JazzFunk]

Cheers for your replies, seems there is no real easy fix, bah!

Just wondering about the antennae and the difference between UHF and VHF. It's like, I can get a crackly but watchable *analogue* picture if I position the antennae, but am I supposed to be positioning the 'ring' thing in the centre to get a digital signal rather than the telescopic antennae???? Like, are the antennae for analogue and the 'ring' for digital? Or am I supposed to be positioning BOTH the 'ring' and the antennae in order to get a digi signal?????

(Apols for any confusion I may be causing here!)

[NW2013]

I don't really bother with the extendable antenna bits, just the main aerial bit.

[JazzFunk]

^Cheers, simply too many parameters to compute, will ditch the antennae!

Will fiddle about with it later on, just wish my TV had a 'roving' channel search, whereby I could just twiddle the aerial about and locate a signal, rather than adjust aerial>channel search>NO SIGNAL, adjust aerial>channel search>NO SIGNAL ad infinitum...

[NW2013]

Doesn't it have a signal strength/quality bar? That's a good thing about mine so you can 'search' for the signal.

[JazzFunk]

^It does, but it takes a full channel search to get any results. It doesn't seem to do it 'on the fly' and I always get 'no signal'/no signal strength after each channel scan, so I have to readjust the position and scan again. It's a whale of a grind and once you've farted around with it 20 or so times, it puts one off a bit.

PS: It's got a signal strengthening dial on it, I've got it set at max - could this be detrimental to getting a signal (maybe a stupid question but one worth asking anyway)??

[Oldgamingfart]

There's some test reports for indoor aerials available here (not sure how current the info is though). I used to find that if you could get a stable analogue signal over channels 1 to 4 (and maybe a bit of Channel 5), then you'd normally get a pretty good digital signal. Nowadays that's harder to do as a lot of areas are now digital only, or have analogue on reduced power before they pull the plug on it.

Naturally, if you can get some height on the aerial that usually helps a great deal. Maybe place it on top of a wardrobe or something.

I've often found the ugly old-fashioned type aerials perform a lot better than these modern fancy type ones. I currently use a Labgear with an in-line (mains powered) signal booster, and it's pretty good overall (even if it does look like crap). Used to get pin-sharp analogue on it back in the day...

[JazzFunk]

^Thanks for the info, OGF. Yeah, this is the third aerial I've tried (and seems to be the best quality, at least build-wise). Gone through a Clas Ohlson one (even analogue was ****e), a Poundland one (totally dead). At work, they use a bigger version of the one you linked to and - bar some occasional pixellation - it's spot on. In regards to placing it at a height, the RF lead is pretty short with this one, I'm probably looking to get hold of an extension lead.

Been on Fallout 3 this eve, so haven't had a chance to fiddle about with stuff, will report back in due course.

[paulus]

3 aerials! Well you might as well get one of these too?

http://reviews.argos.co.uk/1493-en_g...27/reviews.htm