Freeview set-top box with indoor arial (UK)

[oops, spelt aerial wrong in the title]

Hi

I think this is just about on-topic as it is a technology question. :)

Anyway, I'm thinking about getting a Freeview set-top box to use on my portable TV, upstairs. The main problem is that I'm going to have to use an indoor aerial for this - there's no chance of hooking it up to a roof-top aerial.

I've done a couple of location checks on websites and I'm apparently in a fairly good signal area - I'm ~20 miles from two transmitters.

1: Is this a bad idea from the start? As with most things on the Interweb, I'm reading contradictory advice. Some say it's perfectly possible, some say forget it.

2: Does the make/price/model of the set-top box affect how well they work, very much? I'm actually limited to getting the box and aerial from Maplin, due to receiving a £40 gift token. :P
Maplin link: http://www.maplin.co.uk/search.aspx?MenuNo=11745&MenuName=Freeview+Set+Top+Boxes&worldid=-9&FromMenu=y&doy=19m12

3: Can you recommend a good indoor Aerial? Strangely, I've read that a certain £10 aerial from Argos gets the best results. I'd love to hear from someone that's actually tried using a set-top box with an indoor aerial, though.

All advice welcome. Thanks.

Slightly off at a tangent here but what about FreeSat?

At currys £69 including installation, no contract, probably better signal, more channels.

Does that basically get the same free channels as a set-top box, except it uses a sat dish?

Interesting, although installing a dish isn't really an option, either. I also don't have spare cash to spend on this, just the £40 Maplin voucher. I'm kinda hoping to get Freeview on the cheap - they sell a box for under £20. Looks pretty cheap/nasty, though. :P

Thanks for the info, anyway.

i got a usb tv stick which i never use cos the aerial [not the thin jobbie that came with it] even with powered signal booster sucks ... i can only watch so many channels with it facing one way and others facing the other

and heres the kicker
i have to retune to get a signal if i swap its positon to try and get one of the other directions

edit:
in all honesty the aerial is ok its the usb hard/software that sucks as im sure portable aerial repositioning will be with us even in the digital age

my mums old place had a built in antenia [sp] that did the whole block ... but with the selling off of tv signals to mobile phones this was killed and her portable aerial sufficed unless the cats sat too near it ... atleast if it did need a redirection it didnt need a retune

i dont miss tv much though
i OD on tv box sets and 5 for £30 virgin dvd sales

big10p, get a signal booster attach it to your indoor aerial. we use one in the bedroom and receive all freeview channels.


http://www.beststuff.co.uk/aerial_amplifiers.htm

It's hard to say. If you're in a good area and ( this is important ) you can put the aerial near a window which faces towards the mast, you should get excellent signal quality. Being upstairs is generally a help. As an example, I can get a 97% quality signal from an indoor aerial in my bedroom, and we're in a bad signal area ( can't get terrestrial channel 5 at all. ) But the mast is due south of us and I had it in a south-facing window. When I tried the same aerial and box in the back of the house ( East-facing and downstairs ) it dropped to a signal which was so poor, it didn't hold a channel. It's very dependant upon the right circumstances. Upstairs is definitely a big help though.


It won't affect the signal, but some boxes have pretty poor usability and crappy EPG's.


I bought a £15 one ( EDIT: Ouch, they've gone up to £20 since last Xmas ) from Argos, and the signal was indeed excellent ( 97% as I mentioned above. )

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5343243/Trail/searchtext%3EINDOOR+AERIAL.htm

Don't know if you can get the same one from Maplins or not.

EDIT: Apparently Maplins do sell this one, and for the same price.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=27476&doy=19m12

A set top aerial (un-amplified yagi) works fine with the DVB-T PC card in our bedroom and they usually have lower sensitivity (or so I've been told) than set top boxes.

I'm ~16km from the transmitter and on high ground though.

I use an indoor aerial but it doesn't seem to be very good, when it works its great but it picks up a LOT of interference...phones etc.

maybe i should look for my usb stick (huppage i think) and try the amp on the looks like a mini car aerial with its spiral base and all that came with it ... probably just as sucky

Some interesting experiences and tips - thanks all.

Putting the aerial near the window is a possibility - I'd have to use a coaxial extension, though. However, it seems like my window doesn't face the transmitter, according to Google Maps.

I guess I'm just going to have to try it to see if it works OK as there seems to be so many factors that affect reception.

