I have a TV Tuner plugged into my Mac. Before that I had a PCI card for the PC I used.
Until the digital switch over I used a cheap aerial that worked well. It worked for digital and analogue. But since digital switchover I thought I'd try some aerials I could put somewhere not to obvious in the office.... so tried a few and came back to the cheap aerial.
I was looking for something else in the attic yesterday and found the tiny aerial that came with the USB tuner I got for the Mac in 2009. It didn't work back then for analogue to digital but gave it a go today. Best aerial tried so far and I need to secure it to the office window better. But I am surprised this is better than some of the aerials I bought (and took back) and tried.
Could do with another in a room if they are this good and need an aerial/TV in a room with neither at the moment.
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I have several aerials in the loft for various things aswell as tv all work great plus they don't get battered by the weather and the coax is good for several years.
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I guess you are using a tuner on your Mac to avoid internet data usage or some such, rather than just going to somewhere like tvcatchup.com and getting it all over the net for nowt?
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Yes I am using a TV tuner - no point streaming TV if it's on free to air. Not avoiding Internet data usage as I have an unlimited tariff for the Internet and it's not slow either.
I'm still surprised the aerial that came with the Elgato tuner works so well now they have boosted signal strength. I tried various aerials and kept having to take them back because they were so poor. I suppose I could run a cable from the roof aerial but if I get a decent signal with an indoor aerial then I don't see the point.
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I've got an elgato one but I never got any kind of signal with it. Always needed a normal aerial plus a booster generally. Glad to say that elgato have finally made their software work ok with the free broadcaster epg so I can still record without needing the tvtv sub.
I wish their remotes weren't so rubbish though. The original one I had that came with first tuner works really well. One with hybrid tuner died after a couple of years and the new one I had from them 3 months ago has killed the batteries with barely any use!
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I don't use the remote. It's in the drawer somewhere. The software has worked with the EPG via Freeview ever since I started using it. Initially used the 12 month free access to tvtv but wasn't going to pay to continue using it.
Downside of not using tvtv is sometimes it loses a lot of stuff from EPG if I've not used it in a while and I end up forcing it to download the EPG again.
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Like I usually say in these debates, predicting the behaviour of RF signals in specific places is tricky, but your experience suggests to me that most of the more fancy/expensive antennas are just designed to look good, whereas the original one is just a simple antenna design that works OK now the wellie has been turned up post DSO.
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You're spot on I think spamcan. The really cheap one that works was a couple of quid. Tried spending a lot more to have one I could hide away. Whether it's related to the construction of the uPVC window somehow but the aerial needs to be in front of the glass to work properly. So the old tech one is ugly. This small one works find and you can't really see it where it is. I'd assumed it wouldn't work (admittedly it didn't pre digital switchover) and stored it away.
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There's a really useful website where you put in your grid reference and it tells you the location of the transmitter and usefully, the magnetic bearing of it. Very useful when you're in the loft trying to point the aerial in the right direction.
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Like this one?
www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/tvd.exe?
When I first tried getting digital to the Mac with a normal aerial it failed terribly. I knew which aerial I should use based on that site but the nearest was very low power. The main one for here is Winter Hill I think. Power on them now boosted.
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I use the tried and tested system of yelling through the trap door to the wife downstairs "is it getting better or worse", to which she replies. " What did you say? I can't hear you with the telly on"
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...predicting the behaviour of RF signals in specific places is tricky...
Certainly is.
The wire aerial of my bedside DAB radio at the caravan worked fine in the same place for several years.
This season it stopped working and needed significant repositioning.
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We're in a real dead spot. There's a 900ft hill directly between us and the most obvious transmitter, and a 100ft high coal mining spoil heap on the other side of the football ground over the back, directly between us and the next most obvious one.
With a whopping great 48 element high-gain outdoor aerial on a pole, and a signal booster, we can pick up most Freeview channels from the aforementioned second choice transmitter* although there's occasional blocking on the narrow bandwidth ones. I'm not bothered, I almost never watch the telly :) As long as it gets the motor racing when it's on, and CBeebies, and Top Gear / HIGNFY etc it'll do.
My DAB radio in the kitchen picks up the main BBC stations and that's about it.
*Wrong local news though, W Mids instead of E Mids.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Fri 4 May 12 at 22:34
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TV Aerials (Indoor) - Mini surprise - Bigtee
