Freeview TV and how to receive it

[DynamicSpirit]

Does anyone have any insight on the best/cheap ways to get Freeview? I'm looking into it after cancelling my expensive Virgin Internet/tv connection and replacing with a cheaper Internet-only subscription.

My original plan was to get a Freeview outdoor aerial installed, but a couple of quotes have come in around the £400 mark. So then I thought, maybe I should try getting Freeview from my Internet connection. The Freeview website seems to indicate this is perfectly feasible (https://www.freeview.co.uk/blogs/do-i-need-an-aerial-for-freeview-play):

Can I watch Freeview channels without an aerial?​

You can! But there is a small caveat. Without an aerial, you won’t be able to watch live TV via the Freeview TV Guide on your telly. However, with an Internet connection, you can still get access to (in our humble opinion) the best TV platforms in one handy place, including BBC iPlayer, ITVX*, All4, My5, UKTV Play, Legend, CBS Catch up Channels UK, PBS America, STV Player, POP Player, and BBC Sounds.

Depending on which platform you’re using, you’ll even be able to watch live TV shows. BBC iPlayer, ITVX and My5 all have their own in-app live players so you can watch BBC News at Six, catch the football on ITV or see the latest episode of Love Island and get straight onto Twitter to see what everyone's talking about as the show airs.

So I looked on Amazon for freeview settop boxes, but everything I look at seems to be marketed as being for use with an aerial. Which leaves me a bit confused about whether I do actually need to swallow the £400-ish and get an aerial.

Does anyone know anything about this kind of stuff?

 

[Darandio]

Freeview via an internet connection is with the Freeview Play service. Assuming you already have a non-smart TV just grab something like an Amazon Firestick or Roku Box and download the Freeview Play app. You can then add other free stuff like Pluto TV as well. Alternatively if you don't have a TV then the vast majority of new smart tv's will have it pre-installed or at least have the ability to add it.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I believe you can install their app on either a smart TV or a "TV stick" like the Amazon Fire stick, these cost about £50.

 

[Royston Vasey]

I have an old TV in one room with integrated Freeview, it's always worked perfectly with a cheap portable aerial; even good ones are less than £20 (and a Freeview set top box about the same if your TV doesnt already have it integrated). No need to put one on the roof.

In fact the portable aerial got broken some time ago and it now runs very happily with a wire coat hanger inserted into to aerial socket

 

[swt_passenger]

Has the OP’s house never had a TV aerial before? £400 seems well over the top for fitting an aerial you can buy for a tenth of that price…

 

[Gaelan]

What specifically are you wanting to watch? BBC/ITV/4 all have free live streaming (usually you need an account, but again, free beyond confirming you have a TV license) on their website, which you could either use directly on a computer, plug a laptop into your TV to use it as a big monitor, or use a purpose-made steaming stick (Roku, etc).

Not sure if this is an option for the more obscure channels.

 

[Snow1964]

Has the OP’s house never had a TV aerial before? £400 seems well over the top for fitting an aerial you can buy for a tenth of that price…

Some new houses don't have them, but usually still have the coaxial cable from various wall sockets terminating in a bundle in the loft (although might be hiding under loft insulation).

We bought a house like that about 7 years ago, local aerial installer had added aerials to about third of the estate. They had even added a 13amp double socket in loft where the splitter / amp could be plugged in. He was able to aim it at main Mendip transmitter which has more channels that some relay transmitters.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

What specifically are you wanting to watch? BBC/ITV/4 all have free live streaming (usually you need an account, but again, free beyond confirming you have a TV license) on their website, which you could either use directly on a computer, plug a laptop into your TV to use it as a big monitor, or use a purpose-made steaming stick (Roku, etc).

I only really want to watch the main channels: A few BBC programs, so not bothered about anything obscure. I know can use BBC IPlayer on my PC, but I have large tv in the living room that's not currently connected to anything, and it'd be nice to be able to turn it on Especially for things like when friends are staying.

Has the OP’s house never had a TV aerial before? £400 seems well over the top for fitting an aerial you can buy for a tenth of that price…

Yeah that's kinda what I thought. And whether or not it's a fair price, £400 is definitely not worth it for what I want to use the aerial for. I guess it's possible I've just had bad luck with who I've got the quotes from.

