Freeview No More

[mostlymase]

Hi guys,
I'm not sure whether anyone can help me but I'm having trouble picking up any reception whatsoever in my flat through my TV with built in Freeview.
I've bought a Digitop amplified high performance indoor aerial 27770R and plugged it into my Toshiba 32 WLT 66 but it is literally not picking up anything.
I'm a bit puzzled as I live in EC1, London, and would have thought there should be half decent reception at least.
Can anyone suggest what might be going wrong or any aerial that might do the job.
Hope you can help.
Cheers

[Chris]

Hi Mostlymase ... when you say you've bought a Digitop aerial, does that mean you have just bought it, or have you had it a while? Have you ever managed to pick up Freeview with the Digitop aerial or has it never worked?

[mostlymase]

Yeah I've just bought it - I hooked it up to test it out and it found about 7 random Freeview channels but now I've moved it to the place I was planning on keeping it, it can't find anything.
I checked product reviews and it seemed to be rated quite highly but despite me moving the aerial about it cannot find any channel at all - most frustrating.
Not sure if you have any advice?

[Chris]

I do have some advice - take it back to the shop. ;)

But before you do that: have you a different, older aerial you can try, to confirm that it's just the new aerial that's giving you duff reception?

[mostlymase]

That's the thing I don't

I'm just doubtful whether any indoor aerial is going to work - I'm beginning to suspect I'm in a reception dead zone

[Chris]

Well, you can get some good technical data on what you need in order to receive Freeview properly at your home address by using the reception predictor located here:

http://www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/tvd.exe

Put your postcode into that and see what it tells you. It's helpful if you already know the name of your local transmitter and what direction it is from your house - that will enable you to spot it quickly from the list of transmitters shown in the results.

The result for your transmitter will tell you how far away it is (in miles), what its transmit power is and it will also state what sort of aerial you need. If you can run your postcode through the checker and then post back with the results, we can advise you further. :)

[mostlymase]

Crikey I'm not sure what to make of it all - I typed in my grid reference from multimap (TQ312827) and it came up with quite a few numbers and letters I couldn't make head nor tail of.
Seems to be an Amplified extra hi-gain or set-top box being recommended but I thought the aerial I had should fit that bill?

[Graham M]

Not a chance unless you are in a high signal area i'm afraid

[mostlymase]

Rats - so is there anything I can get to pick up reception?

[Chris]

Crikey I'm not sure what to make of it all - I typed in my grid reference from multimap (TQ312827) and it came up with quite a few numbers and letters I couldn't make head nor tail of.
Seems to be an Amplified extra hi-gain or set-top box being recommended but I thought the aerial I had should fit that bill?

You need a set-top aerial if you're pointing it at Crystal Palace, or an Amplified Extra High Gain if you're pointing at Reigate. You have a set-top aerial so you need to use Crystal Palace. And that should be that - it should work just fine. However that predictor can't allow for any very local factors that might be messing up your reception. Are there any tall buildings right in your line of sight, or are you trying to point the aerial inwards through your house?

[mostlymase]

yeah this could be the problem because we are central-ish London so there could well be skyscrapers in between - in addition to the aerial pointing through the house.
Are there any super high performance aerials around at all?

[Chris]

It sounds like you have already bought a super-high-performance aerial, but there does come a point where you just have to accept the laws of physics are conspiring against you and buy one for your roof instead. Or is that impossible in your case?

[Matth]

Try lining up the aerial on analog, it doesn't always give perfect aim for the digital, but unless the channels are already set, you cannot hunt for digital using a digital tuner.

[mostlymase]

We're in a flat block - so not great on the external aerial front.
As for lining it up on analogue - I'm not even sure how I'd do that.
My Toshiba has built in freeview and I've only ever been auto tuning with this set up. Not sure what I'd do with a custom attempt.

[Matth]

Presumably the TV still has analog tuning (Some have a seperate antenna socket for it).

Plug the antenna in for analog, and execute an analog tuning setup with the antennap pointed in more or less the right direction.

If it gets anything, then hunt with aiming and position for best signal, then transfer to the digital socket and try digital setup.

If it gets anything, then try to get a running strength/quality display up and try to re-aim for best, or just twiddle to minimize freezes and sound squeaks.