All posts by Dave Lindsay
Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
John Slater: There is a diagram on this page which says that all aerial/dish inputs are only fed to the "Living Room" output and that they are not connected to the "Room" outputs.
I gather that you have two coax cables between your loft and living room.
If you are using a Sky box, then there is no need for a splitter as they have two RF outputs.
If you are not using a Sky box, then, where your aerial comes directly into your living room, you can use a splitter to feed the living room TV and the LoftBox. At the LoftBox, the other end of that cable should be connected to the "TV Ant" input.
Then link the "Living Room" output to the "UHF2" input. This is so as to provide DAB and FM (as well as TV) from all "Room" outputs.
If you fed the cable from the living room into "UHF2", then you would only have TV signals at your "Room" outputs (which is what the first paragraph of my response says).
If you require FM and DAB in your living room, then you will have to utilise the other cable between your loft and living room, connecting it to a "Room" output.
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John Slater: Sorry, didn't provide the links.
There is a diagram part way down this page:
http://www.letsautomate.c….cfm
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ian thomas: No, there isn't likely to be more channels available from "Lite" transmitters. This is because those that don't broadcast from Mynydd Machen (the Commercial or "COM" broadcasters) operate on a commercial/profit making basis only and have no Public Service obligation.
The COMs achieve 90% coverage of the population by transmitting from 81 of the largest transmitters (largest by viewer population). The cost to broadcast from the other 1,000 or so small relay sites is roughly equal to that which they already pay. As their objective is to show advertising to as many viewers as possible which they aquire at lowest possible cost, it is easy to see why they don't bother with the small transmitters.
However, it would appear that your area may be served by Mendip which does broadcast the full complement of channels. Streetview shows a number of aerials in your road on Mendip.
This will obviously give you BBC One West and ITV1 West regional programming. It will also give you Channel 4 HD, instead of S4C Clirlun.
If regional programming is important to you, then you could retain your current aerial, either keeping it separate or combining it (with a diplexer) to the Mendip one so as to give you channels from both transmitters on the one downlead.
I understand that the BT Vision box does not have manual tuning, so it could be a bit tricky getting it tuned in to the desired transmitter.
I'm not a professional, but I have read that some recording devices don't fair well when working with more than one transmitter. They have issues with automatic recording.
If you decide to go down the two-aerials diplexed route, then the worst scenario is that you use them separately. That is, your BT Vision (or other recording box) is tuned exclusively to Mendip and you have a set-top box receiver solely for local programming.
See this page for the six Freeview multiplexes, each of which is carried on a single signal:
DMOL Post-DSO Multiplex Channel Allocations
Those with a bullet in the columns "W"/Wales and "E"/England apply for the respective transmitter.
Mynydd Machen carries PSBs only, whereas Mendip carries PSBs and COMs.
The Sky Sports services that are available as part of the BT Vision package are carried on COM6.
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ian thomas: A variation on this is to have another aerial (on Mendip) installed, complete with another downlead to your living room. This will obviously give you two aerial points by your TV.
WIth that, you could either use each aerial separately (e.g. one feeding into one box and another feeding another), or combine them using a diplexer situated in your living room.
If the diplexer is on the roof, then it's not as easy to change.
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John Snowden: Perhaps the problem is a Group B aerial which needs replacing. See this posting I made on this point in relation to the Sudbury transmitter:
Freeview reception - all about aerials | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice
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John Snowden: Also see above postings. It "may" be that Sudbury is not in its final state and therefore it might be worth waiting a little longer before replacing the aerial.
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malcolm: Your biggest issue will be finding some summer to enjoy your summer house.
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Brian Norris: See:
Belmont TV Transmitter
A look on Streetview at your post code (photo taken April 2009) shows quite a few aerials on Emley Moor. I'd estimate maybe a 40/60 split in favour of Emley.
Number 73 appears to have a log. These are native widebands and have a flatter gain curve than yagis. See:
Aerials, TV Aerial and Digital Aerial
I suppose that this particular aerial was fitted to pick up analogue Channel 5 and/or pre-switchover digital which were lower power than the digital signals now. With that in mind, it would seem logical conclude that such an aerial will be sufficient now.
It might be a Log 40. Maybe a DM Log will work. I am 40 miles away from Belmont, to the north east of Doncaster. I have a DM Log in the loft pointing at Emley Moor. Before I installed it I tuned to C22 and C25 and got a healthy mid-80% signal strength on my Sony RDR-HXD870 when pointing the aerial out the first floor window in the direction of Belmont.
Before you do this, it might be worth checking that there isn't water in the cable or joins. Check that the cable hasn't chafed on tiles, for example.
If you do replace the cable, then it is probably best to use copper foil double-screened cable (e.g. WF100):
Satellite, Television, FM, DAB, Aerial, Coaxial Cable, Plugs, Sockets, Connectors & Leads
Obviously get someone to do it who has the proper tools, ladders and knowledge to work safely at heights.
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Saturday 7 July 2012 8:41PM
John Slater: You can view HD at each location using a Freeview HD box at each location.
You can't view HD in a bedroom, for example, that is coming from a box situated in the lounge.
So if you wanted to watch HD in the bedroom, you could do so with either a Freeview HD box and HD TV or a TV with in-built Freeview HD tuner.