I know it's a bit of a subjective topic, but my mate is looking at getting Freeview.

His current VHF/UHF aerials are a bit stuffed, he had an aerial buy come out and tell him as much and quoted $900 to install new aerials/cable/amplifier etc.  Seems a bit pricey, so we're trying to figure out the Easiest/Cheapest/Best way for him to get Freeview.

Option A) DVB-S.  He doesn't have a dish, so would need to install one of those and find the satellite somehow but that's a pretty cost effective option, since the receivers are generally a bit cheaper, right?  He's recently run RG6 to his aerials so I suppose he can reuse that?

Option B) DVB-T.  His reception is pretty average, but the UHF might be OK.  I took my STB around and I think the picture was OK, maybe a bit of pixellation here and there.  Might improve with the VHF taken out of the equation?  Otherwise UHF areial is not too bad (cheaper/easier than dish?) and as I said he's already got new RG6 run so that's OK.  Also means he can keep Prime (although his Prime reception is a bit rubbish currently).

So what decision needs to be made?  Well, he wants TV in two rooms (at least) so that will require boxes for each TV, therefore Option A is looking good.  The problem is the whole set up of the satellite dish.  Is it easy enough to do on one's own?  He's pretty handy.  Do you need a satellite finder, or can you get by with the built-in functions of the STB?

He quite likes the idea of HD and the UHF aerial might be OK so maybe it’s worth going down that track?

What does everyone reckon?  He’ll probably do it himself, but is anyone here an aerial/dish guy that can help him out if he gets into trouble setting everything up?  He’s in the Howick/Pakuranga area.  Is $900 really too much for what this other guy was suggesting to do?