Top 5 DIY Ways to Improve Your Digital Television Reception

In the past, television reception was a case of delicately tuning into your favourite station to enjoy the few channels that were available at the time. Today, in the digital age, tuning your television is often done automatically within your television or set-top box. This has made poor TV reception solutions that little bit harder to find. However, there are at least 5 simple things you can do to improve reception.

1) Boost Your Signal

Suffering from drop-outs in your picture? Do you suffer from poor television reception issues? You could be suffering from a weak signal once it gets into your antenna cabling. With the simple addition of a TV signal booster, you can often resolve all of your digital TV reception problems in an instant.

Signal boosters are small devices that are powered by a low voltage charger, that sit between your antenna cable and the cable to your television. The booster can be placed at any point in the cable line, but are mostly used between the antenna and the television. The booster amplifies the signal strength, sending a much stronger signal to your television.

2) Upgrade Your Antenna

In many cases of poor digital TV reception solutions arise from a change in your receiving equipment. For those who live in areas which have an inherently poor television reception, a simple change of your antenna may solve all of your reception issues.

Standard television antennas are intended to work in a narrow field of the radio spectrum, to pick up all of the channels that are close to each other within that spectrum. A wide-band aerial or antenna is used when multiple signals are coming from multiple broadcast antennas, and can easily pick-up all of the signals that are in your area of broadcast.

3) Simplify Your Cabling and Routing

Many people who suffer from bad digital television reception have multiple televisions and devices that need an antenna feed. In many cases, it is this routing of the cables and the splitting of signals which can cause issues with reception and television outages in the home.

Simplify your cabling into a simple design that uses a splitter at the base of the antenna, rather than a home routed system that splits off from each socket. Each time a cable is split into two to provide a signal to multiple televisions; it weakens the signal, and therefore increases the chances of loss of picture. Split your cables at the antenna, and use signal boosters to improve signal gain and reception.

4) Use a Signal Detector to Fine-Tune Your Reception

If you are having issues with your digital TV cutting off all of the time, why not invest in a simple device that will make your television viewing much more pleasurable. A television signal detector will plug into your antenna and give you pointers as to which direction the signal is coming from in your area.

By turning, or raising your antenna, you will be able to see a visual display of the signal strength of each multiplex of channels, giving you a precise location of your local antenna, and what services it offers. Simply move your antenna into the correct position and stabilise it when you have the strongest signal.

5) Use High-Quality Cables and Connectors

Whilst your switch to digital television may have been made with the promise of crystal clear quality pictures and surround sound audio, your old television antenna equipment may not be as up-to-date as your new television of set-top box.

Ensure that high quality coaxial cabling is used throughout the antenna to TV route, and ensure that all of the connectors and distribution boxes use interference-free shielding. Things to look out for are copper-core cables, oxygen-free cables and gold plated connectors to ensure the signal strength doesn’t drop out due to a single, damaged item.

Getting a great picture shouldn’t have to be a painstaking adventure into the world of technical jargon, so if you keep things simple with your television antenna, cables and distribution, you shouldn’t have any serious issues. A good antenna should last anything up to 20 years, so keeping your equipment in good condition is vital for the continuation of your television services, and saying goodbye to poor television reception issues, for good.

Image Source: coindesk.com, imichellevandepas.com, thenextweb.com, telegraph.co.uk