by ericmark »
Sat Jun 06, 2015 1:12 pm
There are a host of options including some wire less ones. It is a case of cost vs effort required.
All cable attenuates signal so the aim is to keep cables short at least before and amplifier is used. For one aerial supplying multi-rooms the normal way is to use a mast head amplifier so one cable has both signal and power the rest just signal my mother was forever complaining when my dad switched off the power supply in his room.
I have a booster (amplifier) in the loft and the LNB feeds the satellite box which feeds one TV direct and sends a signal to loft and booster which in turn supplies a signal to every room.
Since freeview is forever re-turning and is a real PITA I no longer use terrestrial TV. One advantage of getting a signal from a satellite is it comes to earth at quite an angle. So the idea of having an aerial on the roof is not required with satellite in some cases I have seen a dish on a one foot pole in the garden. Go around any caravan site and many have their dish on the ground as on the caravan they shake with the van.
My house has a small lower roof for the ground floor as upstairs is smaller and I have dish discreetly looking over this lower roof section. Low enough only to require step ladders to assess.
Of course they look South so may be no good for you but Lidi and Aldi do free to air kits every round again for around £60.
Note:-
Free to air is a satellite system where you get all the free channels around 100 useful ones 250 or so in all but your lucky to get now and next electronic program guide. It is very cheap.
Freesat is similar to above but also has a 7 day electronic program guide. Often a one off payment is required for a card to get the program guide.
Sky is as above but also a load of encrypted stations.
There is also HD with all the options.
With a old Sky box you can't hide the channels you can't get, but with a free to air box you can normally hide or delete or never find channels you can't watch. Never had Freesat so don't know how that works.
With Sky and Freesat you can look in the TV papers and it tells you the channel number so 110 with Sky is always UK Gold. But with Free to air channels are set by you. This can be an advantage I would set BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4, then ITV1, ITV1+1, ITV2 etc. But not so good if using a paper guide.
Yesterday is now about the only channel you get free with freeview and pay for with satellite. Programs like ITV3+1 with satellite work nearly 24/7 but with freeview the +1 only works as certain times of the day.
Rather than drill holes in the ceiling I would be looking at satellite first it of course may not be suitable may be a north facing room and no access front to back.
To extend a cable for freeview it may need amplifying first. There are hundreds of wireless options I did a google for "video wireless transmitter and receiver" and there are so many. But in the main they tend to be low quality.
If like me you site 6 foot from a 32" TV then likely they will all be good enough. If like my daughter you have a 70" TV and sit 3 foot away then you need some HD link.
My TV will work with a loop aerial in the window. Only used to watch Yesterday and for me no problem. However from the upstairs window at night I can see the transmitter lights 15 miles away.
So much depends on where you live and what you watch. I watch Films-for-men a lot and would not really miss not having Sky+ but my wife wants to watch Universal with programs like game of thrones. We have a Sky HD box but only BBC can be watched in HD. Daughter has a freesat box and can actually get more programs than we can in HD. She can also watch Turkish TV which to be frank I am not interested in.
Many interested in sports I know have a dish for German TV.
Anyway hope that's given some pointers.
