Old School Antenna and Digital TV

[Warwick_Tech]

Hi All,

 

When our building was built they installed a hefty 3 aerial cables that fed into a box of pure terror (capacitors and cables with no shielding)

 

Over time I've removed said box as it was not required; however now we need a digital TV feed for a few rooms downstairs.

 

I've re-plugged in the aerials, but they still get very poor reception.

 

I assume this is because of the length of the rum (maybe 150M+)

 

Anyone have any recommendations of antenna boosters that work? I've yet to find one that lives up to expectations.

 

Regards,

[Zammo]

How interesting! I haven't seen a school using an actual TV signal for years!

 

(sorry, I can't help!)

[Andy2789]

I know this is a 10 year old guide, but this is what we did to overcome this issue (worked wondered when it was the Euro's!) - Just thinking if this helps reducing the 150M run you have putting this closer to the source (antenna)

 

https://angrytechnician.wordpress.com/2010/07/23/how-to-stream-every-channel-from-freeview-onto-your-network/

 

We had a dedicated server (old PC doing it) - We even upgraded the PC so we know the guide is still relevant.

 

We just put a series of links on a shared area for each channel.

 

Hopefully this may help?

[DrBeaker]

I know this is a 10 year old guide, but this is what we did to overcome this issue (worked wondered when it was the Euro's!) - Just thinking if this helps reducing the 150M run you have putting this closer to the source (antenna)

 

https://angrytechnician.wordpress.com/2010/07/23/how-to-stream-every-channel-from-freeview-onto-your-network/

 

We had a dedicated server (old PC doing it) - We even upgraded the PC so we know the guide is still relevant.

 

We just put a series of links on a shared area for each channel.

 

Hopefully this may help?

 

This is a project I'd like to try at ours sometime. How did you find it at yours? Pros/Cons?

[Andy2789]

One of my techs wanted a 'project' of their own so I gave them this, we already had an old PC setup doing similar. So I got them to go through the process from start to finish to give them some development.

Pros:- Amazing for Network Traffic, again going back to Euro's when all schools were screaming or stealing the bandwidth to stream off the BBC. We used this server, we tested it before on over 90 machines at once - works perfectly every time- Once it is setup, it just works

- Low budget once you have the kit

 

Cons:

- Because the guide is slightly out of date finding a copy of linux that played nice was a challenge

- Be aware of proxy's we had to take it home download what was needed and come back again

- Occasionally needs re-tuning which is a pain! (e.g. new channels added, ones removed)

[DrBeaker]

I did buy a Freeview card off eBay to try something like this but not had chance this summer to even look at it due to other projects.

[p858snake]

I've re-plugged in the aerials, but they still get very poor reception.

 

Has the antenna shifted position? any of it broken from birds etc sitting on it? as that can effect that

 

Did it ever get good reception?

[Andrew_C]

Another standard 'gotcha' on aerials is a split in the insulation allowing the cavities to fill with water.

 

Hang on - on a re-read of the OP... Your box of 'capacitors' might have been the power supply for an amplifier. The amp should be up near the aerial, power fed into the system indoors.

 

Amp goes high in the system so you are amplifying a clean signal, rather than signal + induced noise.

Edited August 16, 2020 by Andrew_C

[Warwick_Tech]

Hi All,

 

An update - I got one TV working at 25% signal, but the other two are still broken;

 

I'm going to try and plug in a cheap portable aerial and hide it in the ceiling to see if I can get a better picture.

 

In all this excitement I'm pleased to get BBC news 24 in our new parents waiting area!