Kitz Forum
Chat => Tech Chat => Topic started by: chrissie on December 10, 2008, 10:08:05 AM
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I don't know if this is the right section for anyone to help, but I'm sure someone will tell me if not.
Luckily I don't have to view freeview very often because we have Sky+, but I wondered if someone can explain or point me in the right direction as to why the picture keeps breaking up? It's not just mine either, my neighbour and my daughter experience the same problem.
I have freeview incorporated on my Panasonic flat screen TV which has Sky dish and very old tv aerial attached. My neighbour has freeview incorporated on his newish DVD recorder and has a newish digital TV aerial attached. My daughter (half a mile away) has a freeview box with old loft tv aerial attached and yet we are all experiencing the same problem, picture breaking up and in my neighbour's case, screen freezing on all channels.
Does this mean that there is something wrong with the signal in this area, that it is weak, or is it that the freeview system is crappito anyway? I can't see it's the equipment we have because it's all different yet we have the same problem.
Some ideas would be helpful please especially as in the not too distant future we are going to be forced in relying solely on freeview (or Sky in my case) when you can hardly watch the pictures.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Chrissie
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It sounds like a weak signal.We have freeview and most of our channels are brilliant,the only ones that sometimes break up/go blocky are the BBC ones, 1,2,3,4,BBC news 24,CBBC.Our aerial is in the loft,but we are quite high up in a good reception area.
Is your area in good reception area.You sound as though you need a new aerial,but your neighbours should be fine.
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Chrissie, I'm not a satellite expert (bet that's a surprise to you ;D ) but we get breaking up of picture when there is adverse weather about. It might be the extreme cold weather you are experiencing, or it could be that the dish/aerial is slightly out of sync due to high winds ..... these are some of the causes we have experienced anyway, hope it helps :)
Oooops Unc didn't see you there ... you'll know more about these things than I do !
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Hi Chrisie,
Probably the signal's too weak - either because it's a long way from the transmitter or because your aerial's not optimal. Most freeview-enabled TVs, or set top boxes, have a signal-strength display 'option' somewhere in the menus that should confirm it's the case.
There's no such thing as a 'digital aerial' despite the fact that everybody seems to be selling them. The old TC channels used to be grouped together on nearly adjacent channels. But the group you received depended on where you lived, and the aerials were optimised for the different groupings. With freeview, the aerial you have may not be optimal for the freeview multiplexes in your area.
You could try a signal booster/amplifier. It'll be cheaper than a new aerial and if you've a weak signal you might need one anyway (as well as a new aerial). It's done the trick for me an lifted freeview from being completely useless to being perfect picture. I paid about £20-30 from Maplin, though cheaper ones exist. Best to mount it as close as you can to the aerial - mine's in the loft.
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At present the Freeview signal is transmitted at very low power, so that it doesn't interfere with the old analogue transmissions. The result is that, in many areas, the Freeview signal is just too weak to get good reception. It sounds as though you live in one of those areas. You can get an estimate of availability by entering your postcode here. (http://www.freeview.co.uk/availability)
A so-called 'digital' aerial will help, but it's only a normal aerial with extended capability and sensitivity, so it's not a miracle solution. When the old analogue transmissions are finally switched off, the Freeview transmitters will be able to deliver more power, and reception should improve a great deal.
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TD has the choice of pointing his aerial at one of two transmitters.
The nearest one is not yet digital enabled and we can get only BBC 1 and 2, ITV and C4..........not even C5.
The digital enabled one is about 40 miles away and most of the village can get a Freeview signal from there and have about a dozen extra channels.
TD can't get that as TD Towers is, apparently, in a shadow cast by the church steeple......... :(
Why me, why me............ :cry2:
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I can't even get freeview here... all we have for an aerial is little more that a piece of tin foil... and that has to serve 140 properties. We have no cable and I would need to pay for planning permission for Sky... so we have to put up with the 5 free to air channels.
I've tried fitting a freeview box (kindly donated by a mate), but it picks up nothing.
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We must be lucky as we are not too far from the Emily Moor transmitter tower.
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I'm ever so surprised ! do I take it that you all have aerials as opposed to dishes ? I only ask because we get freeview here via our satellite dish pointing at the Astra 2 (I think ???) even though we are right on the edge of the 'footprint' As I said, at times in adverse weather conditions, our signal breaks up and sometimes goes off altogether.
TD in view of it being a church steeple preventing your signal, perhaps some divine intervention is due ;)
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Kate,Sky only works via a 'dish',but you get freeview through your existing aerial(if its good enough).If not you need a new aerial.As you will have already read in previous posts,a lot depends on where you live.Its a postcode lottery at present I'm afraid. :(
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Oh I see Unc, thank you, I didn't realise Freeview was available via an aerial .... but from some posts it obviously doesn't apply everywhere :( just ignore my post about weather conditions and dishes Chrissie ::) I bet you thought I'd been on the :drunk: again :)
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TD has the choice of pointing his aerial at one of two transmitters.
The nearest one is not yet digital enabled and we can get only BBC 1 and 2, ITV and C4..........not even C5.
The digital enabled one is about 40 miles away and most of the village can get a Freeview signal from there and have about a dozen extra channels.
by glancing around the neighbourhood affected is everyones aerals all pointing in the same direction this will give a quick clue if you have a choice of a second transmitter.
Otherwise check the aeral ie poinitng in a similar direction to everyone elses, it hasn't been knocked off allignment.
see if the aerial isn't at an odd angle, and all the elements appear straight, it dosn't resemble a fir tree with randomly arranged branches (both the last 2 effected my parents reception. I twisted the aeral only by about 5 degrees as it was listing a little. and bent the elements back as some were bent out of kilter, da-da#,sorted)
the fact a few in the area are having the same problem seems to point to a weak signal area. a booster would be the next easyest thing to try.
