Cost - adding UHF

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rayonline

1734 posts

Uber Geek

#72239 23-Nov-2010 08:34

Hi, we have a VHF, if we add a UHF how much would this cost roughly? Have cables etc ... there already.

And, what's generally the difference if you have a Freeview decoder and a PC TV Tuner card?

Thanks.

Mech

11 posts

Geek

#408060 23-Nov-2010 10:41

It's stuff all really (if you do it yourself).

You can simply grab a UHF aerial and attach it to the same masthead you've already got (if there's no room, buy another one), point it in the general direction (look for your neighbours aerials as a guide) and run both the UHF and VHF aerial cables into a diplexer (to combine the signals) so you can use the existing sockets in the house.

Or call a pro for a quote...

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Jaxson

7996 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#408073 23-Nov-2010 11:06

If you live in a freeview HD area, have a freeview HD decoder box or a TV with freeview HD built in, then you need a UHF signal for it.

If you don't have any other TV or HDD/DVD recorder or VCR etc that uses the now older analogue TV then you can dump the VHF aerial altogether. If you still need the VHF signal then you will need diplexer to combine the two aerial type together. These cause some losses so it's best to run just UHF if you can.

You'll need RG6 coax (hopefully written on the side of the cable currently being used).

A freeview decoder works by itself, you just plug it into the power, plug an aerial into it and take the video output from the decoder off to the TV.

A computer Tuner Card needs to plug into a computer and you then need to run some software on the computer to watch TV. The computer must be on at all times to watch TV and you need to view the channels on the computer monitor or connect the computer to a TV.

Hopefully some of that helps.

richms

27899 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#408184 23-Nov-2010 14:09

Even tho there is nothing on VHF that you wont get thru freeview, a reason to keep the VHF antenna is for FM and possibly future DAB reception, FM is just above VHF low so a VHF antenna does an ok job of that, and DAB will be in the VHF high band. Assuming that the antenna is pointing the right way that is, In auckland FM comes from the skytower where TV comes from the waitaks so I get stuff all on the VHF antenna here, partly because I live in a null from the transmistter, but also because its facing the wrong way.

Richard rich.ms

bfginger

1244 posts

Uber Geek

#408711 24-Nov-2010 08:57

rayonline: Hi, we have a VHF, if we add a UHF how much would this cost roughly? Have cables etc ... there already.

A VHF aerial gives you a UHF signal just not as strongly as a UHF aerial does. If your VHF aerial is in a good reception area you have a chance of receiving Freeview|HD from it without problems. So buy the Freeview|HD receiver and try it out first.

Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#408820 24-Nov-2010 11:13

bfginger: A VHF aerial gives you a UHF signal just not as strongly as a UHF aerial does.

Aerials are designed to pick up signals in particular frequency bands. In a strong reception area you may get a UHF signal using a VHF aerial, and in some cases you can get a signal by just connecting an aerial cable to the TV without any aerial attached to it. However in most areas you won't get a signal that is strong enough to be usable without a proper UHF aerial.