suethedriver Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 We have a status 315 spaceship aerial with booster and up to now have just used a small portable for the standard channels. I was wondering if i could put our spare freeview box into the system and if that aerial would be good enough to get a freeview signal ( obviously area dependant). Anyone had any luck ?? (?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel E Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 I have successfully received terrestrial digital on my laptop using just a usb stick tuner (same size as a USB memory stick) and a 'Magic Circle' aerial. So, if the reception area is reasonable, you should have no problems. As ever with terrestrial digital, you may find some channels better than others. This is because the better channels use more bandwith to transmit and therefore less compression. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith T Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 Hi...interested in this thread, as I have often thought of trying the same using the 530 aerial we have on our motorhome. However, in asking questions at varoius retailers concerning the normal 'home' use of Freeview, the answer seems to be that if you can get Ch 5 Ok, then you'll be Ok on freeview, given a decent aerial. We find quite frequently when on sites with themotorhome there is either no channel 5, or the signal is pretty poor, so have assumed that Freeview would be of a similar poor quality, if a picture at all. Anyone got experience of this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 I'm thinking there's couple of things to consider The arial should be wideband, A touring arial ought to to be wideband, so hopefully no problem there. Signal strenght, this is why they say 'if you can pick up C5' its a fair indication of signal strenght, but not foolproof. I wonder if a booster will help! I don't like them, in domestic situations they are designed to be fitted at arial end to compensate for long cable runs, or at spliter to supply multiple TVs, freeview is very suseptable to interferance, so I would prefer a bigger arial than introducing a possible cause of interferance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith T Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 hi colin Yes, we have a booster in the system in the 'van, and also at home whre it acts to split the aerial 4 ways! In the 'van it really makes a difference, and having had expereince of the old 'mushroom' aerials find the 530 a vast improvement, to the extent that where the Caravan Club says reception is fair/poor, we can very often get as good a picture with our current aerial as using their booster sytem. Howver, as I said in my previous post, often CH5 just doesn't exist, and in fact even here at home, we're lucky and get CH5 well, but 1/2mile down the road they can't get it.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Newell Posted November 10, 2006 Share Posted November 10, 2006 I have tried a booster/splitter for freeview use at home and it didn't compensate for a week signal very well at all. The issue with freeview (as I understand it) is that the digital signal is a "bitstream". A weak signal slows down the bitstream in effect by introducing errors. An amplifier will boost the signal strength but not the bit rate and you end up with momentary freezes of picture which gets worse as the bitstream diminishes. I have tried Freeview on my laptop with a PCMCIA card in most areas we have been to using a five element domestic outdoor aerial and got generally good results, a bigger aerial will do better still. I have tried it using a 315 Status (spaceship jobby) and it was useless! This is purely based on my own experience so don't necessarily take it as gospel. D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elaine Posted November 10, 2006 Share Posted November 10, 2006 My husband is an aerial fitter, we take 3 diferent types of aerials in our van with us. As soon as we pull into a sight he will head straight for reception and look at aerial to find out what group it is. At the end of the aeial there are colour codes, red for A group, yellow for B group and green for C/d group. After finding out he will fit appropriate aerial and 9 times out of 10 picture is perfect. As said in one of the previous posts a wideband aerial should do all but he says you are better with what is called a grouped aerial. If anyone has any questions he would be glad to help. Forgot to mention this is my first post a big hello to everyone, have found the site very helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supertractorman Posted November 10, 2006 Share Posted November 10, 2006 I have successfully been getting Freeview with my Status aerial, and where there is a good signal, I cannot fault the picture plus the number of channels gives plenty of entertainment. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enodreven Posted November 10, 2006 Share Posted November 10, 2006 Hi, We have found excatly the same, we are currently at Unity Resort near Burnham-on-sea and with our cheap Sagem Digibox from Argos £29 and our Status mushroom ariel we have 60+ channels [QUOTE]Supertractorman - 2006-11-10 9:03 PM I have successfully been getting Freeview with my Status aerial, and where there is a good signal, I cannot fault the picture plus the number of channels gives plenty of entertainment. David[/QUOTE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mover Posted November 21, 2006 Share Posted November 21, 2006 I just love sitting in my van especially when its pouring with rain watching the sattelite dish fraturnity setting up their kit to watch the crap thats on telly lately, they have spirit levels .plumb lines and meters ,bits of string ,irate wives and probally pneumonia by the time they get sorted ,very entertaining ,give me a good book or a DVD any time. *-) :D *-) *-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Frank Wilkinson Posted November 21, 2006 Share Posted November 21, 2006 What's the point of responses like the last one? You may not want satellite TV but if some people do that's their perogative. And how is watching a DVD more stimulating than watching a good news or politics programme on the tele?I really do wish that people would stick to the topic and if they can't help the person who has started the subject, stay away! