I'm lost. All of our bedrooms are capable of recieving a Freeview transmission, however I've been told about having to get Digital Aerials for the digital switchover.
What's the difference between the analogue aerial and digital aerial? More importantly, do people who can already recieve Freeview, need one?
No such thing as a digital aerial. There is such a thing as a wideband one, which might be required where the digital signals are outside the band used by analogue transmissions.
RE No such thing as a digital aerial - well yes and no. There are certain types of aerial you will need to pick up digital signals - for example you couldn't just use the piece of coathanger wire you get with your portable TV. We got ours from Argos.
Setup I have at home:
Living Room: One wideband aerial in attic for analogue reception, goes into video, RF'd (and video signal is also SCARTed) into TV. One portable One4All digitally capable aerial perched on the windowsill, serving digital decoder, SCARTed into DVD recorder, which in turn is SCARTed into the TV.
Bedroom: One Telcam digital capable aerial into digital decoder, SCARTed and RF'ed into TV. Runs on 2xAA batteries, although some other aerials plug in.
I'm lost. All of our bedrooms are capable of recieving a Freeview transmission, however I've been told about having to get Digital Aerials for the digital switchover.
What's the difference between the analogue aerial and digital aerial? More importantly, do people who can already recieve Freeview, need one?
Thanks
If you can already receive Freeview then you need do nothing.
Some people need to change their aerials as in some parts of the country the Freeview signal is (a) weaker and (b) transmitted on channels which are "out of group" - that is to say they are on frequencies far away from the analogue channels.
As a result, an aerial which works perfectly well at picking up analogue TV
may
not work well for digital as it was optimised for picking up the frequencies the analogue channels were on.
At the point of digital switchover the power of the digital signals will be significantly increased and in many cases the digital multiplexes will be moved into the same frequency group as the analogue channels were in. This will mean most people should not need new aerials... though I suspect confusion will arise as many Freeview boxes will need a re-scan at the point of switchover.
RE No such thing as a digital aerial - well yes and no. There are certain types of aerial you will need to pick up digital signals - for example you couldn't just use the piece of coathanger wire you get with your portable TV.
There's no reason why not if the signal strength is high enough - just like with analogue TV.
Then why do Argos sell aerials as "Digital Capable" or "Not Digital Capable"?
Because Argos is rubbish.
The technical detail in the Argos catalogue is shockingly bad.
Have a look at pages 864 and 865 of the current catalogue.
Each aerial has two boxes to tell us whether it's suitable for "Digital" or "Freeview". Some appear to be suitable for "Digital" but not "Freeview". Others are suitable for "Freeview" but not "Digital".
Then why do Argos sell aerials as "Digital Capable" or "Not Digital Capable"?
Because Argos is rubbish.
The technical detail in the Argos catalogue is shockingly bad.
Have a look at pages 864 and 865 of the current catalogue.
Each aerial has two boxes to tell us whether it's suitable for "Digital" or "Freeview". Some appear to be suitable for "Digital" but not "Freeview". Others are suitable for "Freeview" but not "Digital".
Glad they're not confusing people.
Theres nothing wrong with the areials from Argos, I use the £30 indoor aeriel and I have no problem with my signal
If either of you had bothered to read my post properly I think you'll find I was criticising Argos the company, not the products they are selling.
Perhaps you'd like to explain to me the difference between the tick boxes "Freeview" and "Digital" that Argos like to use to "help" people buy aerials.
I'm looking to upgrade my indoor aerial, I currently use the Tesco Technika amplified aerial with an adjustable control, you can still get them for about £20. They're okay, I have no trouble whatsover with getting the 2nd BBC MUX and NGW MUXes, but it's hopeless on the BBC MUX and I can pick up things here and there on the ITV/C4 and SDN MUXes. I have been looking round and I've been interested in the most expensive One For All one you can get in Currys Digital and a special Philips one they sell in Asda. Can anyone give me any recommendations? Or stick with what I have...