One such device is the One For All SV9380 Full HD Indoor Aerial which is a million miles away from the metal twisted coat hanger alternative that used to be what a lot of people got by with.
I tried the SV9380 with four different TV's two portables, a panel that is a TV, Computer offering and a TV card that fits in a desktop PC.
The unit is 28x14x5cm at the base the depth decreases to 1.5cm once you are past the base. It is black apart from the bottom 2.5cm that is silver grey in colour. There are just two connections both in the centre of the back near the base. The first for the supplied 2 metre coaxial lead that is somewhat unusual being male to male. The second the near 2 metre power lead that has the adapter in the 13amp plug with lead emerging above the plug.
While this is described as an HD Antenna I suspect unless you live upstairs of in a very open area the range of channels you would receive would be limited and like most wire alternatives it is still very directional in nature.
I will give you an impression of what I consider the quality of the images and sound received on a small 14inch analogue TV in my kitchen first using the loop aerial that was supplied with the unit and second connecting the One for All Antenna.
| |
Loop aerial | SV9380 |
| BBC 1 |
50% |
70% |
| BBC 2 |
75% |
90% |
| ITV |
45% |
70% |
| Channel 4 |
40% |
70% |
| Channel 5 |
15% |
0% |
You will see that the One for All gives an improvement of between 15% and 25% but that while I get a very poor signal on Channel 5 using the wire aerial I get no signal at all using the One for All. All my figures are based on the quality of signal (100%) that I get using my loft aerial onto my main TV the results (apart from Channel 5) are all watchable.
I have one room where the wire aerial gives very poor reception (I have solid walls) and using the One for All the results are just about Okay.
Perhaps the most interesting was in my office where a normal aerial is not feasible and it would require several extension leads to run a lead from the loft aerial. I have in the past run the leads but by nature that means long runs across rooms and apart from the trip hazard ‘elf & safety’ the result was not that good as I suspect one of the leads connections was not quite right.
The One for All gives a solution that means providing there is power within two metres (it’s an office!!!) then a reasonable signal can be achieved and that means you can continue to work while keeping an eye on whatever.
Not a perfect solution but it is the best I have so far found and of course it looks nothing like a conventional aerial.
The One for All SV9380 aerial is available from Argos priced £59.89 on the following link:
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/0483892/Trail/searchtext%3EINDOOR+AERIALS.htm
http://www.oneforall.com/product/index/id/97/title/sv9380/cat_id/2/type/antennas/sub_id/5/sub_title/#0
!!
Comment by clemenzina, 4 Mar 2010 7:24
It looks as though your 'stats' are for analogue transmissions because you only have Channels 1-5 and C5 has different performance from ITV, and these two channels are now on the same MUX for digital TV so I would have expected them to have similar signal strength (but I may be mistaken).
I think that this aerial would be overkill in my area, close-ish to Crystal Palace - a powered aerial is simply not advisable, I use a cheap Telecam2000 wideband with great success. So anyone interested needs to check out the type of aerial they need before lashing out £60 in the mistaken belief that 'more expensive' equals 'better'.
I'm no expert, but problems at the Crystal Palace transmitter have led me to research aerials a bit and I found that the subject is complex!