Freeview TV Signal Booster

[squidgster]

I asked a question a whle ago about the slightly dodgy picture on my fairly new Samsung TV (with built in freeview). Buenchico suggested a "simple, cheap signal booster" should fix the problem. I have just got round to looking to buy one, but a quick Google and search on Amazon brought up a range of different types some 2-way, 3-way, 4-way etc. I'm confused as to what I actually need?

Thanks!

Original question.... http://www.theanswerb...l/Question843426.html

[ChuckFickens]

How many TV's do you want to plug into it?

[squidgster]

Where does it go? It's only the one TV (we have four in the house) that seems to have a slight problem at times with signal.

I don't know if it makes any difference, but the main aerial point is in the living room - we have a little grey box plugged into that point, with one cable that connects to the TV in the living room, and one cable that goes up to a connector box in the attic that then connects to the other three TV sockets in the house.

[Buenchico]

If you've only got one TV you only need a 1-way booster:

http://www.amazon.co....id=1267573147&sr=1-11

or

http://www.amazon.co....id=1267573147&sr=1-15

(My preference would be for the one in the second link there. It's got a maximum gain of 20db - which is reasonably high - whereas there's no gain figure stated for the first one).

You simply plug the unit into any convenient power socket and then plug your aerial into the 'input'. You'll also need a 'fly lead' (which is just a short length of aerial cable with a plug at either end) to connect between the unit's output and your TV. Almost every 'pound' shop in the country (and most branches of Tesco) sell them, as does Amazon:
http://www.amazon.co....qid=1267573730&sr=1-1

If you'd rather buy a signal booster on the High Street, try Tesco Extra or Asda. (Maplin Electronics sell them but they charge £14.99).

Chris

[squidgster]

Fantastic, just the answer I was after - thank you very much Chris!

[Old_Geezer]

I've tended to have mixed results with signal boosters, in the past. They're ok if the problem is a small signal, but if the problem is a poor S/N ratio then you end up boosting both the signal and the noise together for little real benefit.

My suspicion is that it is best to put any signal booster as near to the aerial as possible.