Regular TV not close to aerial socket
Discussion
Hoping someone can help here. We have a rooftop aerial that gets a good signal into the main outlet in one room. From there it seems wired to another couple of outlets, one in a bedroom upstairs which isn't used and one in the lounge where we want the good TV signal. Problem is, between the main outlet and the one in the lounge the signal is tempramental and currently struggling to get anything. My best explanation would be that the coax cable between the main and the lounge must be damaged / broken somewhere.
We've got an external manhatten freeview box plugged into a 10 yo plasma that has HDMI inputs - aerial into box, HDMI out to tv. This gives us regular TV and recording etc. When it works, its fine, all we need and want really. Streaming stuff from the freeview box is there (iplayer / ITV hub etc) but if I'm honest, its a total faff to keep searching across these just to find something to watch. There's a huge amount to be said about the simplicity of a regular channel list just on freeview you can go and watch traditional channels in real time.
Having just spent a fortune decorating, i'm reluctant to now go chasing around to find the coax fault. It's bound to involve drilling holes and chasing walls in an old house with stone walls etc. What I really want is something that plugs into the main aerial socket and can transmit the regular aerial signal to a receiver that could plug into the freeview box in the lounge as if it were the regular aerial. I've found nothing that seems to do this simple thing.
Alternatively, how can I get regular freeview that can be fed through to the freeview box via the internet? We've tried two internal aerials but the main TV is basically in the centre of an old stone house so getting a signal means trailing wires into another room to pace the internal aerial to get a signal.
Any ideas anyone? It seems anything is possible with on demand streaming, but to get bog standard regular real time freeview channels without having to run a coax to the back of the box or TV is proving challenging.
We've got an external manhatten freeview box plugged into a 10 yo plasma that has HDMI inputs - aerial into box, HDMI out to tv. This gives us regular TV and recording etc. When it works, its fine, all we need and want really. Streaming stuff from the freeview box is there (iplayer / ITV hub etc) but if I'm honest, its a total faff to keep searching across these just to find something to watch. There's a huge amount to be said about the simplicity of a regular channel list just on freeview you can go and watch traditional channels in real time.
Having just spent a fortune decorating, i'm reluctant to now go chasing around to find the coax fault. It's bound to involve drilling holes and chasing walls in an old house with stone walls etc. What I really want is something that plugs into the main aerial socket and can transmit the regular aerial signal to a receiver that could plug into the freeview box in the lounge as if it were the regular aerial. I've found nothing that seems to do this simple thing.
Alternatively, how can I get regular freeview that can be fed through to the freeview box via the internet? We've tried two internal aerials but the main TV is basically in the centre of an old stone house so getting a signal means trailing wires into another room to pace the internal aerial to get a signal.
Any ideas anyone? It seems anything is possible with on demand streaming, but to get bog standard regular real time freeview channels without having to run a coax to the back of the box or TV is proving challenging.
What normally / often happens is that the main aerial is actually wired to a room outlet. Next to that outlet is a second outlet that is the 'return' that feeds the amplifier in the loft. Then the amplifer is fed to various rooms. That's so (in the old days!) you could feed the aerial into your VHS video, and the output of the VHS video into the return so you could watch terrestial or the video in the various rooms. Could that be how yours is connected? And if so, is the feed into the room actually looped back to feed the amplifer correctly?
How does the signal get from the first outlet to the cable running into the lounge & the bedroom? Is there some sort of splitter or amplifier?
To answer your other questions there' no easy way to "transmit" the Freeview signal & you can't pick up all the channels & EPG via the internet - although many are available via the catch up services (I agree the menu system isn't good though).
To answer your other questions there' no easy way to "transmit" the Freeview signal & you can't pick up all the channels & EPG via the internet - although many are available via the catch up services (I agree the menu system isn't good though).
Cheers. The 'main' socket is a double one; one gets better TV signals than the other so I assumed this meant one was biased to TV, the other to FM? Next to that is a single socket that receives no signal. When it is working there was a booster in-between (main aerial in, one out to a TV in that room, one out looped back to the single socket). My assumption was that the single socket is the one that 'connects' through to the other rooms.
To confuse things further, the aerial socket in the lounge is also a double. Again, I've assumed one was an FM bias, one a TV bias but I've only ever used the one that works better for the TV signal.
I'll have to have another look in the loft but never noticed a box up there, just the aerial cable through the roof and down behind the insulation presumably to the main socket.
In my simple world given everything thats possible these days I thought that a simple wireless booster that 're-transmits' the coax signal to another receiver in the house in replacement of a coax cable must be the most basic thing someone has resolved, given its radio signals anyway. Clearly not. Unfortunately getting any wires to the tv in the lounge (Sky / cable / Coax) is a real headache as its not on an external wall, but central in the house with solid walls on all sides.
All this on-demand stuff is all very well, but there seems multiple ways of getting the same or similar content, each wanting some log-in or another. Bring back the good old days of 5 channels, watching live or recording it for later. Just that in HD would be perfect 90% of the time!
To confuse things further, the aerial socket in the lounge is also a double. Again, I've assumed one was an FM bias, one a TV bias but I've only ever used the one that works better for the TV signal.
I'll have to have another look in the loft but never noticed a box up there, just the aerial cable through the roof and down behind the insulation presumably to the main socket.
In my simple world given everything thats possible these days I thought that a simple wireless booster that 're-transmits' the coax signal to another receiver in the house in replacement of a coax cable must be the most basic thing someone has resolved, given its radio signals anyway. Clearly not. Unfortunately getting any wires to the tv in the lounge (Sky / cable / Coax) is a real headache as its not on an external wall, but central in the house with solid walls on all sides.
All this on-demand stuff is all very well, but there seems multiple ways of getting the same or similar content, each wanting some log-in or another. Bring back the good old days of 5 channels, watching live or recording it for later. Just that in HD would be perfect 90% of the time!
Edited by biggles330d on Saturday 19th December 12:03
It will be a mast head amplifier and the power box is missing. It plugs into one of the aerial sockets and transmits a low voltage signal back up the aerial cable. This then powers the amplifier which in turn makes the signal good in all the rooms.
Easy to fix, just buy a power box from screwfix. I believe they are all the same.
https://www.screwfix.com/p/labgear-screened-masthe...
Easy to fix, just buy a power box from screwfix. I believe they are all the same.
https://www.screwfix.com/p/labgear-screened-masthe...
Plug the freeview box into the good coax socket then send the hdmi to the tv
https://www.amazon.co.uk/HDTV-Anywhere-extender-lo...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/HDTV-Anywhere-extender-lo...
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