I have an old TV in one room with integrated Freeview, it's always worked perfectly with a cheap portable aerial; even good ones are less than £20 (and a Freeview set top box about the same if your TV doesnt already have it integrated). No need to put one on the roof.

In fact the portable aerial got broken some time ago and it now runs very happily with a wire coat hanger inserted into to aerial socket

Thanks, that's interesting. Maybe I should try a £20 indoor aerial as I see Amazon sell a few. I think I ignored that as an option because I have too many memories of indoor tv aerials in the 1980s producing rubbish results - but I guess technology has moved on since those days. On checking, it looks like my nearest transmitter is less than a mile away, which I assume suggests I'm likely to get a strong signal.

 

[Lucan]

Because I think roof aerials are ugly, and also near impossible to reach if they need attention, I have always used a full sized aerial located in my attic. Reception has never been a problem, and my transmitter is at least about 20 miles away. You can buy them for about £20-30, plus the co-axial cable down to your TV.

 

[dgl]

Probably best to work out where a potential signal would be coming from before you decide what aerial to get, best thing would be to look at this map http://tx.mb21.co.uk/mapsys/google/uhftv.php and you'll probably get better/more usable advice, being at a decent height with no obstructions can work wonders for reception. My Gran lived high up in Crewkerne and I managed to get a usable digital signal before switchover using the loop antenna on an old fidelity TV.

Going the Freesat route can also be a workable solution, fitting a dish isn't that hard and the cable can usually be routed externally to where it needs to be.

 

[birchesgreen]

Get a decent TV box (i have an older Apple TV one but you can find cheaper if you want) with decent app support. I watch BBC, ITVX on mine as well as the paid for streaming services. I hardly ever use the Virgin box any more to be honest. Or the aerial feed for that matter.

 

[Flying Snail]

A simple way of figuring out if you need an outdoor aerial is to look at the houses in your area, if there are some with aerials then chances are you will need one too.

Indoor aerials are crap, always have been, always will be but if you are near enough* to a transmitter they will work fine, if not then none of them will do anything, definitely don't spend lots on amplified ones, if a cheap one won't work one of the overpriced powered ones won't either.

*what constitutes near enough is variable, no high ground in between and the power of the transmitter are also important factors.

I am about 5 miles away from a 65kW and get by with a cheap £10 indoor in all rooms.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

As a tight-fisted Yorkshireman living in Cheshire, I have aerials pointing at Moel-y-Parc and Winter Hill with boosters and an old Sky dish which give me free access to most Freeview channels. I also have a Humax PVR and old VCR/DVD recorder hooked up. Finally I have a Amazon Firestick as most of the apps which came with my so-called Smart TV are obsolete. All of this means I don't pay a penny in regular subscriptions (although I do occasionally pay for football streams) but I need 8 remotes and a RF signal splitting box as my TV only has one RF socket.

 

[londonbridge]

I have an old TV in one room with integrated Freeview, it's always worked perfectly with a cheap portable aerial; even good ones are less than £20 (and a Freeview set top box about the same if your TV doesnt already have it integrated). No need to put one on the roof.

In fact the portable aerial got broken some time ago and it now runs very happily with a wire coat hanger inserted into to aerial socket

That is dependant on a number of factors including, chiefly, your distance from, and line of sight to, the nearest transmitter, as well as the output power of said transmitter. My main living room set runs off a roof aerial, I have a portable set in the kitchen which is fed from an indoor aerial, most of the time the latter is fine but certain atmospheric conditions or the transmitter on reduced power sometimes leads to picture breakup.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

A simple way of figuring out if you need an outdoor aerial is to look at the houses in your area, if there are some with aerials then chances are you will need one too.

Would that tell you much if the houses are not new? I would assume almost any house more than about 20 years old will have at some point had an aerial fitted to receive old analogue tv signals, which would be useless today, but would still be there unless someone had a specific reason to take it down. I mean - even my house has an old aerial on it (as does pretty much every house around here - I just had a look).

