M PEG4 TV RECEPTION

elaverty

As above has anyone fitted one of these into ther camper,you know the new digital tv that have 6/7 pre installed stations in them,the irish ones..
If so what did you do for a aerial,im geting mixed advice on what type of antanna will work and what wont..Seemigly there is only one type of antenna that will suite and its a big house type one,so nothing that will fit into a camper,,,,I have tried useing just a bog standard indoor antenna with not a great result,reception wise,,but someone told me that you have to point a ordinary aerial either NSEW like a disc to receive the signal depending where your at,,Now someone else has told me that they have one in there caravan and its perfect just plugged into the ordinary caravan antenna thats on the roof of the caravan,the little saucer type one with the Mickey (:)) sticking up out of it..
So any advice thanks...

paddyp

elaverty wrote: »

Seemigly there is only one type of antenna that will suite and its a big house type one

Thats total bull, it all depends on where you are, I can get all digital channels with a bit of wire hanging out the back of the telly here. Aerials are a compromise you could put a 100 element antenna and amp on the roof and get reception in the black valley but do you really want to watch tv that much. A standard caravan uhf antenna like you mentioned will probably cover you for 60-80% of the country.

If you really want reception in poorer signal areas I'd look at putting a log periodic on the roof, they reject impulse noise like the engine noise, inverter noise etc. and they dont have any flimsy reflector and are very low profile. and low windage.

elaverty

paddyp wrote: »

Thats total bull, it all depends on where you are, I can get all digital channels with a bit of wire hanging out the back of the telly here. Aerials are a compromise you could put a 100 element antenna and amp on the roof and get reception in the black valley but do you really want to watch tv that much. A standard caravan uhf antenna like you mentioned will probably cover you for 60-80% of the country.

If you really want reception in poorer signal areas I'd look at putting a log periodic on the roof, they reject impulse noise like the engine noise, inverter noise etc. and they dont have any flimsy reflector and are very low profile. and low windage.

And is it a MPEG4 TV,,,??

paddyp

elaverty wrote: »

And is it a MPEG4 TV,,,??

I was referring to the house telly with the bit of wire, you need mpeg4 for irish digital channels you could get an mpeg 4 scart or hdmi receiver if your telly does't have mpeg4.

On the point of the log periodic, we were in rosses point last august and a few of the northern caravans had log periodic antennae pointed Brougher direction for uk freeview.

elaverty

Its a MPEG4 TV i have,,,so for me to receive the irish digital chanells,are you saying that i will receive them with a normal caravan aerial,as i discribed in the original post,depending on location of course,,,

noel farrell

my motor home has a bog standard antenna i have an mpeg4 16 in tv lidel i get all the rte stuff . reception depends on where you are lots of black spots . for me its not worth watching . how ever if you want up grade there are small beam antennas i got one in a market . near wexford , the onyoke boot sale the are 12euros and the are good . i bought a small sky dish from the same man a lidel free to air box 80 euros i have at least 400 channels most crap . not too hard to mount on the back of camper point south east happy camping

Macy0161

You shouldn't need any change of aerial*, any uhf aerial that you were using before should work. The Digital signal is more robust, so if anything signal should be better (hence why they can cut the number of relay transmitters once analogue is switched off).

*there's no such thing as a digital aerial, so don't get conned into new aerials either for campers/caravans or home.

bo.jangles

I have a flat streen tv in van. I bought a SEORVIEW box pluged old aerial from into box , box to tv using scart lead am now getting all Irish digtal stations .Been to Galway ,Donegal ,Dublin ,Cavan, Offaly,Wicklow, and the picture has been crystal clear.

killalanerr

is their a 12v SEORVIEW box available ?

Buford T Justice

killalanerr wrote: »

is their a 12v SEORVIEW box available ?

I doubt it, but you'd only need a tiny inverter to power it worst case scenario.

bo.jangles

Fingers McGee wrote: »

I doubt it, but you'd only need a tiny inverter to power it worst case scenario.

Thats what I use .

elaverty

Just for the record as i was the OP,,You will get a perfect reception on a MPEG TV just with cats ears antenna,,,the problem i had was because of my location at the rear of my house,i moved to the front and it was 100 percent,and have tried in 4/5 other locations since and its perfect also,,,

Buford T Justice

elaverty wrote: »

Just for the record as i was the OP,,You will get a perfect reception on a MPEG TV just with cats ears antenna,,,the problem i had was because of my location at the rear of my house,i moved to the front and it was 100 percent,and have tried in 4/5 other locations since and its perfect also,,,

Yea, but if you're using Rabbit ears, then you're receiving analogue signal, so mpeg 4 is irrelevant. RTE are broadcasting the new digital signal in MPEG4 format, so when the big switchoff happens then your bunny ears are useless.

paddyp

Fingers McGee wrote: »

Yea, but if you're using Rabbit ears, then you're receiving analogue signal

Is it April 1st?

There is NO SUCH THING as an analogue or digital aerial

Analogue and digital signals are just electromagnetic waves you can 'receive' them with anything conductive - a bit of wire, a fork from the cutlery drawer, a piece of tin foil, an old fashioned coat hanger anything conductive.

Whether the signal is strong enough for reception depends on the sensitivity of your tuner, the shape and size of your antenna, your antennas polarisation & directionality the location of your antenna, your distance from the transmitter, the polarisation or the transmitter, the height of the transmitter, the terrain around your antenna, the terrain between you and the transmitter, your proximity to other transmitters etc. etc. etc.

So rabbits ears may give you perfect digital tv reception. There must be millions of kilometers of coaxial cable and thousands of millions of aluminum and plastic antenna in the houses of people who'd be just fine with a pair of rabbits ears.

elaverty

paddyp wrote: »

Is it April 1st?

There is NO SUCH THING as an analogue or digital aerial

Analogue and digital signals are just electromagnetic waves you can 'receive' them with anything conductive - a bit of wire, a fork from the cutlery drawer, a piece of tin foil, an old fashioned coat hanger anything conductive.

Whether the signal is strong enough for reception depends on the sensitivity of your tuner, the shape and size of your antenna, your antennas polarisation & directionality the location of your antenna, your distance from the transmitter, the polarisation or the transmitter, the height of the transmitter, the terrain around your antenna, the terrain between you and the transmitter, your proximity to other transmitters etc. etc. etc.

So rabbits ears may give you perfect digital tv reception. There must be millions of kilometers of coaxial cable and thousands of millions of aluminum and plastic antenna in the houses of people who'd be just fine with a pair of rabbits ears.

Yea,all i know is the reception im geting with the MPEG TV and cats ears is crystal clear,,,,,And the reception i was geting with cats ears on a standard LCD tv was unwatchable,,,so as far as im concerned its the TV thats giveing me the desired reception,in hand with the C/ears...

Macy0161

There is no such thing as a digital aerial, however, rabbits ears are really for VHF signals, so technically fingers is correct. On set top aerials, the wire hoop (the snare?) is for UHF (which is what saorview is currently broadcast on), the "ears" like you'd have on a radio are for the VHF.

If you can get TV3 on your aerial (at home or camper/caravan) there's a pretty good chance you won't need any aerial upgrade.

You may be ok with be ok with just a set top aerial, but for interference reasons as well as reception, you're still better off with at least a loft mounted aerial. You'll notice interference more with digital, as it'll be a signal drop or a picture freeze.

For campers/ caravan's the proposed saorsat could be an ideal solution for the island of Ireland, if the experts over on the sat forums are right in terms of size and type of dish that it'll need. It looks like it could be a 40cm dish, with a built in lnb (so flat). But that's a while away yet.