Tuning

Tuning in a digital TV receiver is different from tuning in a traditional analogue TV set. You programme the digital box or TV to do it automatically, sit back and wait for a minute or two.

Unfortunately if your signal is too weak, this will simply fail because the receiver will not be able to ‘lock on’ to the stations properly. You could end up with an irritating game of trial and error, moving the aerial round your room to find the signal.

Quick fix
There are some ways around this to tune in digital TV.

If you have a rooftop aerial for your analogue TV, use this to tune in your new digital box or TV. Once tuned, the new digital product will ‘remember’ all the stations, even when you move it into another room and connect it to the indoor aerial.

If you do not have a rooftop aerial, it’s worth asking somebody else who lives nearby – someone using the same transmitter – if you can tune in your digital box using their rooftop aerial.

Now it will be much easier to find the signals with the indoor aerial – as described in positioning.

Please note, though, that this will probably not work if the aerial you connect to is on a communal aerial system, shared with other users (eg in a block of flats). You need to connect it to a separate rooftop aerial.

As a last resort, connect your new indoor aerial directly to the TV (not to the digital box). Switch on to one of the analogue channels, then move the aerial around to see where you get the best picture.

This will give you a good idea of places and directions to try for a strong enough digital signal. If you can’t find a fairly snow-free analogue picture, digital probably isn’t going to work reliably.