Once upon a time, if your TV had poor reception the solution was simple – get the wife to hang out the window with the aerial while you finished watching Match of the Day.
Sadly those days are gone. Compared to analogue signals, a digital signal either works or doesn’t work, so it’s much harder finding the optimum position by doing gymnastics with the aerial.
That said, the location and orientation of your aerial remains critical – always place it as high as possible or near a window – and away from appliances that could cause interference.
Roof Aerials are Best
Your scope to adjust them yourself is limited – even if you have experience working at heights, are you going to take your digital tuner and TV onto the roof so that you can detect when it’s in an acceptable position?
When you’ve tuned your first channel it’s no guarantee your tuner will be able to find all the others available in your area. In the UK that first channel defaults to the BBC – and they nearly always have a stronger signal than the channels you actually want to watch.
With certain tools you can get an idea of the right direction, but there’s no substitute for having a roof aerial adjusted by a properly equipped and experienced installer (if you live near Malvern TV aerial installation can be done by http://steveunettaerials.co.uk/services/satellite-repair-installation-malvern/).
Things You Can Try Yourself
Changing the shape of your aerial shouldn’t be one of them – if one shape worked better they’d have been standardised years ago – but aerials can be amplified for digital TV.
Some aerials have amplifiers built into them of variable quality. If yours doesn’t, either buy one that does or (usually better) buy an external signal amplifier. They come in many shapes and sizes but generally speaking are small, inexpensive pass-through boxes.
Signal amplifiers are also available for roof aerials. They’re usually fitted on the outside of your house or attached to the aerial – so again you should probably seek a professional (joining co-axial cable isn’t easy and you may end up with no signal at all). They’re easily combined with splitters so that you can share the benefits of your amplified aerial between the different rooms of your home.