What to use internal or external TV aerial?

[geek84]

Good Morning Folks

I hope you're all well.

I wanted a bit of advice. I have a TV point in the wall of my living room and wish to have another TV point in the dining room, so that when I eventually get a second TV I can use the external tv aerial. What's the best way of doing this? Or do you think I should just buy an internal aerial for my 2nd tv?

Thanks

[Tony1963]

I’d advise employing the services of a local tv aerial installer. It’ll be a standard job for him. He’ll probably want to run a second cable on an external wall to the appropriate point then drill a hole through to where the tv will be.

[geek84]

Thanks Tony

I persume you wouldnt recommend an internal aerial?

Thanks

[Tony1963]

geek84 said:

Thanks Tony

I persume you wouldnt recommend an internal aerial?

Thanks

Nobody recommends them if an external is an option.

[Mr Pointy]

Internal aerials rarely work. Depending on your aerial & the distance to the transmitter you might get away with something a simple as a splitter:
https://www.aerialsandtv.com/product/splitter-inte...

If your signal is a bit marginal then an amplifer might be needed as well - some of them can be powered from the TV set or HD recorder:
https://www.aerialsandtv.com/product/mast-head-amp...

The dificult bit is usually the cable run into the new room.

[Radec]

I've got an external aerial mounted inside the loft, works just as good as if it was outside the house.

I just pointed it in the same direction as all the other aerials in the street.

Used a cheap splitter to get the signal in different rooms.

Might be another option if you have good reception and can hide the cable well.

[Mr Pointy]

I think the OP meant something like this:



I doubt he'd want a 10 element Yagi in the dining room.

[gizlaroc]

Wow, do people still use TV aerials?

I have not had one since Sky digital launched, which was what, 1998?

Now don't even really need Sky as everything is through apps, and so much better quality than over the air TV was picture wise. There was only a few channels in HD the last time I looked 15 years or so ago though.

Is every TV channel through aerial now HD or are some still SD?

[Mr Pointy]

gizlaroc said:

Wow, do people still use TV aerials?

I have not had one since Sky digital launched, which was what, 1998?

Now don't even really need Sky as everything is through apps, and so much better quality than over the air TV was picture wise. There was only a few channels in HD the last time I looked 15 years or so ago though.

Is every TV channel through aerial now HD or are some still SD?

Don't be so supercilious. The majority of viewers still use an aerial.

[wiggy001]

Mr Pointy said:

gizlaroc said:

Wow, do people still use TV aerials?

I have not had one since Sky digital launched, which was what, 1998?

Now don't even really need Sky as everything is through apps, and so much better quality than over the air TV was picture wise. There was only a few channels in HD the last time I looked 15 years or so ago though.

Is every TV channel through aerial now HD or are some still SD?

Don't be so supercilious. The majority of viewers still use an aerial.

I agree, however I would question whether something to turn the tv into a smart tv (fire stick or similar) assuming it’s not already internet connect would be a better option?

Indoor vs outdoor aerial really depends on your signal. My dad used to live so close to Crystal Palace that he didn’t even need an indoor aerial!

[gizlaroc]

Mr Pointy said:

Don't be so supercilious. The majority of viewers still use an aerial.

Do they??

I doubt that very much.

[gizlaroc]

Just checked, it seems that it has flitted between 56 and 46% between 2010-2019.

So may not be the majority any more? Close I guess.

I am genuinely surprised it is that high to be honest.

That is folk that have an aerial, not who have it as their main source though. So yeah, 50% sounds right, especially as spare rooms, bedrooms etc.



Sky, Cable, Netflix, iPlayer, All4, Prime, AppleTV, NowTV, UKtv, Disney+, BTtv, and the big one...YouTube, which probably accounts for the majority of my viewing these days.




Sky HD was 15 years ago now, and the move away from CRT displays, meant that regular digital TV just looked really soft at best on plasmas and LCDs. Back then there was only the BBC channels, Channel 4, 5 and a couple of others that showed HD, in fact not even sure if HD launched HD at the same time.

And HD came quicker on streaming services than over the air, which sort of made over the air redundant.

We had HD Laserdisc arrive in the mid 90s and then it took till 2003 when D-Theater arrived to get more of it, it seemed like years before we got HD TV. It was such a game changer, we had displays and a few films to watch, but now HD TV was out there, well, there was no going back.



Penetration of digital TV via aerial or Freeview in Great Britain from 3rd quarter 2010 to 3rd quarter 2019





11.3 million households with 'terrestrial only' as their only TV service.

