One of the only downsides I’ve found so far about the new flat, is that the TV signal is total toss. We’ve spent evening after evening tweaking it, poking it, moving it, extending the pointy metal bits, turning it up and down (it’s got a booster thing) and it’s still buggered.
We have a satellite dish on the side of the house. It’s had the box thingy disconnected so it’s no good as a sky dish but I was wondering if there was any way to hijack the coax and use it as an external aerial in its own right.
Any of my older/more technically minded readers got any suggestions?
22 Feb at 9:43 pm
I say give up telly!;-)
22 Feb at 9:55 pm
You can still use that dish to get Freesat and get pretty much all the channels you would get on Freeview, just buy a box and away you go.
22 Feb at 10:02 pm
it’s only half a dish – the dish bit is there, but the central LNB is missing.
22 Feb at 10:09 pm
Ahh I see, well if the worst comes to the worst I guess you could try and put another one on, but it’s a bit of a faff. Freeview is shockingly bad here. Until 2011 comes along and they wack the transmitters up to full, then I guess we’ll just have to put up with it.
23 Feb at 3:02 am
I have the same problem at my place. Oddly, if I turn all of my computers off (laptop and PC) there is much better signal (it doesn’t seem to work at all with the computers on) — this might work for you. Failing that, I find attaching extra bits of metal to the aerial sometimes works, and draping wire from the aerial to the radiator might also work. I’m not really sure why, these are just the mad things I’ve tried that seemed to have had a benefit.
23 Feb at 3:19 am
This is probably not what you want to hear but I’m going to say it anyway: throw that TV out the window. I haven’t had one in years and I’m doing very well thank you – probably much much better than if I did have one.
23 Feb at 7:49 am
mm.. I say give up! =P I’m just kidding. maybe you should call A TV Expert (if there is such a person) =P I don’t know…
23 Feb at 8:05 am
Take random length of coax….place one end in Karl’s ear and make him stand in the corner….place other end in back of telly and Bingo! instant good picture and you’ve tidyed up too hehe :)
23 Feb at 1:26 pm
Ohw… no TV? Well thank goodness you have all those other things on your lists to do :P
JK, hope things will work soon again.
23 Feb at 5:52 pm
I’d go for giving up TV too, but you are British, so you get the BBC! Unfortunately, I am clueless and have no other help for you.
Our TV in Montreal was also crap because we were very close to the TV stations, and thus to their transmitters.
23 Feb at 8:18 pm
Television poisons ones mind!! Of course cartoons don’t count.. which is what I watch.. :P Anyway, I can’t suggest anything because I don’t know what goes on in your part of the world.. I know here we are all getting TV digitally now so no more rabbit ears. :(
23 Feb at 10:22 pm
@ Mimi – You still need the "rabbit ears" to pick up the signal if you don’t have an outside satellite or iron hanger…heh and then a "converter" box to convert it to the TV.
I’m wondering if this is a world wide thing? If it were, I would suggest to you, Jem, that getting this box might be in the best interest. Once you have it, you only have to tweak your antenna just a bit to get a reception and you get twice the amount of channels you would with normal analog.
The only down side…the box is about $40 – $50 USD (convert that for me?) but there is a website that can give you a $40 dollar rebate typed thing….not sure how it is in the UK though…
Would be useful if it were world-wide. >_>
23 Feb at 10:26 pm
@Roxanne, I thought the digital conversion was only for the US. If it was worldwide I’m sure Jem would have already been prepared for the switch over.
I’m not really technically savvy so I don’t have any advice :3
23 Feb at 10:28 pm
The UK are having a big digital switchover doohickey too. Except, our digital freeview signal is worse than our analogue jobbywhatsit. There’s just no hope!
23 Feb at 11:31 pm
I could give you a few suggestions jem but of course, none are legal.
24 Feb at 10:50 am
I hope you get it fixed. I wouldn’t know how to, other than trying to move the dish to another location if that were possible. I know that if you have it on the wrong side of the house or something here, you get such a bad signal that staring at a wall is even more fun!
26 Feb at 11:38 pm
I dunno how useful this’ll be, but maybe see if your apartment complex offers cable/satellite in the rent? I don’t know how it is in the UK, but here in the US (at least in my state), even the trashy complexes usually offer at least basic cable for free, and most half-decent ones will give you digital cable and internet included in the rent. :/
You could also be sketch and illegally steal cable from a neighbor, but yeah. :/
Do people really use OTA TV that much in the UK still?
03 Mar at 10:11 pm
Get Sky – it’s pretty cheap and you get a good picture most of the time (it’s crap when it snows). I think I might have had an introduce a friend thingy with free installation not long ago if you want it.
03 Mar at 10:16 pm
Frosty, they only get mains electricity 8 hours a day and every third Friday the phones go off while they sacrifice a tourist to the wicker man. Cable isn’t available their side of the river.
03 Mar at 10:21 pm
You’re a cheeky monkey Mr P. :P
Sky is 16.50 a month! I don’t watch enough tv to justify that.
04 Mar at 9:31 pm
Cheeky? Moi? Things are getting so bad that they blew up the chip shop because it used magic to turn potatoes into chips. ;)
Stop being a tight-arse, you don’t know what you’re missing.
04 Mar at 9:37 pm
Blame Karl. He’s tightwad ways have rubbed off on me.
21 Mar at 1:30 am
Sometime a piece of cable will help you can impove on this method, by attaching a large piece of aluminin foil to the cable, make sure its connected to the cable.
21 Mar at 3:36 am
We also lost all reception to TV we had, despite a converter box. Netflix we’ll depend on.