Last Christmas we got a DVD recorder which had a built in Freeview tuner. Unfortunately we didn’t have an aerial suitable for digital TV, so fitting one was added to my ‘to do’ list. A couple of months later, when our TV packed up, the replacement also had a built in Freeview tuner. So now we had two unused Freeview tuners. I wanted to install an aerial in the loft and run it down through the house, but the route wasn’t going to be easy.

The kids went to stay at their grandparents on Tuesday until today. So on Wednesday, I took the opportunity to fit an aerial in the loft for digital TV. I ended up lifting some of the floorboards on the landing to route the cable, not something, I’d really want to be doing with the kids under foot. It took a while but eventually, after drilling through the wall from the kitchen, I had the cable in the living room by the television.

I had bought enough cable to route all the way from the loft, however, the aerial came with a pre-attached cable which I couldn’t replace. The pre-attached cable was of course not long enough (short about 3m). I was able to extend the cable using some of the new cable and connectors, but I didn’t have enough connectors to finish the job. I was going to pop out that evening to get the needed connector, but had car problems (but that’s another post).

Jo got the connector yesterday for me and I fitted it last night. I tuned in the television to the digital signal with the intension on adjusting the aerial for the best signal. I must have guessed right because the signal was at maximum and the picture quality is great.

Both the DVD recorder and TV are now working with Freeview, which means that I can watch Freeview channels at the same time as recording from the cable channels or visa versa.

I’ve spent some time this afternoon updating my Pronto remote control with additional menus for the Freeview channels.