Extending existing aerial cable to Freeview TV

Ok got a new TV for the bedroom with Freeview. Have Sky downstairs but don't want to rip up carpets to connect the box to the new TV for Sky upstairs. So I plugged the normal TV aerial into the new TV and...result. It worked fine and got most of the freeview channels with a decent signal.

Now the original TV aerial cable isn't long enough to attach to TV where we want it ie on the wall. So I got an extra piece of cable (male connectors on both ends), a connecting piece (female both ends) and plugged into aerial-TV. Everything baring BBC is now shite I took TV off the wall and tried again with the original cable and it was fine again.

So what to do
1. Is it the cable/connectors and should I get another one?
2. Should I get a booster box like this and try it?
1Way Aerial Amplifier : Aerial Amplifiers Distribution : Maplin
3. Somat else?

Bloke in Maplins suggest a new digital TV aerial but I don't really want to do that, as that adds a fair bit more expense and the bedroom TV is normally only used by the Mrs in the morning when going to work and the odd Sun morning lie in. He also suggested Free Sat and connecting to my Sky dish, but again I'd rather not start shelling out if I don't need to.

Can anyone help?
Ta.

You will introduce some signal loss with connectors and splitters but a single one shouldn't be enough to totally arse it up.
So you've probbaly effed up the connectors or the extra cable is damaged.

Did you buy that cheap thin white extension like you get out Poundland? If so its shit.

Get another cable, male at one end, female at the other.

Screwd.

Cable was in a sale at Focus (closing down). Supposedly gold plated connectors. Think it was £8 odd at full price.

Father in law has a spare length of cable so will try that tonight. I've tried 2 connectors already, same result

if you replace the cable with a m/f cable, you will be replacing all possible failure points.

When that's up and running you can easily find out which bit was duff and bin it.

Cool I will try new cable (not sure what father in law has) 1st as its free and if not get a female/male one from Maplin. I can only imagine the problem is with the cable/connection as plugged directly into the aerial cable it works well.

Ta.

I use one of these - SLx Gold 4 Way Signal Booster / TV Aerial Amplifier for FM/DAB/TV 28103R Only £22.46 at TVCables
I run 3 tvs with freeview boxes off one aerial using it. The box is downstairs, all the tvs are upstairs

Make sure the extension cable is the same impedance as the original one. The wrong cable will cause a significant drop in signal strength. Plus as Screwdriver says the less connections the better. You may find that the original cable is on the limit to start with though, digotal TV is particularly bad for being either working or shite.

Originally Posted by Loz

You may find that the original cable is on the limit to start with though, digotal TV is particularly bad for being either working or shite.

that was my suspicion, founded on

Originally Posted by Supermofo

got most of the freeview channels with a decent signal..

booster box might very well make all the difference. Might also depend on which transmitter your aerial is pointing at. Might also depend the quality & design of your aerial too. So it might be worth looking at a twin block set up in your sky dish (if it hasn't already-are you skyplus HD?) & taking a feed into a cheapy ebay skybox in the bedroom. Then you got it all!

But yeah-decent bit of correctly terminated cable 1st.

FWIW I inherited a 'standard' telly aerial system in my old house. When I investigated in the loft it was a mass of old cable and splitters (trying to split 4 ways FFS) plus a broken in-line 'booster' that actually made the signal worse.

Originally Posted by DefTrap

FWIW I inherited a 'standard' telly aerial system in my old house. When I investigated in the loft it was a mass of old cable and splitters (trying to split 4 ways FFS) plus a broken in-line 'booster' that actually made the signal worse.

In the old gaff, I had an aerial hanging from a piece of string from the rafters. However, it was a good quality item, nicely cabled, so I simply checked the alignment to the transmitter & freeview was flawless. Good point that-I've not seen exactly where the cable route is here.

Best thing to do is take the sky box out cable, drill a hole in the wall, out up to the loft. Use a DSU 2 splitter, back out bown the wall and into your bedroom, Job done. Use high quality external cable, crimp on screw thread connectors!!

OK, got another cable. Female to male this time...and still poop

Then I noticed that as I went to disconnect it, the signal got better when I moved the cable..hmmmm. So I played about with the cables, twisting this way and that ending up with me partially unscrewing the plastic connector on the original aerial lead which seemed to make things much better I'm guessing that this might be part of the problem. I know get most of the channels with a decent signal, though not as many plugging the original aerial straight into TV. So
1. do i get a booster box and see if this helps in some way.
2. replace/or refit the connector on the original aerial lead, as wondering if this could be part of the problem. If the plastic cover is screwed up real tight I lose signal, loosen it a little, or loosen and move cable a bit and signal improves.
3. both!

Originally Posted by Judge

Best thing to do is take the sky box out cable, drill a hole in the wall, out up to the loft. Use a DSU 2 splitter, back out bown the wall and into your bedroom, Job done. Use high quality external cable, crimp on screw thread connectors!!

Have thought on that, but would need to pull carpets up in front room to run cable from Sky box, which puts me off a bit.