Portable Television Aerials

[Shovel]

Hi all,

My housemate has been having crap reception on his tele for months now, so I'm toying with the idea of getting him a fairly reasonable portable aerial jobby. Only needs to recieve Channels 1-5 really, though I guess if it's freeview capable that might be nice for the future.

I don't really know how much to expect to spend on something that's of decent enough quality, so any advice on the matter is very welcome.

Thanks,

Ben

 

[Tom]

Probably better to buy a high gain antenna, and stick it in the loft, pointing roughly in the direction of the transmitter.

 

[Clown]

Why don't you let him watch your TV?

 

[Damini]

You can get freeview boxes for just under £50 now.

 

[oblimov]

most portable aerials are pretty piss poor tbh, your best bet is to get up to the loft and stick in a good ol normal aerial. you can get one of these for like a tenner and its gonna last the pace

whereas a decent portable one would probably cost 50+ and even then it wont be as superior as the roof one

 

[Clown]

I thought you needed good aerial reception for freeview to work though?

 

[Damini]

If it can pick up a signal, it tends to be a lot better than the picture an aerial would pick up, but if it can't pick up a signal then its next to useless. Our reception was lousy, but getting freeview meant the picture was a lot better - unless it rained, at which stage it was unwatchable.

 

[dr_jo]

Ben's in rented accomodation, and living with some of his work colleagues. So it needs to be a good portable one that he can give to his friend, who can take it away with him when they all go back to uni next year.
They have cable tv in the living room, but this friend has a tv in his room as well.

 

[nath]

Usually you can split off a cable from the main cable tv box (not the set top, but the wall mounted bit) and use that for the standard 1-5 (and some tv's can get a bit more, itv2 and the like). That's what I did to get tv reception in my room last year when I was at uni.

 

[Shovel]

Hey guys: Thanks for all the suggestions regarding using a 'proper' arial and splitting things off and so forth. It's much appreciated, but sadly really wont work for this

I do need a portable jobby, and I would guess we can spend around £25 (it's become "we" as he's in on it now and I'm just helping find something ).