Freeview aerial

[LIZS]

Can you use a freeview box on an indoor aerial. My mum wants one for her bedroom tv but doesn't have an external point upstairs. Also does anyone know about subsidies for pensioners for the Digital tv conversion

How many TVs does she have ? Last time I looked, Asda had boxes as low as 15 quid. Think the only (underused, underspent) scheme is to educate/assist elderly users get to grips with idea of switch to digital (assume it is happening in her area or the people involved will be elsewhere in the country) and perhaps give advice on options (cable, if Virgin serves your road, FreeSat - widest coverage inc scottish Highlands and Islands, or Freeview).

As for indoor aerial, will all depend on how strong the signal is. At Winter Hill (near Manchester) the transmitter power was 500 kW per channel, while for digital they have cut the power by 80% to 90% at least during the period when nearby regions such as Central and Yorkshire have not made the switchover.

It does seem unlikely unless she lives very close to a transmitter. One option to consider (if aerial to lounge comes into the attic) is to fit an aerial amplifier in attic with more than 1 output. Back in the 90s my Mum had one fitted with aerials into two of the bedrooms and the original cable went down to the lounge, so all three rooms get a boosted signal and can use Freeview easily.

(She had it done by her handyman after he had finished making her porch, and it is wired into the mains for the bedrooms, but these days would need an electrician and probably would need a separate socket - might be quite costly but would give her decent signal.

Incidentally if anyone offers to fit a 'digital aerial' then they are perhaps trying to con money out of people - in a few areas there will be new (wideband) aerials needed instead of the 'Group C' or whatever aerials (those 'groups' are related to the set of channel numbers transmitted by a particular regional 'master' station, so for Granada they were in the 50s and low 60s, in some other area they might all be in the 20s and low 30s, etc, etc). No 'digital' aerials as such, just the same as ever before.

However, as indicated, with lower power transmitted there may be some people with short aerials (that worked fine with 500 kW) who may have to have theirs replaced.