Freeview aerial advice please

Drewzl89 · Aug 21, 2016

I bought a house two days ago and gone to plug in our bedroom freeview hd box last night and theres no signal being received. Downstairs has two link ups for sky, lounge and kitchen. I cant seem to get any signal on autotune through the wall aerial sockets. I went in the loft earlier and noticed a four way digtal amplifier with 5 sky like cables next to it but no mains cables to plug it in the box for power

Any ideas of suggestions? Ive tried the normal area in the lounge with a different tv that has built in freeivew but still no joy! Ive looked (nothing more) and the aerial seems to be pointing the same as everyone elses. Ideas?!?!? Thankyou!

Analoguesat · Aug 21, 2016

Hiya, welcome to the forum. Presumably the tv antenna terminates at the loft box and its a distribution amplifier?

timo_w2s · Aug 21, 2016

Are you able to post some pictures of the sockets in the lounge and box in the loft? The loftbox may have been powered from the lounge by inserting power up one of the aerial cables if there isn't any obvious power supplies in the loft but hard to say without more details.

Drewzl89 · Aug 21, 2016

Hi yes. See the pics of the lounge tv point and the equipment from the loft space

Archive7 · Aug 21, 2016

Have you tried contacting the previous owners and ask them how they were able to watch TV? Perhaps they took some parts when they left.
My previous owners were so mean they took all the lamp holders from the rooms and left bare wires hanging from the ceiling.

rolfw · Aug 21, 2016

The amplifier in picture 1 requires either a power supply plugged in, or if there's no power in the loft, it can be line powered by a Sky Digibox with RF2 power turned on. It can also be powered using a power supply and power inserter situated in the lounge.

If you don't have Sky, then you may need to re-route the cables, if the aerial cable comes into the loft first, then you can distribute to other rooms using a masthead type amplifier and power supply in lounge, or just a straightforward distribution amplifier if there is power there.

Channel Hopper · Aug 21, 2016

Drewzl89 said:
Hi yes. See the pics of the lounge tv point and the equipment from the loft space

Your lounge looks just like my loft.

Drewzl89 · Aug 21, 2016

Ok ive tried switching rf2 on sky and then tried randomly connecting the cables into the box in pic1 and no joy! Any other ideas??

Archive7 · Aug 21, 2016

Drewzl89 said:
Ok ive tried switching rf2 on sky and then tried randomly connecting the cables into the box in pic1 and no joy! Any other ideas??

Try to connect a small antenna with magnetic base directly to the TV.
In my area, the signal is strong enough and this antenna does a good job.

Drewzl89 · Aug 21, 2016

Not really wanna do that when i have a new house and wall aerial points all over

Archive7 · Aug 21, 2016

Drewzl89 said:
Not really wanna do that when i have a new house and wall aerial points all over

I meant in the meantime until you get everything sorted out.
Also it will give you an idea about the signal strength in your area.

archive10 · Aug 21, 2016

Drewzl89 said:
Ok ive tried switching rf2 on sky and then tried randomly connecting the cables into the box in pic1 and no joy! Any other ideas??

I think we need some basic facts:

1) Do you have a Sky-box as well as Freeview-boxes?
2) What are you trying to receive? Freeview or Sky?
3) Does the new house have an aerial, or just a sky dish?
4) Do you have a 230V socket in the loft?

To me your installation looks like a traditional Sky-oriented loft-box.
While this supports overlaying a Freewiew signal alongside the sat signals, it does not mean that you necessarily have a Freeview signal fed into the distribution box.
So go look if you have an aerial.
If you don't, you need to get one.
If you do, you need to check if this is connected to the distribution box (loft box).
If it is, the loft box needs power from 230V, or via in-line power from Sky Digi-box (as @rolfw describes above)

If you need Sky - you may carry on with the digi-box feeding the loft-box and get the cabling right etc.
(Better to get the new Sky package and use WiFi for in-home multi-room distribution.)

If you don't need Sky, hook up the cable so they feed the desired (bedroom) socket.
If you need to feed multiple rooms with Freeview, you may want to get a simple distribution unit, possibly amplified, to feed the Freeview part of the outlets.

More details much appreciated to be better positioned to advise you.

rolfw · Aug 22, 2016

Firstly you need to identify which downlead the aerial is connected to, a visual inspection can normally do this, also look at the aerial to see if it has a plastic box on the mast, as it may have a masthead amplifier which will require a 12v power supply to make it work, many people take these when they move, not realising that they'll leave the incoming owner with no TV.

To identify which cable should plug into the global TV link amp, connect one of the cables to RF2 (with power turned on in the installer menu, set output channel to 36 in first instance) and then go into the loft and connect one by one to the amp input, until the light on the side comes on.

Having two separate amps, it may be that they had two sky boxes serving different bedrooms.

Drewzl89 · Aug 22, 2016

st1 said:
I think we need some basic facts:

1) Do you have a Sky-box as well as Freeview-boxes?
2) What are you trying to receive? Freeview or Sky?
3) Does the new house have an aerial, or just a sky dish?
4) Do you have a 230V socket in the loft?

To me your installation looks like a traditional Sky-oriented loft-box.
While this supports overlaying a Freewiew signal alongside the sat signals, it does not mean that you necessarily have a Freeview signal fed into the distribution box.
So go look if you have an aerial.
If you don't, you need to get one.
If you do, you need to check if this is connected to the distribution box (loft box).
If it is, the loft box needs power from 230V, or via in-line power from Sky Digi-box (as @rolfw describes above)

If you need Sky - you may carry on with the digi-box feeding the loft-box and get the cabling right etc.
(Better to get the new Sky package and use WiFi for in-home multi-room distribution.)

If you don't need Sky, hook up the cable so they feed the desired (bedroom) socket.
If you need to feed multiple rooms with Freeview, you may want to get a simple distribution unit, possibly amplified, to feed the Freeview part of the outlets.

More details much appreciated to be better positioned to advise you.

Hi to answer your questions in turn:

1. yes, this is located in the lounge, is currently connected and receiving signal no issues.
2. receive standard freeview via wall aerial points in master bedroom 1st floor.
3. it has both
4. not that i can see, there no light either to see just torch light.

Drewzl89 · Aug 22, 2016

Ok progress. Ive plugged the rf2 aerial in sky and its powering the box. Now what do i do?

rolfw · Aug 22, 2016

OK, so you have Freeview in the main bedroom, identify that cable, should be able to tell where it goes into the loft and see where the aerial cable connects to it. You then need to identify the cable to the aerial socket in the lounge and connect the aerial cable to that one.

You can then link from the wall socket into Aerial in on the Sky digibox and freeviw and the sky signal will be sent up to the amplifier. Then just connect which rooms you want to receive the signals.

Drewzl89 · Aug 22, 2016

Ok do i need to connect the aerial cable into back of sky box?
Do i need to put any cables in tv output on amplifiier

So i get this right. Ive plugged in cable to rf2 socket in sky box thats now powering the boxes jn loft. Plug the cables from each wall socket into the amplifier box (inputs) and it should work?

Channel Hopper · Aug 22, 2016

RF1 goes direct to the TV, the aerial input connects to whatever socket output is left on the wallplate in the lounge - marked TV.

If you don't see a picture on the screen then you play around with all cables upstairs (except the one that gives the light on the box) by plugging them into the input, one by one,, until you do see something. THen connect all other cables up to any of the remaining outlets of the box.

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