 

[dgl]

Would that tell you much if the houses are not new? I would assume almost any house more than about 20 years old will have had an aerial fitted to receive old analogue tv signals, which would be useless today, but would still be there unless someone had a specific reason to take it down. I mean - even my house has an old aerial on it (as does pretty much every house around here - I just had a look).

The same aerial used for analogue TV will pick up both analogue or digital TV just fine no matter the age if it still works, digital TV is still transmitted using an "analogue" signal it's just using different coding to represent the 0's and 1's. There is no such thing as a "digital" aerial it was all marketing nonsense. The only times a new aerial was needed was if the frequencies used after switchover were out of band for the original aerial (aerials work best if designed for the smallest range of frequencies as possible) and the case of Rowridge changing the polarisation of the aerial to vertical might give you a better signal (it transmits both horizontally and vertically (vertically is at a higher power on some muxes) to help reduce interference from France whilst maintaining compatibility as much as possible.

 

[30120]

I stream the television onto my laptop, then forward it to the big TV using the HDMI cable . Can watch BBC iplayer, ITVX, and channel4..Alas can't watch talking pictures unless somebody knows a way.

 

[Flying Snail]

Would that tell you much if the houses are not new? I would assume almost any house more than about 20 years old will have at some point had an aerial fitted to receive old analogue tv signals, which would be useless today, but would still be there unless someone had a specific reason to take it down. I mean - even my house has an old aerial on it (as does pretty much every house around here - I just had a look).

As dgl said, there is no such thing as a digital aerial, an old one may well work perfectly. You should plug your aerial into your tv and see what you get before spending money on anything else.

As you say every house has one then you must not be close enough to a transmitter for indoor aerials to be of any use so at least you can rule that out.

 

[Darandio]

I stream the television onto my laptop, then forward it to the big TV using the HDMI cable . Can watch BBC iplayer, ITVX, and channel4..Alas can't watch talking pictures unless somebody knows a way.

Yes although not the channel itself, at least some of their content is on demand. https://www.tptvencore.co.uk/

 

[johncrossley]

Does anyone have any insight on the best/cheap ways to get Freeview? I'm looking into it after cancelling my expensive Virgin Internet/tv connection and replacing with a cheaper Internet-only subscription.

Have you considered Stream from Virgin Media? For a one-off £35 charge you get the main channels through your internet connection.

See

List of channels on Stream from Virgin Media – TVCL – TV Channel Lists

www.tvchannellists.com

for a list of available channels.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

The same aerial used for analogue TV will pick up both analogue or digital TV just fine no matter the age if it still works, digital TV is still transmitted using an "analogue" signal it's just using different coding to represent the 0's and 1's. There is no such thing as a "digital" aerial it was all marketing nonsense. The only times a new aerial was needed was if the frequencies used after switchover were out of band for the original aerial (aerials work best if designed for the smallest range of frequencies as possible) and the case of Rowridge changing the polarisation of the aerial to vertical might give you a better signal (it transmits both horizontally and vertically (vertically is at a higher power on some muxes) to help reduce interference from France whilst maintaining compatibility as much as possible.

Thanks! That's interesting. So in that case, it may be that I don't need a new aerial, I'd just need an electrician to climb up and figure out what's happened to (or replace) the cable from the aerial into the house, which I'm pretty sure will have at some point been severed during one of several bits of building works. Although I do have a suspicion that many electricians would charge almost as much for that as they would to just fit a new aerial

 

[GusB]

Would that tell you much if the houses are not new? I would assume almost any house more than about 20 years old will have at some point had an aerial fitted to receive old analogue tv signals, which would be useless today, but would still be there unless someone had a specific reason to take it down. I mean - even my house has an old aerial on it (as does pretty much every house around here - I just had a look).

I'd certainly give the existing aerial a try before spending any money. The one on my house was replaced a while back - maybe about 15 years ago - but it worked with analogue TV before that was switched off and it continues to work well with Freeview.

Another "stick" solution to consider is a Chromecast; it plugs into an HDMI socket and you can stream from a phone, tablet or computer. The only remote control I need is for the telly itself. I bought my first one for £30 and there were numerous free trials for video and music services that would have cost far more than that.

