Signal Booster Without Splitting???

[aaron1987]

Hi all

I have been in my new house a year now and am looking to boost tv signals around the house.

I have 6 antenna sockets already installed in the house, living room, dining room, bedrooms. However the signals are quite weak and can be a bit intermittent.

I think that all of the rooms run from my living room - it has been set up so that the main feed goes into the back of my tv and then the output from my tv plugs into a socket in my living room wall - this socket then feeds the rest of the house.

I was expecting to have a splitter somewhere (eg a 6 way in the loft)
Is there anyway that I can boost the signal to the other places in my house without having to rerun cables around the house from a splitter.

Could I just get a two way booster and put the main feed into that and then have one output to my living room tv and one output to the wall socket to feed the rest of the house?

Any comments/experiences/advise very very welcome!!!

 

[OwainDIYer]

you really do need to find where the cable splits into 6 and make sure it's been done correctly.

If it hasn't then there will be no point adding amplification.

Worst case is the electrician who put the cables in thought aerials work on radial circuits.

 

[aaron1987]

Radial circuits is what I am thinking! Lol
The feed to the rest of the house is in the wall in front room - so you have to use the output from tv into wall and then that carries the signal to rest of house.
Is that even normal?
I expected to find a 6 way box in loft or something and then run to each room?
Do you think that the wall mounted socket (where I put tv output in) may lead to a splitter?

 

[OwainDIYer]

Yes it's normal to run the aerial to the lounge and then provide a 'return' to the rest of the house.

If a proper low-loss passive splitter has been used then if necessary a small amp in the feed from the TV to the return socket should be satisfactory.

If an active splitter/amp has been used then further amplification should be unnecessary.

If it's taped joins, radial circuit, or any other bodgery then you'll need to fix the wiring first. Hopefully you'd be able to re-use at least some of the cable.

Any built in wardrobes in the bedroom above the lounge where a splitter might be hiding?

 

[WabbitPoo]

Its amazing to me that we still need these silly cables to send tv signals around our homes....we use the elec circuits for broadband, after all.

In your situation, would it not be a simple change to put a booster wotsit before it goes into your telly, then send one output to your telly and one back to the rest of the house? At least try that to see if it makes a difference?

Or maybe i misunderstood your situation.

 

[Lucid]

Its amazing to me that we still need these silly cables to send tv signals around our homes....we use the elec circuits for broadband, after all.

"We" do, but it's a very dirty solution. Domestic mains circuits radiate a lot of interference when used for high frequency signal transmission. It affects the radio bands mostly - Short Wave, FM and DAB. In effect, a house using homeplugs becomes a low power transmitter. The signal can radiate up to 100m. So it's not a great solution.

One of the things that makes Ethernet over mains possible is error correction, and if the data is very badly corrupted during transmission then the receiving PC can request a replacement. TV signals over powerlines wouldn't have the same advantage. There's error correction built in to the DVB-T transmission, but it is not robust enough to cope with the sorts of data errors occurring in Ethernet over poweline transmission. If dealing with analogue signals e.g. Sky RF2, basic CCTV etc, then there's no error correction at all.

So, we still need these "silly" cables for some very good reasons.

In your situation, would it not be a simple change to put a booster wotsit before it goes into your telly, then send one output to your telly and one back to the rest of the house? At least try that to see if it makes a difference?

Or maybe i misunderstood your situation.

It is possible to have too much signal before a TV. This then overloads the tuner and causes as many problems as insufficient signal. So simply chucking "booster wotsits" about is a bit of gamble. Most people get away with it more by luck than good judgement.

 

[Sam Gangee]

it has been set up so that the main feed goes into the back of my tv and then the output from my tv plugs into a socket in my living room wall...

This makes no sense to me. A TV set has no aerial output - only an aerial input socket.

 

[Sam Gangee]

Aaron and others, you should read all of this page for a better understanding of boosters:
http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/amps.htm

 

[winston1]

it has been set up so that the main feed goes into the back of my tv and then the output from my tv plugs into a socket in my living room wall...

This makes no sense to me. A TV set has no aerial output - only an aerial input socket.

99% of TVs that is true. Perhaps the OP has the 1%. Or perhaps he is talking about a Freeview box.