Saorview with very small antenna?

Trogdor

Hi guys,

Just a question here about this:
http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320498773576&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT#ht_5602wt_905

I have one and it receives dtt from three rock crystal clear for my laptop here when i'm in the right side of my house.

What i'm wondering is for my grandparents house which is in greystones (they are <500m from the greystones transmitter) would they be able to use this to bring in saorview to their tv? They have an mpeg4 enabled tv, i'm just wondering if i were to find some sort of converter/splice to a coax? for the small cable coming out of the antenna would this work to receive saorview signal into the tv?

Thanks for any help in advance!

Trevord

Yes you can get a connection converter for about €1.50 on ebay and the like(Search for mcx coaxial adaptor) but it may not a great solution for a TV as these small aerials are only well suited to areas with a strong signal.

€1.50 is not much of an investment so you could try it, but don't be disappointed if it doesn't work well.

Do your grandparents have an external aerial? If not and if you must use an indoor aerial, then you need one that can pick up UHF. See for example http://www.mpeg4ireland.com/saorview-dtt-on-a-pc

Trogdor

Trevord wrote: »

Yes you can get a connection converter for about €1.50 on ebay and the like(Search for mcx coaxial adaptor) but it may not a great solution for a TV as these small aerials are only well suited to areas with a strong signal.

€1.50 is not much of an investment so you could try it, but don't be disappointed if it doesn't work well.

Do your grandparents have an external aerial? If not and if you must use an indoor aerial, then you need one that can pick up UHF. See for example http://www.mpeg4ireland.com/saorview-dtt-on-a-pc

Thanks, that's just what i was looking for! The only problem is that all the adapters on ebay seem to be mcx (male) to coax (female) whereas i'd need mcx (female) to coax (male) and i can't seem to find them anywhere...

EDIT: They have an old rabbit ears type aerial i think but that's it

gtg60

trogdor wrote: »

EDIT: They have an old rabbit ears type aerial i think but that's it

Try that then, it'll be better than the other aerial!

Trevord

trogdor wrote: »

Thanks, that's just what i was looking for! The only problem is that all the adapters on ebay seem to be mcx (male) to coax (female) whereas i'd need mcx (female) to coax (male) and i can't seem to find them anywhere...

EDIT: They have an old rabbit ears type aerial i think but that's it

Rabbits ears with loop like the ones at the bottom of this page http://www.electech.tv/store-tvantennas.htm

will be better than the small aerial you mentioned in original post.

Better again would be something like this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/120-643-ST38-UHF-Anti-Ghost-Boxed-/130462088678

If you really want to use the small aerial you got with the pc dongle you can cut off the tip and replace it with a standard coaxial connector.

watty

this is far better aerial
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/120-643-ST38-UHF-Anti-Ghost-Boxed-/130462088678

From €6 in local Limerick shops. No need to buy online.

You can get DTT cards /sticks with regular aerial socket. Review of Dual Tuner (good when 2nd mux starts) http://www.techtir.ie/reviews/mobidtv-dual-usb-dtt
Readily available on eBay.

The little stick aerials are rubbish and no better than strip outer plastic off coax 6" and fold/slide back briad down over the coax (like a second outer tube) and leaving insulation on inner 6".

Makes an aerial out of coax.

Note that many USB DTT sticks don't come with decent software. I've tested all the solutions and for older PC the Total Media 3.5 is best (free with selected DTT sticks and worth $75). For Windows 7 the built in media center is best.
Make sure always it's a BDA driver.

For Apple OSX and Linux read http://www.techtir.ie/node/1003625

Trogdor

Thanks for the info, I'll give the rabbit ears a go anyway and see what it's like. May get one of the other aerials mentioned there if it's no good. I guess the main question really is will a better aerial (better than a tiny aerial of coax) pick up a significantly better signal if the transmitter is literally just across the road?

gtg60

trogdor wrote: »

Thanks for the info, I'll give the rabbit ears a go anyway and see what it's like. May get one of the other aerials mentioned there if it's no good. I guess the main question really is will a better aerial (better than a tiny aerial of coax) pick up a significantly better signal if the transmitter is literally just across the road?

DTT works differently to Analogue, either you don't receive it or it's perfect!

Trogdor

gtg60 wrote: »

DTT works differently to Analogue, either you don't receive it or it's perfect!

Well that shows my ignorance in the matter then:p well then the question is if the transmitter is just across the road, will the signal be picked up by very small aerials?

gtg60

trogdor wrote: »

Well that shows my ignorance in the matter then:p well then the question is if the transmitter is just across the road, will the signal be picked up by very small aerials?

Should do but you never know until you try. I'm here in Wicklow town and have an aerial in the attic, a few months ago I was messing around with one of those amplified rabbit ears things in the sitting room and I was able to pick up 3Rock!

I can also pick up the Greystones relay from here on the attic aerial but I have to change the polarity, of course!

12 element

Do you have a length of coax with an aerial connector on the end? You could try stripping of the outer layer of the coax over a length of about 9" and give that a go if you are in very strong reception area.

fat-tony

trogdor wrote: »

Well that shows my ignorance in the matter then:p well then the question is if the transmitter is just across the road, will the signal be picked up by very small aerials?

I'm less than 2k from the Greystones transmitter. I have a home-made lash up of two lengths of wire each about 4 inches long connected to coax just outside a bedroom window. Looks kind-of like this:

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This is a quarter-wave aerial and it has worked very well for me, providing stable reception to my PC tuner. If you want to borrow a set-top aerial (which works in some areas in my house) you are more than welcome to try it. If your grandparents house is that close to the transmitter I'm sure a set-top aerial will work quite well. Just PM me if you want to try it.

Trogdor

Thanks for all the help guys, i'll be out there over the weekend and will give a few things a try and see if i can get anything running!

watty

gtg60 wrote: »

DTT works differently to Analogue, either you don't receive it or it's perfect!

Not True!

There is a narrower range of a signal between perfect and frozen/no signal, so you might have that impression. The kinds of degradation are different from Analogue (no Ghosting ever and no "snow"/noise on video ever).

But there IS a narrow range over which at one end (nearly good enough) there are artefacts, which as the quality of signal is decreased become more visible pixelation, then occasional break up and then gross pixelation / breakup and finally erratic reception and then no signal.

Also there can be intermittent interference, reduced signal in Snow, Fog and heavy rain.

So a good enough aerial rather than one that seems to give a picture is what is needed.

Ignore Signal. Look at quality. The required quality bar depends on the exact settings of the signal. If it's below 50% get a better aerial.
Not all receivers have a "quality" display though.