Indoor digital TV Aerial recommendation!

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Hi,

hopefully this is in the right section?

can anyone recommend a good quality indoor digital TV Aerial?

I’m needing one for a spare room and access from the main Aerial isn’t easy so my main option is to fit another Aerial on the outdoor of my house and run a feed though the room the the TV.

this isn’t an issue to do although if I can get something easier that doesn’t involve bolting an aerial on the side of my house I’d prefer that!

thanks for reading!
 
I'd love to be able to point you towards one of the amplified aerials that are sold by the likes of Argos and Amazon. The truth is though that none of them are that good.

When you read the reviews you'll often find they're very mixed. Some find they work just fine. Others say they're a waste of time. It's not so much the aerials that cause such polarised reviews, it's the local signal strength and whether the window of the room faces the local transmitter.

To work out if your intended room faces the local transmitter, simply look which way the aerials are pointing on the houses around yours.

Local signal strength is harder to gauge. There are online predictors, but they aren't that accurate. For example, I get way more signal than predicted thanks to the relatively flat land around the town. I did a job a half mile away where the signal is blocked by trees. The predictor isn't smart enough to have that level of local detail. Maybe try your main TV's signal meter. If you're getting 80+% on signal quality, and at least 60% for strength then the signal level might be okay.

There's one more consideration; it's aerial polarisation. It looks like this: https://www.aerialsandtv.com/_wp_generated/wpb769e083_01_1a.jpg
The top aerial in the picture is horizontally polarised. The lower one is vertically polarised.

Whichever aerial you use, it not-only has to be pointing in the correct direction, but it also needs to be polarised the right way to suit whatever is coming off the local TV transmitter. Once again, a quick look at your aerial and those of your neighbours will confirm which way you need your indoor aerial aligned. If it doesn't match then the signal quality will suck.

Powered indoor aerials all have the same handicap. They're small, so that means there's not much metal to do the job of picking up the signal. This means there's not much signal strength or quality coming off the aerial to start with, so they throw massive amounts of amplification at it. This just turns a low power dirty signal in to a high power dirty signal. It does nothing for quality.

Your best bet for decent reception is to use a small outdoor aerial inside. A mini log periodic is just the thing. These are about 1ft long and flat, so easier to hide in some circumstances. It will produce a stronger and higher quality signal than the antenna part of an amplified aerial, and that may well be enough on its own to get decent reception. If you need to, you can always add an amplifier to it.


If this or any other reply was helpful to you, then please do the decent thing and click the T-H-A-N-K-S button. It appears when you hover the mouse pointer near the Quote Multi-quote buttons. This is the proper way to show your thanks for the time and help someone gave you.
 
Thanks for this, we live near trees and is very rural where we are so I think an outdoor aerial is what we need.

Given that I’m going for an outdoor one can you recommend a good compact one?
 
For something compact then you need to be looking at Log Periodic aerials.

The mini-log-periodics have less metal than the full size versions so pull in a bit lower signal strength. They're generally around 40cm long. The full-sized versions are still relatively short compared to decent quality conventional aerials. A full-sized Log is around 130cm in length.

What's handy to know about Logs is they have very low wind loading compared to conventional aerials. This makes them great for exposed areas. It helps reduce some of the stresses on the mast and bracket.


If this or any other reply was helpful to you, then please do the decent thing and click the T-H-A-N-K-S button. It appears when you hover the mouse pointer near the Quote Multi-quote buttons. This is the proper way to show your thanks for the time and help someone gave you.
 
can anyone recommend a good quality indoor digital TV Aerial?

I’m needing one for a spare room and access from the main Aerial isn’t easy so my main option is to fit another Aerial on the outdoor of my house and run a feed though the room the the TV.
Thanks for this, we live near trees and is very rural where we are so I think an outdoor aerial is what we need.

Why is it that you consider installing a new aerial would be easier than installing a splitter or amplified splitter from the existing aerial?
 
If you can receive WiFi in that room and the tv has a HDMI socket, why not get an Amazon fire stick while they are on a Black Friday special right now - £20. You can get the main channels on it plus you can download tv now on it to get Freeview. https://firestickappstips.com/uktvnow-for-firestick/

Y
ou can also download a kodi build too.
 
Thanks for this, we live near trees and is very rural where we are so I think an outdoor aerial is what we need.

Given that I’m going for an outdoor one can you recommend a good compact one?

That is impossible without knowing your location and the location and power of the nearest transmitter. You really need to speak to a local aerial installer.

You could get an idea by looking at your neighbours aerials.
 
If you've got decent sized trees then a good aerial on the chimney is the best bet unfortunately.
 
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