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michele Posted November 21, 2006 Share Posted November 21, 2006 Well, yes agree with frank there. Nothing more better than watching a good old docu about WW2 or something educational. After all seen the DVD once whats the point . For people like us with the children disabled, we are stuck quite often . The thought of going over the DVD's does nothing for me. The thought of no telly to tune into the news at home or a documentary is to frightening on a rainy day when the little one is screaming. Some may say that's a poor excuse I save the reading or I should say we both do for when they are asleep and it's all quiet on the western front. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted November 21, 2006 Share Posted November 21, 2006 Frank Can I, with all respect, request that you consider your comments and the way that some of them come across - people are entitled to respond to postings as they see fit, some of your very direct comments on them in my view don't appear to help - I've noticed them on several of the postings you've been responding to and I must admit that they do put me off rather - I'm sure you don't mean them to come across as being a bit terse but unfortunately sometimes they do. We are all entitled to our opinions but how we relay them to others can cause confusion, irritation or downright annoyance when it's not meant, such as making statements like the following: "I really do wish that people would stick to the topic and if they can't help the person who has started the subject, stay away!" If a reply is made that isn't relevant in your eyes, please simply ignore it. We are all equal ... enjoy the difference! :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Frank Wilkinson Posted November 22, 2006 Share Posted November 22, 2006 I'm rather confused! You state quite clearly that we are all entitled to our opinions. It's my opinion that it's a waste of time for people to clutter up topics with totally negative answers such as the example that I give above. Am I entitled to this opinion and if I'm not perhaps you can tell me why? It would appear from at least one response that I'm not alone in my view. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euroanchor Posted November 22, 2006 Share Posted November 22, 2006 [QUOTE]Frank Wilkinson - 2006-11-21 4:58 PM What's the point of responses like the last one? You may not want satellite TV but if some people do that's their perogative. And how is watching a DVD more stimulating than watching a good news or politics programme on the tele?I really do wish that people would stick to the topic and if they can't help the person who has started the subject, stay away![/QUOTE] Frankie boy, Firstly, you need to take a chill pill, or apply for the job of super moderator, secondly look closely at what you are writing, that posting is contradictory in itself, it's not really about freeview tv is it ? How boring would life be if we never strayed from the topic now and again. Anyway I personally find news and politics depressing, and I agree that it's simpler to just stick a DVD on for the kids,open the wine and chill out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Frank Wilkinson Posted November 22, 2006 Share Posted November 22, 2006 Oh dear euroanchor! Once again I really despair at your logic. I was responding to this:I just love sitting in my van especially when its pouring with rain watching the sattelite dish fraturnity setting up their kit to watch the crap thats on telly lately, they have spirit levels .plumb lines and meters ,bits of string ,irate wives and probally pneumonia by the time they get sorted ,very entertaining ,give me a good book or a DVD any timeHere is a man who says how much he likes laughing at what he call the 'satellite fraternity' and implying what idiots we are. So naturally, my response wasn't about Freeview as he hadn't written about Freeview!And I'm sorry if I'm a bit terse sometimes but if you read most of my posts you'll see that I'm only terse in response to people who are, in my opinion, themselves unfair in their comments to me or to others. A good example is when you clearly implied how stupid one of my staff was because he took three points and £60 instead of a £100 speed course. You knew nothing of the facts and were totally wrong in your assumptions.I'm sorry if in the previous posts that you seem to have taken against me because I contradicted some of your statements such as 'speed camera detectors are illegal in France' when they clearly are not.I have nothing against anyone on this site and am very grateful to many for the help that I've received but I will never be able to condone the practice of posting insulting comments, such as the one about what idiots we 'satellite fraternity' are. I find it staggering that such comments are ignored and seem to be accepted whilst me being a little terse is frowned upon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euroanchor Posted November 22, 2006 Share Posted November 22, 2006 [QUOTE]Frank Wilkinson - 2006-11-22 1:29 PM >I'm sorry if in the previous posts that you seem to have taken against me because I contradicted some of your statements such as 'speed camera detectors are illegal in France' when they clearly are not..