No TV aerial or Sky dish

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › No TV aerial or Sky dish

quickymart

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#312783 16-May-2024 20:58

I live in an apartment where the roof and exterior walls are getting redone/recladded (whatever the word is). In the process of doing the roof the contractors have removed the UHF aerial and Sky dish. I don't have Sky but I do watch Freeview from time to time.

I asked the body corporate person about it and he said they're not replacing the aerial/dish as apparently it can cause leaks into the roof - he tells me this happened with the last roof. He suggested I could stream my TV instead.

Okay, I've got fibre, and it's not the end of the world (I guess no one has Sky otherwise they would have been out to install a new dish by now), I can stream stuff - but I have a feeling there was a proviso or law or rule or something a few years ago that the landlord of a rented property had to provide or supply an aerial to watch TV? Or am I confusing this with something else?

In the interim I'm looking at some sort of indoor TV aerial for Freeview as I believe the old-fashioned "rabbit's ears" won't work. Can anyone suggest something suitable? Is there any way I can test the signal to see if it's strong enough to use an indoor aerial?

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#3231478 16-May-2024 21:04

https://www.tenancy.govt.nz/maintenance-and-inspections/regular-maintenance/digital-phone-and-internet-services/

Covered here they crant refuse any Phone/Internet/Digital TV service

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timmmay

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#3231480 16-May-2024 21:09

Suggest you buy a streaming device and forget antennas. Mi Box S from pbtech is what we use, it does everything we need. Netflix, Disney, tv3, etc.

quickymart

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#3231512 16-May-2024 22:00

Oh I can stream, that's not the issue - just sometimes I do like watching free-to-air TV.

Thanks for this Tim - I think it confirms what I knew. Oddly I get the impression I'm the only person here who still wants an aerial on the roof. They may argue I could use an indoor antenna to pick it up.

Bearing this in mind, there are a few indoor Freeview antennas on Trademe, but I don't know how good (or bad) they would be at picking up the signal.

timmmay

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#3231515 16-May-2024 22:05

I haven't had a tv antenna or satellite dish for 15 years or more. Welcome to the 90s!

I suspect everything on Freeview can be streamed. I'm not sure because I haven't seen it for 15 years ...

nztim

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#3231517 16-May-2024 22:07

Freeview is available as streaming, I only have a dish because ai am a sports nut and don’t want a two minute delay from sky sports now

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Bung

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#3231523 16-May-2024 22:25

quickymart: I asked the body corporate person about it and he said they're not replacing the aerial/dish as apparently it can cause leaks into the roof - he tells me this happened with the last roof. He suggested I could stream my TV instead.

If the contractors can't attach an aerial without it leaking there's no guarantee they can do the rest of the job properly. Maybe the body Corp got told it would cost extra and they said forget it.

quickymart

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#3231525 16-May-2024 22:25

timmmay: I haven't had a tv antenna or satellite dish for 15 years or more. Welcome to the 90s!

I suspect everything on Freeview can be streamed. I'm not sure because I haven't seen it for 15 years ...

Cool, except my parents often visit and they don't stream. One lives rurally with crap broadband, and the other is not big on technology. They both prefer just to watch plain old TV.

Thanks, I hear you loud and clear about streaming, but that's not the information I'm seeking. Thanks anyway.

Edit: just found these on Jaycar's page - I wonder if one of these might be worth a try. https://www.jaycar.co.nz/sound-video/tv-hardware/antennas-accessories/antennas/c/8DAA

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quickymart

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#3231526 16-May-2024 22:27

Bung:

quickymart: I asked the body corporate person about it and he said they're not replacing the aerial/dish as apparently it can cause leaks into the roof - he tells me this happened with the last roof. He suggested I could stream my TV instead.

If the contractors can't attach an aerial without it leaking there's no guarantee they can do the rest of the job properly. Maybe the body Corp got told it would cost extra and they said forget it.

The body corporate chairman mentioned something about the last antenna (and dish) being sealed with silicone which was [his words] "crap" and there was no quality control/checking, so they made the decision not to reinstate them once the roof was replaced. I think it's a case of once bitten twice shy, hence why I'm looking at an internal aerial solution (if possible).

Wheelbarrow01

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Chorus

#3231536 16-May-2024 22:52

I'd recommend the SmartVU SV11 Android TV dongle. I got one for our bach a few years ago as the only connection option there was crappy SD satellite, but after we had fibre installed, we use the SmartVU device to stream all free to air channels live in up to 4K quality.

It's good, it's cheap, it's invisible plugged into the back of the tv, it has a bluetooth remote control with Netflix/Amazon quick-launch buttons, you can download all your other favourite TV apps to it (TVNZ OnDemand, Disney, Neon etc), built in Chromecast, Freeview programme guide etc.

Best of all, you can get a refurbished/ex display one for as little as $86. Ours was refurbished and it has been so good I bought a second refurbished one for the garage TV at home. Have not had any problems with either of them.

https://www.dishtv.co.nz/index.php?route=product/category&path=77

Bang for buck I reckon it's the quickest easiest solution for you and will work just like your antenna connection did. Plus you can sync it to most TV brands to control power on/off etc, so it's an all in one remote too.

Only downside is that I don't think it gets HGTV for some weird reason. No more Lakefront Bargain Hunt for us at the bach these days lol.

[EDIT: Available Streaming Freeview channels are 1, 2, 3, bravo, Maori, Duke, Eden, Te Reo, Rush, Sky Open (and +1), Al Jazeera, Trackside 1/2, Shine, Parliament TV, Juice and a couple of Radio NZ channels]

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Spyware

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#3231613 17-May-2024 07:04

quickymart:

Edit: just found these on Jaycar's page - I wonder if one of these might be worth a try. https://www.jaycar.co.nz/sound-video/tv-hardware/antennas-accessories/antennas/c/8DAA

Antennas can be mounted in roof space. May be high signal loss if steel roof but worth trying rather than indoor.

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DjShadow

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#3231615 17-May-2024 07:53

Freeview Streaming is good, I think you get the HD Version of Bravo and Al Jazerra also. Only downside I've found is no 5.1 surround.

alasta

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#3231616 17-May-2024 08:06

As a general rule, indoor TV antennae only work if you are able to position it on or near a window with line of sight to the transmitter. In an apartment building you would have to be really lucky to achieve this.

In a previous place that I rented I told the landlord that I was willing to pay for the installation of the antenna as it was only $300 and I was planning to stay there for a few years. They were more than happy for me to proceed on that basis. It sounds like the installation in your case will be more complicated and expensive but maybe you can negotiate something. Do you know any of the other tenants and are they bothered by the removal of the antenna?

johno1234

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#3231633 17-May-2024 09:02

I wouldn't want to install an antenna on my own roof lor someone else's. It's a liability. That goes double when the antenna provides little or no practical benefit.

Handsomedan

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#3231653 17-May-2024 10:09

https://www.harveynorman.co.nz/tv-and-audio/media-streaming/uhf-aerials/

There are a number of options there, but the last time we used an internal antenna for Freeview was a long time ago and we needed an amplified one to get a decent signal.

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allio

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#3231668 17-May-2024 10:46

I'm surprised how quick people are to recommend dropping DVB-T for streaming for people who actually watch TV. There is a huge quality gap. The bitrate of 1080i OTA is about 10Mbps with streaming closer to 2Mbps last I checked. It's also 50fps vs 25fps and 5.1 AC3 vs 2.0 AAC. OTA usually has subtitles while streaming doesn't. It's worse in every way. I have my tvheadend setup to fall back to streaming if I ever run out of free tuners and it's immediately noticeable whenever it happens.

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