Is the aerial it pointing through trees (if not evergreen the problems worse with leaf cover, or especialy after rain as the greenery has a greater water content) or via some structure (floydy- isn't the cathedral by any chance ?), over a hill
the next alternative is a better aerial, expensive and arkward, so have a look in the area and see if any one has an aerial where the flat square bit toward the back is a bit bigger and angled forward at 45 degrees eg.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=217681
then I can only suggest knocking on their door and asking how they find the reception with their set up before paying out yourself only to find no gain (paedon the pun)
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I would support the suggestion that signal strength or lack of it is the problem. If it has happened only recently it could due to work being carried out on the transmitter aerial and it should improve eventually but if it has never been good you could just be a long way from the transmitter. With the demise of terrestrial analogue transmissions as Eric says the signal strength will be raised providing better reception to distant parts. You could try a preamp in the aerial feed as near as possible to the aerial itself. I have one in the loft which makes digital CH5 perfect as opposed to unwatchable but it could cause overloading of other channels causing them to break up! It's a suck it and see job!
Tony
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@ scottiesmum >>> TD in view of it being a church steeple preventing your signal, perhaps some divine intervention is due <<<
I'm saving that up in case the suns come back.. >:D
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Eric's right (as always, of course) that Freeview will improve once analogue can be switched off. So 'wait and see' is an option but I suppose the trouble is, for those souls that can't get both, they won't know in advance whether the improvement will be sufficient or not. I'd hope the powers that be have done their sums and research and get it right.
I actually get quite good freeview andc quite good analogue too. If the analogue signal's good enough then I actually prefer analogue for (IMHO) its better picture quality. Take a look at a scene, for example, where an actor has stubble on his chin, and compare freeview and analogue. You'll find the stubble has often disappeared from the digitised signal. Similarly, a field of grass often looks like a smooth coat of green paint on freeview (even when the image isn't moving). I suspect they may be doing a 'noise reduction' on the signal before digitising it so it compresses better, and the stubble on chin, or individual blades of grass, are mistaken for noise. I now have a widescreen TV however, and most (freeview) channels are broadcast widescreen, so I've got used to the low-detail picture and find it generally acceptable. But only just. Others may disagree (ready, steady, go...!).
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>> You'll find the stubble has often disappeared from the digitised signal.
That sounds like an advantage to me :lol:
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>> You'll find the stubble has often disappeared from the digitised signal.
That sounds like an advantage to me :lol:
from OF's string
http://www.raincitystory.com/flash/screenclean.swf
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Well we get Freeview OK on our high gain aerial (I had to have a new one anyway and so fitted a high gain type) although if you use the Freeview post code checker it says we dont get it here :P The problem we are going to have is when the switch over comes because being right on the coast only a short distance from France and they switch to their equivalent as well there is likely to be a problem because they will up their signal strength. Not sure they will co-operate with the UK. As others have said signal strength can vary but some times even with good strength we get dropout on the picture.
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I have cable, no satellite or aerial actually needed, even then I still on the odd occasion get a sharp breakdown and freezing of picture and sound, so the problem obviously is down to the strength of signal being sent from the supplier.
As for Freeview or any other other type of signal strength, one of the posts says the mast is very close, this in fact can actually have a adverse effect and give you too strong a signal, so you would have to use a "Attenuator" to drop the signal strength to get a decent quality.
(You can also sometimes achieve this by wrapping "one or two" strands of the coax outer cable sheath onto the center core cable)
A friend of mine lives in Sutton Coldfield with the mast at the bottom of their road and the picture quality from that site is dreadful, so they get their signal from a different mast.
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A friend of mine lives in Sutton Coldfield with the mast at the bottom of their road and the picture quality from that site is dreadful.
The signal can be too strong, they may need some attenuation.
A competent aerial installer will have all the right equipment to measure signal stregth and make the appropriate adjustments.
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As some of you know I took the plunge this summer and got a free-view box and it works fine on my bog standard aerial. The only time it threw a hissy fit was last week when it snowed heavily for a couple of hours, everybody went bright pink and the picture went blocky and lagged. It sounds as if something is suddenly blocking the signal, in view of TD's problem it could be something like a crane on a site, or a new construction having reached a certain height.
I noticed the other day that although all the channels are still there some of them seem to have moved channel numbers, I know they do updates on the transmitters, have you tried re-scanning all the stations.
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Thanks everyone for your replies and help, most useful. From what you've said I'm thinking it is indeed the weak signal as a problem especially as we all have different equipment and aerials but have the same trouble with the picture. I went to freeview site with the postcode and it said, "good news you should be able to receive the most popular channels and more after the switchover" or words to that effect. I've now contacted them from their site..... so hopefully they will come up with an answer if they reply.
As for the "digital" aerial that my neighbour has, he is so easily convinced about things that even I mentioned (with my limited knowledge) that one doesn't actually need a digital aerial for the switchover, he went for one having been sold it by the aerial installers. When I rang a local guy who does aerials he knew immediately that in my area the analogue tv has a weak signal and told me if I have a new aerial it would have to be a high gain one. I didn't go ahead with it because we have sky+ but now having seen the freeview on the new tv and hearing what you have to say here, it does look to me as though I will have to get a new aerial to optimize freeview pics. Will see what Freeview peeps have to say.
Thanks so much for your help, I knew I could rely on you wonderful people.
Chrissie
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If you've got Sky and intend to keep it you don't have to do anything. All the Freeview channels are available on Sky anyway.
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You can also use your Sky satellite dish to pick up Freesat from Freeview if you don't want to keep paying Sky subscriptions and the satellite dish belongs to you (ie. not still owned buy Sky on a free installation if you stay with us deal)