[/QUOTE] Sorry ,it wasn't me that said that, and I haven't taken against you at all. I really dont think the poster meant that anybody was an idiot for using satellite, they merely said (tongue in cheek) that they loved watching people struggle in the wind and rain just to get the telly working. I quite agree with you about the posting of insults Frank, but honestly mate, you need to practice what you preach , some of your responses are borderline to say the least. Post and let post B-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michele Posted November 22, 2006 Share Posted November 22, 2006 [QUOTE]Frank Wilkinson - 2006-11-21 4:58 PM What's the point of responses like the last one? You may not want satellite TV but if some people do that's their perogative. And how is watching a DVD more stimulating than watching a good news or politics programme on the tele?I really do wish that people would stick to the topic and if they can't help the person who has started the subject, stay away![/QUOTE] To clear my bit up I was actually agreeing with the more stimulating part news & politics . Not agreeing that people should not say what they want. fire away . Sorry if I caused any confusion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philman Posted November 22, 2006 Share Posted November 22, 2006 I know this is off the original topic but Frank when did France change their law and make speed camera detectors legal? Phil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted November 22, 2006 Share Posted November 22, 2006 Must confess to being one of the people that fuss about with 'Free To Air' on sattelite, we found that freeview was less than satisfactory in our case. However I have only tried it a couple of times and although once we got the thing working it was good in terms of quality and quantity , in my opinion it was not worth the effort. We have been looking to see whether a 'crank up' type dish would help but there seems to be mixed views on that, so the whole kit has been abandoned at the moment, including the TV and last time we just listened to the radio or read. So draw your own conclusions from that. Bas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Frank Wilkinson Posted November 22, 2006 Share Posted November 22, 2006 [QUOTE]Philman - 2006-11-22 3:44 PM I know this is off the original topic but Frank when did France change their law and make speed camera detectors legal? Phil.[/QUOTE] Philman, to avoid going totally off topic I'll answer this in the original thread which is headed Talex Speed Detector or something like that!Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mover Posted November 22, 2006 Share Posted November 22, 2006 Oh dear I do seem to have rattled Frankies cage with my tongue in cheek comments about the satelite dish fraternity ,I never said I thought they were Idiots and appolgise to any one who thought I did,I meerly said I find them and there antics very ammusing ,which I do. As for the comment about once youve seen a DVD whats the point of seeing it again ,well for your information there must be millions of DVDs yet to see and I hope I live long enough to watch them all and as for the WWW1-- WWW2 or whatever surely weve seen and heard all there is to know about those debacles by now ?? *-) *-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankkia Posted November 23, 2006 Share Posted November 23, 2006 I am one of the satellite fraternity and I didn't take offence at your post. After 10 years of setting up a dish manually I am usually able to get up and running within 2 mins and have even been able to beat a fully automatic system. I must admit I do love to watch the antics of others, though, but I usually end up going to help. This year though I eventually gave in as a bad back and the the thought of setting up in the cold and rain made me open my wallet. We have now got an Oyster system and I am well pleased. We still carry an ordinary dish for when it is difficult to get the 'van in a position where the Oyster can see the signal but so far have only had to use it when we wanted to have the main t.v. on Sky and the laptop receiving Eurosport from Astra 1. We also carry a DVD player and lots of books - when we are away in the winter for 4 months it is nice to have the choice when the weather is not all you hoped for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
messerschmitt owner Posted November 23, 2006 Share Posted November 23, 2006 one of the interesting developments of the loss of analogue tv is that many newer tvs now come as standard with freeview already installed - including 12V flat screen ones. Of course, you can also get tv tuner cards for both pcs and macs and you can have the best of all worlds with a laptop that has tv, dvd ability and, if you can find a hotspot, wifi internet! Of course, having a tv-eneabled pc or mac does not help you when in the middle of nowhere with no decent signal, which is where satellite comes in handy. Technology is getting better, and it worries me that some motorhome manufacturers stil make motorhomes with huge cabinets for traditional tvs, when they could sort out mounting brackets for flat screen tvs. Campbell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted November 23, 2006 Share Posted November 23, 2006 But I love my 'spare' TV cabinet (we've got 2!) - it's where I put all my pans! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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