8.4 million households with Sky.


Terrestrial only: the subset of terrestrial households that do not have access to either cable or satellite reception. This includes most BT TV, TalkTalk TV and YouView homes.

Edited by gizlaroc on Saturday 3rd April 20:05

[anonymous-user]

Radec said:

I've got an external aerial mounted inside the loft, works just as good as if it was outside the house.

Same for me. Excellent SD and HD reception.

[megaphone]

gizlaroc said:

Just checked, it seems that it has flitted between 56 and 46% between 2010-2019.

So may not be the majority any more? Close I guess.

I am genuinely surprised it is that high to be honest.

That is folk that have an aerial, not who have it as their main source though. So yeah, 50% sounds right, especially as spare rooms, bedrooms etc.



Sky, Cable, Netflix, iPlayer, All4, Prime, AppleTV, NowTV, UKtv, Disney+, BTtv, and the big one...YouTube, which probably accounts for the majority of my viewing these days.




Sky HD was 15 years ago now, and the move away from CRT displays, meant that regular digital TV just looked really soft at best on plasmas and LCDs. Back then there was only the BBC channels, Channel 4, 5 and a couple of others that showed HD, in fact not even sure if HD launched HD at the same time.

And HD came quicker on streaming services than over the air, which sort of made over the air redundant.

We had HD Laserdisc arrive in the mid 90s and then it took till 2003 when D-Theater arrived to get more of it, it seemed like years before we got HD TV. It was such a game changer, we had displays and a few films to watch, but now HD TV was out there, well, there was no going back.



Penetration of digital TV via aerial or Freeview in Great Britain from 3rd quarter 2010 to 3rd quarter 2019





11.3 million households with 'terrestrial only' as their only TV service.

8.4 million households with Sky.


Terrestrial only: the subset of terrestrial households that do not have access to either cable or satellite reception. This includes most BT TV, TalkTalk TV and YouView homes.

Edited by gizlaroc on Saturday 3rd April 20:05

Wow that's a lot of research you did to prove you where wrong.

[Tony1963]

megaphone said:

Wow that's a lot of research you did to prove you where wrong.

Where?

[gizlaroc]

megaphone said:

Wow that's a lot of research you did to prove you where wrong.

I wasn't trying to prove anything.

As said, I was genuinely surprised that "The majority of viewers still use an aerial." as hardly anyone I know use one anymore, and certainly wouldn't consider fitting one now for a TV in another room.

I guess I was taken back by being called "supercilious" and genuinely interested in whether the majority do still get their TV via an aerial.


I posted up the figures showing that, yeah, many still do.
11 million are terrestrial households that do not have access to either cable or satellite reception.

Now whether that means they means they get their TV from an aerial it is not clear, but I think that means they have only the freeview services coming in.





I have a couple of Sony TVs with Youview built in, problem is I can't try it out as you need an aerial to get it started, which I don't have. But I am sure it is pretty good, I wanted to know if you scrolled back to a show and chose to watch it if you were given the HD stream of SD still. I couldn't find out?



But For me, an Amazon Firestick for £25 with TVplayer for regular TV using a guide and all the TV streaming services you could ever want, and a whole lot more you wouldn't want, makes far more sense than an Aerial.


For me, watching TV at a set time, adverts, making sure you don't miss the start seems ridiculous, with the exception of live sports. Everything we watched was recorded anyway, and has been for the last 20 years. (Had to double check that, it was 20 years ago when Sky+ arrived, and I think Tivo was before that? can't remember.)

We now don't even have to record anything, it is all there ready to watch, whatever has been on TV just sat there.....ready. Pretty cool.


That is why I genuinely found it quite interesting that someone was asking about TV aerials. Even most of the TV boxes, that were PVRs, now all seem to be a box that srapes the show from the streaming services and streams it for you.
It is basically a firestick, apple TV, Roku in a more traditional looking set top box style bit of hardware.


I don't see why everyone seemed to take it personally?

[anonymous-user]

As I stated above, I’ve got an aerial in the loft for Freeview but I would guess 80-90% of my TV viewing is via streaming services of some kind.

Can you actually watch all the Freeview services via some online service - is that what YouView does?

[Mark V GTD]

I use Sky Plus on my main living room TV. But had an aerial fitted inside the roof void in order to provide a signal to the TV co-ax outlets I have in a couple of other rooms. I wouldn't want to add Sky boxes to those points but the aerial is a good way to make them functional in my view without any subscription service. I will likely also add a Bluray/DVD player to one of those additional TV's.