signal

Best TV Signal Booster & Amplifier UK

Although digital TV signals are designed in such a way that, in theory, they should be able to cross long distances without any deterioration in signal quality, the reality is that digital TV signals can be impeded by physical obstructions (such as tall buildings) and degraded through the impact of weather and (increasingly) 4G signals.

Your first line of defence against this is a good TV aerial.  In fact, if you are experiencing issues with your TV signal, then your first action should usually be to check the aerial itself.  If it’s a relatively new aerial and you’re happy with the quality, then you may simply need to adjust its positioning.

If, however, it’s an older aerial or a poor-quality aerial, then you may well need to look at upgrading it.  Remember that even the best quality outdoor aerials are exposed to the elements and therefore can only be expected to have a limited life span.

Indoor aerials have an easier time of it, but you still have to allow for the fact that technology moves on and an aerial which was top of the range a few years ago is highly unlikely to be top of the range now.  In particular, the quality of aerial cabling has improved tremendously and you might find yourself surprised by just how much a difference this makes to the quality of your picture.

If, however, this is still not enough, then you may need to take further action and give your aerial a helping hand by means of a signal booster.

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There are various forms of these on the market, but realistically the only two you should look at are masthead TV amplifiers and indoor TV aerial boosters.  The former will provide a real boost to your signal quality and can make the difference between no reception worth the name and a decent picture.  The latter will give a signal a helping hand and can take an OK signal up to a good one.

Do not confuse either of these with a TV distribution amplifier, which is essentially a signal splitter with some amplifying capacity.  This is absolutely fine for their typical use of allowing a feed from a Sky+ box to be viewed from multiple TVs, but it won’t be nearly enough to boost a weak Freeview signal.

There are lots of TV signal boosters on the market and, as you’d expect, these are of varying quality.  To help you out, we’ve listed our five top picks below.

Philex 27813HS 4-Way TV Signal Booster

Philex 27813HS 4-Way TV Signal Booster

Our one gripe about this signal booster is that you need a male-to-male cable to link the booster to the TV(s) and this is not necessarily supplied, so you may need to order one separately.  Having said that, possibly the logic behind this is that a lot of people have houses full of random cables and perhaps don’t need any more.  It also has to be said that the appearance of this device is not going to please everyone, but then again, you’re probably not going to spend that much time looking at it.  That aside, this is a very reasonably-priced booster which does a decent job of turning moderate reception into good reception.

Proception 1 Way Professional Indoor Digital Aerial Signal Booster Amplifier for TV

Proception 1 Way Professional Indoor Digital Aerial Signal Booster Amplifier for TV

The whole idea behind this signal booster is that it is an unobtrusive (and affordable) little unit, which will fit discreetly into any home and so a decent job of boosting TV (and DAB) signals in a domestic environment.  For the sake of completeness, domestic means exactly that, it’s for the average house, which gets a moderate to poor signal rather than caravans or such like in remote, holiday locations, which may be very scenic but get next to no signal at all.  Used as intended, this is a very decent little device.

SLx TV Amplifier 27828HSR, 27822HSR,27820HSR and 27824HSR

SLx TV Amplifier 27828HSR, 27822HSR,27820HSR and 27824HSR

This is all the same signal booster, the difference is in the number of outputs each version supports (1,2,4,6 and 8 respectively).  SLx has long been a respected name in the area of TV and DAB signal boosting and this is the latest version of their main product.  In addition to updates to the basic, core functionality, it comes with an inbuilt 4G filter, which could make it a very compelling buy even if your part of the country is not (yet) covered by 4G.  The reason for this is that there is broad consensus that the UK’s digital infrastructure deserves continuous improvement and therefore it is a safe bet that sooner or later 4G will be rolled out around the whole country in much the same way as 3G has been.  The difference is that 3G has not been known to cause an issue with digital TV signals whereas 4G definitely does.

Vision Plus VP5 12v 3 Way Digital TV and 1 way DAB/FM Radio Amplifier

Vision Plus VP5 12v 3 Way Digital TV and 1 way DAB/FM Radio Amplifier

Overall we like this unit a lot, because it provides a combination of solid performance and flexibility.  We have, however, had it pointed out to us that people who are red/green colour blind might have issues using it, which seems a bit of a shame.  Assuming, however, that you can see red and green, this unit has a lot of plus points.  In addition to delivering a noticeable boost to your TV signal, it can work off mains or battery and also has an output for FM radio, which is a pointer to its intended market of caravans and boats, which might be out of range of any DAB transmitter.

XCSOURCE 1080P 40M HDMI Repeater Extender Booster Adapter

This device is designed specifically for extending HDMI signals and is marketed for HDTVs.  It does, however, seem to have found a nice little niche for itself in the form of people who use the Oculus Rift gaming headset.  In either case, this is a surprisingly affordable aerial signal booster, which could be a very useful investment if your HDTV (or headset) is not delivering the picture quality you expected and you’ve established that it’s the (absence of) signal rather than the TV (or headset) itself.

Read Our Article On The 7 Best Indoor TV Aerial For Freeview

What is the best tv antenna signal booster?

Well hopefully we have answered that question here and of course, it will also come down to budget - Our favourite it has to be said is the 'SLx TV Aerial Amplifier'.

What do you think? Have we missed one you like or tried or think we should add one to the list? Simply let us know in the comments below