tv changeover next year

[osie]

Hi All

I have a little old style tv(5 to be precise) attached to an amplifier which is then attached to a standard ariel.

Question:

What do I need to do to make it all work next year...

I spoke to a lady in mr bricolage and it appears all I need to do is change the ariel (30€) and add a receiver box (25€ 1 for each tv).

Others have mentioned that I need to change the tv, and others have suggested to use a dish.

On another note.. all 5 has suddenly stopped working in the last few days and I think the only answer is that some signal has changed and does not work with the old antennae.  There was a mention that I will need an antennae range of 0-69 which may not be the case of the old one.

Thanks in advance

osie

[poohettigrou]

If you are anywhere that has the signal from the Audrix (near Le Bugue) transmitter, it was down on Thursday & Friday. Should be all OK now.

As for going digital. You may only need the boxes, they are called TNT. Your aerial may well be OK.

You could buy a box, connect it to the aerial (and the TV!!!!). If it works then you will not need a new aerial.

This is obviously only for French TV.

[osie]

the conclusion is that it was the ariel... seems the old one is suddenly not compatible any more.. It may rectify itself but instead I have forked out the 40€ for a new one which will in anyway be needed next year.

[JohnM]

I hate to say it, but I think you have been done. There is no such thing as a "Digital Aerial". There are different aerials depending on what frequency range the transmissions are in (And "all purpose" for people who are close to the transmitter). There are aerials that "focus" the signal if you are a long way from the transmitter. But you do not need a special aerial. If the signal is strong enough you can pick up Digital TV signals on an old coat hanger.

[osie]

Hi

We had a guy fit the ariel and he said that the old one simply gave up... and the new one works... so all is good.

He did suggest that I should have bought a better ariel (not from mr bricolage) but  it works and he added something to it to make it more performant...

so all is good...

[Jako]

I use this: beer-can antenna.Works like a charm and costs ...nothing.

[pachapapa]

Personally I am sticking with analogue from Atlantic Bird until Oct/Nov 2010. Then the TNT will be increased in power. Hopefully a dipole paper clip apparatus will suffice.[:)]

[JohnM]

Oh well, if the aerial had seen batter days perhaps it was due for replacement. I worked with the analogue switch off in the west of england and was really annoyed by the number of aerial installers who were duping folk into getting new aerials that were not necessary. Hence my intervention.

[Martin963]

I have a lot of sympathy with JohnM's view.    It's likely that something "failed catastrophically" in the OP's installation   (connection finally severed,   amp blew up,   etc) which provoked the total loss of pictures.

As you've said,   a lot of traders are using the term "digital aerial" to mislead people into unnecessary upgrades.    In the main,  existing aerials in Britain are fine for digital reception when the switch-over is complete;   only a handful of the 51 main transmitters have been allocated channels post DSO that are outside their original 1961-allocated groupings.    Although it must be said that  in the dual-running period (ie 1998 - 2012) some grouped aerials needed replacement with wideband if viewers couldn't wait for full switch-over.

And indeed,   many very ropey installations which produce poor analogue pictures work absolutely fine for digital once the full post-DSO power is achieved.    As witness our neighbours in Devon who I advised to sit tight until Caradon Hill attained full power last August  (100 kW erp) and whose ropey installation now produces faultless digital reception.

The important thing is that the OP is now up and running....