I'll dig up this thread again and report back - just in case anyone's interested how things go. :)

[edit] Oh, one more thing: these aerials/boosters with 'gain' specified in dB - the higher the dB the better, right? I'm not totally sure what gain is, TBH. :/

I use an indoor arial and it works pretty good. I get most channels once I found a good position for it (on my sash window ledge). But as someone else said it does suffer sometimes from interference (mobile phones and trees blowing in the wind!), but its good enough for me (I don't watch TV that often).

Also, I tried a few arials. Most were rubbish, but this one works best:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=46229&doy=20m12

[EDIT: wierdly the same arial signal to my DVB-T usb stick only gets a few channels, so I suspect the freeview box/stick might be a factor as well.]

Beaker, did you try this one?
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?TabID=1&ModuleNo=115127&doy=20m12
It's the one I went for, in the end - mainly because it has quite a high variable gain compared to others, and it claims to have signal filtering technology that boosts the signal, but not the noise.

And, this if the set-top box I got:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?TabID=1&ModuleNo=96872&doy=20m12

I'm actually pleased with the set-top box, considering it's the cheapest Maplin sell (£17.99) - you even get a scart lead with it. The only thing that worried me was the very nasty looking remote (look at the zoomed image of it on the maplin site). The good news is that they've changed the design. The new remote is alot less cheap looking.

As for the aerial, I've still yet to fully make my mind up about it, TBH. Things didn't start well when I first plugged it in and couldn't even get a slight signal with the booster turned off, despite my TV loop aerial being able to pick up at least a few channels! Things didn't get any better when I turned the booster on and dialed it up... almost reached max setting now and still nothing. Not a jot of a signal! :/ However, as soon as I maxed out the booster setting, things suddenly flashed into life.
I was getting a pretty strong signal (~95%) on most of the main Freeview channels but simply couldn't get Channel 4 or Channel 5. After quite a bit of messing about with the aerial position, I'm now getting C4 and C5 pretty strong, along with pretty much ALL the other available channels! \o/

I'm going to roadtest the aerial for a couple of days before I decide whether to keep it or not because it seems to chop and change with how well it works... or, maybe it's just taken me a while to find a sweet spot. <crosses fingers>

The booster dial is definately weird, tho - it's like an on/off switch. Just a tad below max and you get no signal whatsoever.

freeview channels take an age to navigate to even with a signal booster. Currys freeview satelite seems the faster option..... I'm still a Sky minimum package mug, but then again the latest BSG series pre quel screened this week on Sky one - well worth the subscription package.

Freeview takes a second or 2 to change channels cos its buffered.

Its instant on mine if I use the channel up/down buttons.

If I press "2" it doesn't change for two seconds. Reason being, its waiting to see if I'm trying to get to channel 28 or whatever.

What models of freeview have you both got ? My question is becuase I have an elsderley relative who has a sub standard version of freeview and I wouldn't mind treating him to something as good as smilertoo or GfK, cheers!

My Sky is screwed up, constantly breaks up. I'll have to borow someone else's box to see if it's my dish or box, sigh...

BP, what's BSG? I'm just using Sky for freeview at the moment (used to have a big package with SkyPlus but stopped it 2 years ago to save money (like £40 per month) wow so I've saved £1000! I'm getting temped to sign up again though...

BSG is Battle Star Gallactica, fantastic SCI FI drama. Think my package is 22 quid a month, get our mileage out of the childrens channels, docu channels (in desperation) and... BSG is the best SCI FI drama going. On your Rx being screwed it is probably moistur ingress to your LNB thats broken it.

Am still interested in a reliable freeview box advice.

Ah I've heard about damp LNBs, could be it with the crappy weather we've been having plus the dish is quite old.

Saw the BSG trailer movies ages ago and they seemed OK (I'm a big fan of the original). Heard good things about the series. My kids just watch the free kids channels, CBeebies and CBBC and also Pop and TinyPop which have WAAAYA too many loud adverts that are making my kids think everything they are selling is cool. Actually some of them are about loans and car insuranace etc. It's pretty horrible but they keep finding the channel themselves. Maybe I can block it...

I actually stopped sky, but an evil work colleague taped the first few episodes of BSG for me, lent me the vid and I re subscribed. Good TV.

big10p - I tried a very similar one by the same manufacturer (an older version/style maybe?) and it wasn't that good TBH.

Looked like this one:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=27476&doy=21m12

As you said, having the dial anything less than max didn't seem to work much at all.

Yeah, I don't think any of the One-for-all aerials are considered much cop, really. Mine'll do but I'm itching to try the Telecam one from Argos that many seem to think does the best job. I think it won the Which? magazine comparison review but I can't read the review on their website as payment is required. :/