Freeview reception

[RDPearson]

Hi all, I am looking for advice.

In my flat there is an aerial jack on the wall. I am not sure where it is connected to as I dont see an aerial on the outside of the buidling anywhere. I have a Philips DTR210 freeview receiver and also a USB receiver. Unfortunatelly I get such low signal strength that most of the channels are unwatchable. The problem I have is with both receivers so I doubt that it is a hardware problem.

I have tried using a signal booster. This works for some channels but stops some of the working ones. If I just have the aerial cable plugged into the receiver but not into the wall jack some channels improve but others get worse. It is very frustrating to have to change cabling around every time I want to change channels. It also fluctuates from day to day and even at different times of the day. So if I want to watch a channel it sometimes takes me 15-20 minutes to change cabling around and retune things. Even then I dont always get decent reception.

So I have 4 different combinations.
1. Receiver connected to wall jack.
2. Receiver connected to wall jack with booster
3. Cable in receiver but other end lying loose
4. Cable in receiver but other end connected to booster

Being in a flat I am not allowed to install a satelite dish so sky is out. I am not allowed to install an outside aerial either. My flat has no loft so I cant install one there. From what I have read internal "bunny ears" aerials are not worth it for freeview. I tried signing up with VM but their service has been so bad that I will be cancelling as soon as I can work up the patience for their automatic queueing system.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to improve my reception for freeview?

Thanks in advance.

[Chris]

Freeview reception is weak at the best of times and if you can't install an outdoor aerial, you're almost certainly stuffed.

Have you had a go at tracing the aerial socket to see where it goes? There must have been something on the other end of it once upon a time. Do you get decent analogue reception off it?

And are you sure your lease doesn't give you access to the loft space? There may be an aerial in there, or there may be a trailing end of the cable that you could attach an aerial to. Depending on your location, you may need a different aerial than would have been installed for analogue in order to get the best out of Freeview, so if there's a loft aerial it still wouldn't guarantee good Freeview reception. Changing it might help.

Overall however I'd say in your circumstances it's probably worth persisting with the worse-than-useless service you've had from VM so far. Cancelling it would be a bit like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Alternatively I guess you could try to persuade your landlord and the other tenants to go for Sky's 'Shared Dish' service: http://www.sky.com/portal/site/skyco...entid=10504703

[joglynne]

Boosting a poor signal will not make the signal stronger which is what you appear to need to do.

Can't promise that this will work for you but I have successfully used a similar amplified aerial to this
one and I now get Freeveiw. In my case reception of channels 1-4 was OK but channel 5 reception was non-existent.

If you were to get one from Argos they have a 30 day return and refund policy. which you could use if the amplifier doesn't improve your reception.

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by Chris T

Alternatively I guess you could try to persuade your landlord and the other tenants to go for Sky's 'Shared Dish' service: http://www.sky.com/portal/site/skyco...entid=10504703

Being a tenant is such a pain when it comes to this. We were told by our letting company that we were not allowed Sky under any circumstances but then when we actually checked the tenancy agreement we saw that we could as long as we repaired any damage after it was removed!

Always worth checking

[RDPearson]

Originally Posted by Chris T

Have you had a go at tracing the aerial socket to see where it goes? There must have been something on the other end of it once upon a time. Do you get decent analogue reception off it?

I have checked with my neighbour and they use analogue TV from their aerial jack so i assume there is an aerial somewhere but it is obviously not a proper freeview aerial. With most of the neighbours still using analogue TV I cant really get the aerial changed.

Originally Posted by Chris T

Overall however I'd say in your circumstances it's probably worth persisting with the worse-than-useless service you've had from VM so far. Cancelling it would be a bit like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Alternatively I guess you could try to persuade your landlord and the other tenants to go for Sky's 'Shared Dish' service: http://www.sky.com/portal/site/skyco...entid=10504703

Regarding the sat dish, the company that owns the block is not prepared to have any satelite dishes/aerials attached outside the building. Suppose I can try to calm down re VM and try again to get them to do something

Originally Posted by joglynne

Boosting a poor signal will not make the signal stronger which is what you appear to need to do.

Can't promise that this will work for you but I have successfully used a similar amplified aerial to this
one and I now get Freeveiw. In my case reception of channels 1-4 was OK but channel 5 reception was non-existent.

If you were to get one from Argos they have a 30 day return and refund policy. which you could use if the amplifier doesn't improve your reception.

Thanks for this info. If VM hasnt got their finger out by payday I will try one of these. I am in a very bad area signal wise though as I cannot even pick up any decent radio reception in my flat so I am not sure how well this aerial will work. Worth a try though.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by RDPearson

I have checked with my neighbour and they use analogue TV from their aerial jack so i assume there is an aerial somewhere but it is obviously not a proper freeview aerial. With most of the neighbours still using analogue TV I cant really get the aerial changed.

I'd check this with a reputable local aerial installer. Depending on your local circumstances, a wide-band aerial, which is what you need in order to receive freeview if your existing aerial isn't up to it, should continue to collect analogue signals without any undue interference.

Regarding the sat dish, the company that owns the block is not prepared to have any satelite dishes/aerials attached outside the building. Suppose I can try to calm down re VM and try again to get them to do something

Again, it's worth asking some specific questions. It's likely that they have forbidden this because they don't want the outside of their building littered with dishes, which is fair enough. But they may not even be aware that it's possible to get an entire building connected to Sky with only one single dish and all the wiring done free by Sky. Ask them, put it to them as something that could enhance the value of their building, you never know, they may go for it.

[RDPearson]

Originally Posted by Chris T

I'd check this with a reputable local aerial installer. Depending on your local circumstances, a wide-band aerial, which is what you need in order to receive freeview if your existing aerial isn't up to it, should continue to collect analogue signals without any undue interference.

Again, it's worth asking some specific questions. It's likely that they have forbidden this because they don't want the outside of their building littered with dishes, which is fair enough. But they may not even be aware that it's possible to get an entire building connected to Sky with only one single dish and all the wiring done free by Sky. Ask them, put it to them as something that could enhance the value of their building, you never know, they may go for it.

Thanks again Chris. I will have a chat to the owners about the above points.

[iain_herts]

u may find that ur block may be feed by underground cable from a near by block
this is very common in the area i am in. there could be a number of problems why u cant get freeview.

aerial could be old
headend(where all the amp's etc are located)could be blocking the signals very common on old systems
a broken cable from ur outlet plate to a splitter
aerial could even be faceing a transmitter that does not even have the digital signals

u will find that the ppl who u rent from have a duty to provide u access to ATLEST 1 means of being able to got digital.

i would get onto them and get them to do a survey on the system that is feeding ur block