Do tv / Aerial signal boosters actually increase reception?

Question

Got a loft aerial wit one cable leading into my bedroom.

Ive then got a 2way splitter attached, one cable leading into the other room which is attached to a tv while the other is attached to a single booster which is then led into my freeview box.

Would it be better to buy a '4way' booster, plug the aerial into that and then plug each tv in through the box?

Would i get better reception ??

Answer 1

All i would suggest is don't skimp on the cost, if you get a cheap one then you will still have problems!

Answer 2

You'll get best reception from having an aerial for each TV. If your reception is marginal, as it sounds as if it is, you will hit a splitting maximum. It's usually a split to two TVs and no more. A booster has a finite minimum signal that it can boost and it won't work if the signal is too weak. Also, boosters only work well on analogue signals, only marginally boosting digital signals.

I would suggest getting one aerial per TV and placing them at least one metre apart from each other in your loft. Do not combine the signals but just wire to each TV individually.

Answer 3

Whether it is an antenna or cable you loose signal going through a splitter.  The BEST thing to do is have plenty of signal before the splitter.

So put a booster (amp) before the splitter or get an amplified signal splitter.

If your signal is low and you amplify it you are only amplifying the noise.

Answer 4

I have done that in the past and it worked for me,Good luck

Answer 5

the aerial boosters / loftbox units amplify your existing signal from the aerial and split it equally between the different outputs. Because the aerial is mounted on the loft, the analogue reception is never going to be great as the signal gets reflected by the roof tiles, but provided you have a extra high gain aerial (48 element +) and a good quality booster you should be ok. Always feed TVs independently from a booster instead of splitters since these attenuate the signal and cheap plastic ones completely "kill" the signal. Try a good quality booster that has variable gain control and connect each TV directly to it (better to be adjustable since too much boost will give ripple "waves" running across the TV). that's your best option, even if the signal doesn't look perfect, a freeview box will work OK.

Answer 6

Digital television signals are transmitted in a complex form whereby anything up to six channels are carried in the same "bandwidth" as a single analogue tv channel. This system is called multiplexing and is how the broadcasters can get 50 odd channels on conventional terrestrial transmitters.

Each Multiplex (of up to 6 channels) is electronically complex. If you look at the transmitted waveform on a suitable monitor you'll see a complex waveform. The electronics in the Freeview box are capable of deciphering and separating this lot.



Therefore it is not just brute signal strength that matters; the Quality of the signal is also important.  A tv tuner will not be able to decipher a signal which is garbled or corrupted in any way regardless of how strong it is. This sort of corruption is why sometimes a whole collection of channels will be unreceiveable - they are in the same corrupted multiplex.

Aerial booster amplifiers only boost the signal strength. They can't improve the Quality. That is, the type of external interference which would cause ghosting on an analogue picture will destroy a digital one.

Therefore, I really wouldn't waste my time or money on one. If you have a weak signal the best solution is to get a better aerial.

The arangement that you describe is particularly bad because the splitter will affect the "Impedance" of the aerial system as seen by the receivers and also the "Load" of the system as seen by the aerial itself. This means that there may be tendency for ghosting and certainly there will be a weak signal appearing at the tv and booster inputs. It only needs some weather or other phenomenon to affect the off-air signal at the aerial and both tv sets will suffer.

If you already have a good aerial and signal then a good multi-way splitter-amplifier (from B&Q perhaps) will enable you to share your aerial safely and efficiently between tv sets. Don't get any more 'ways' than you need. "Unloaded" outputs will affect the overall performance of the unit.

Consider that for not much more money than the cost of a good quality splitter/amp you could install a separate aerial for each telly. You would also eliminate a potential source of failure (the booster packing up) and saving the electricity running cost. These days that sort of thing (only a few watts!) could be significant over a year or so.