 

[david1212]

... On checking, it looks like my nearest transmitter is less than a mile away, which I assume suggests I'm likely to get a strong signal.

Would that tell you much if the houses are not new? I would assume almost any house more than about 20 years old will have at some point had an aerial fitted to receive old analogue tv signals, which would be useless today, but would still be there unless someone had a specific reason to take it down. I mean - even my house has an old aerial on it (as does pretty much every house around here - I just had a look).

Unless replaced in the first few years the TV aerial on my house is the same one as when built mid-1970's.

Line of sight the transmitter it is aimed it must be 15 miles away. In analogue days while grainy it could pick up another transmitter nominally in the opposite direction perhaps 30 miles away. This transmitter had Freeview first so many households had replacement larger aerials aligned to it but I never bothered.

OK while not considered at the time while I have no obstructions to the main transmitter the lower parts of the estate struggle with reception needing big aerials and booster. Occasionally under certain atmospheric conditions one or more Freeview groups do drop out.

Try your aerial and see. Unless the cable connection is corroded or the cable damaged if you are so close to the transmitter even with obstructions it ought to work.

 

[westv]

OP, what on earth have you been watching fir the last 20 years?

 

[DynamicSpirit]

OP, what on earth have you been watching fir the last 20 years?

Haha! DVDs mostly, tv occasionally. Up until a month or so ago, I got cable tv through a Virgin Media combined broadband/tv package, which I originally took on some years ago when it was the only way to get super-fast broadband. But Virgin kept putting their prices up, and these days other companies offer much more competitive broadband-only packages, so I figured it no longer made financial sense to pay for a package that included tv that I only occasionally watched.

 

[Richardr]

Have you considered Stream from Virgin Media? For a one-off £35 charge you get the main channels through your internet connection.

That requires Virgin Broadband, which the OP has said they no longer have.

 

[johncrossley]

That requires Virgin Broadband, which the OP has said they no longer have.

The OP now has a cheaper internet only service.

 

[jon0844]

Anyone with BT (or I expect EE) can get a TV box that also gets Freeview channels via the Internet, although I think you must pay a fee for the box per month.

I'd hoped by now Freeview would develop a box/stick of its own, or an app for Fire TV, Roku etc that mimics a Freeview box - that being a traditional EPG and not needing to log in to individual apps (iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4 etc) which is somewhat clunky.

So far they've not done this but the Virgin Stream box was pretty good when I was at the launch - but sadly requiring Virgin broadband, although they did say it might one day be available to other ISPs. It depends on whether they think it will help connect more people to Virgin, or sell in larger quantities and help Virgin make more revenue (through the optional subs you can take out).

 

[dangie]

Not Freeview but still Audio Media.

We are decorating the lounge (living room to me). I had to move our Virgin Media WiFi Hub from its long standing position on top of a cabinet. All was ok until the he wife noticed a loose end. “What’s this for” she said holding up one end of a cable. It was an Ethernet cable. One end was still plugged into the Hub the other end…. nothing.

Now there are other cables plus Ethernet still connected ok. I’ve switched everything on and all works ok, television plus internet. We don’t use the home phone so it’s not that. For the life of me I haven’t a clue what it is supposed to be connected to. No doubt once everything is back in its position I’ll find out

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

Anyone with BT (or I expect EE) can get a TV box that also gets Freeview channels via the Internet, although I think you must pay a fee for the box per month.

I'd hoped by now Freeview would develop a box/stick of its own, or an app for Fire TV, Roku etc that mimics a Freeview box - that being a traditional EPG and not needing to log in to individual apps (iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4 etc) which is somewhat clunky.

So far they've not done this but the Virgin Stream box was pretty good when I was at the launch - but sadly requiring Virgin broadband, although they did say it might one day be available to other ISPs. It depends on whether they think it will help connect more people to Virgin, or sell in larger quantities and help Virgin make more revenue (through the optional subs you can take out).

Given the BBC is now under orders to plan how it (and the other OTA broadcasters) would move to all tv services being provided over the internet I would guess a future standard for tv's themselves will include an internet friendly EPG. Smart tv's are common enough so it shouldn't be a difficult step.