Freeview - signal strength drop following retune
Discussion
Looking for advice from the knowledgeable please.
We've lost signal strength on the ITV multiplex after the re-tuning/ch5 'thing' the other week. One of the TVs just goes to black screen and the other gets major artifacts on screen and freezes. The BBC and some of the more random shopping channels appear to be fine.
We have one of these Labgear distribution amps in the loft which takes the main feed and splits/amplifies it out to the three sets in the house.
I'm not sure that it's the amp causing the problems as it's the older TVs which are struggling and just on the ITV channels.
Any advice? Do I have to change to a more powerful amp or simply wait until ITV sort their multiplex out with better signals?
We've lost signal strength on the ITV multiplex after the re-tuning/ch5 'thing' the other week. One of the TVs just goes to black screen and the other gets major artifacts on screen and freezes. The BBC and some of the more random shopping channels appear to be fine.
We have one of these Labgear distribution amps in the loft which takes the main feed and splits/amplifies it out to the three sets in the house.
I'm not sure that it's the amp causing the problems as it's the older TVs which are struggling and just on the ITV channels.
Any advice? Do I have to change to a more powerful amp or simply wait until ITV sort their multiplex out with better signals?
Crystal Palace 39Km, you should be fine with a decent aerial.
To check if it a problem with the distro amp, bypass the amp and connect the aerial directly to a TV and see what the signal is like, if it is bad then you need to get the aerial sorted, if it is good then the amp could be knackered.
Don't forget that when the analogue signal is switched off, the digital signal will be boosted, a lot! So just wait until 2012!
To check if it a problem with the distro amp, bypass the amp and connect the aerial directly to a TV and see what the signal is like, if it is bad then you need to get the aerial sorted, if it is good then the amp could be knackered.
Don't forget that when the analogue signal is switched off, the digital signal will be boosted, a lot! So just wait until 2012!
It is likely that the TV aerial on the house points 4km east toward the transmitter, if so you should be able receive Freeview but you may need a new (group W (or wideband) positioned horizontally) roof-top TV aerial.
Loft mounted arrivals are not generally recommended for Freeview reception, as the roof tiles and plumbing will degrade the signal. Some compensation for this loss of signal can be made by using satellite-grade cable to connect the set top box to the aerial
downside is that the cable is hardwired into the fabric of the building
seem to get great signal on the shopping channels, next to no signal on bbc1, 2, itv, get some on ch4 and lots on ch5 movie channels seem to suffer signal loss and the analoque dies in april 2011
Loft mounted arrivals are not generally recommended for Freeview reception, as the roof tiles and plumbing will degrade the signal. Some compensation for this loss of signal can be made by using satellite-grade cable to connect the set top box to the aerial
downside is that the cable is hardwired into the fabric of the building
seem to get great signal on the shopping channels, next to no signal on bbc1, 2, itv, get some on ch4 and lots on ch5 movie channels seem to suffer signal loss and the analoque dies in april 2011
http://www.ukfree.tv/txdetail.php?a=TQ339712
the itv multiplex is low power from that transmitter so i would expect some problems with reception if your aerial system is a little dicky but if you piced it up b4 the retune then you should be able to now. Check all of your aerial leads for bad connections, a good way is to put a channel on the tv them wiggle all of the leads, if the pic jumps then you have a loose one
the itv multiplex is low power from that transmitter so i would expect some problems with reception if your aerial system is a little dicky but if you piced it up b4 the retune then you should be able to now. Check all of your aerial leads for bad connections, a good way is to put a channel on the tv them wiggle all of the leads, if the pic jumps then you have a loose one
Scraggles said:
....but you may need a new (group W (or wideband) positioned horizontally) roof-top TV aerial.....
Loft mounted arrivals are not generally recommended for Freeview reception,
....the analoque dies in april 2011
Yes, we've had a wideband aerial for some years nowLoft mounted arrivals are not generally recommended for Freeview reception,
....the analoque dies in april 2011
No, it's not in the loft
No, we don't use the analogue signal, unless we're desperate
Thanks
headcase said:
http://www.ukfree.tv/txdetail.php?a=TQ339712
the itv multiplex is low power from that transmitter so i would expect some problems with reception if your aerial system is a little dicky but if you piced it up b4 the retune then you should be able to now. Check all of your aerial leads for bad connections, a good way is to put a channel on the tv them wiggle all of the leads, if the pic jumps then you have a loose one
Thanks - no issues with bad connections, it's simply the change in transmission strength following the retune 'thing' the other week.the itv multiplex is low power from that transmitter so i would expect some problems with reception if your aerial system is a little dicky but if you piced it up b4 the retune then you should be able to now. Check all of your aerial leads for bad connections, a good way is to put a channel on the tv them wiggle all of the leads, if the pic jumps then you have a loose one
We don't have any STBs, all the TVs have built in Freeview tuners, Toshiba (bedroom - 7 years old) is suffering the most from artifacts and freezing, Sony (kitchen, 3 years old) is the one blanking out and the Panasonic (Front room - 2 years old - Thanks Der
)is the one that's doing the best.Is it a case of sitting and waiting 'til 2012 when they switch off the analogue transmoitters and up the power again on digital or will that be taken up by HD Freeview transmissons?
I don't know if it helps, but we had very similar problems following the great re-tune. We live in an area with poor freeview reception anyway, but this is what I did to get a decent picture and channel selection;
1. biggest wideband aerial I could buy. It is mounted in the loft, bad position I know, but it works. That got us a signal on Film4 but it kept breaking up.
2. replace all cable, including that from wall sockets to TV, etc, with double-screened "satellite" cabling. It was fairly cheap cable - a big roll from Wilkinsons. Apparently if you get a signal but it breaks up, you're not far away from success and little things like the cable make all the difference. I wouldn't have believed the cable made that much difference, but it did.
Those steps got us most freeview channels from our local Belmont transmitter, which has a low signal strength on some of the multiplexes. But following the re-tune and we lost film4, ITV3/4, etc.
I fitted a masthead amplifier from Labgear. This is powered via the coax so you can mount the power supply downstairs to the same wall socket as your tv. I bought it from a guy on Ebay who was very helpful, I guessed he does this for a living - this was it;
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...
That bought back all the channels we'd lost and I've got to admit it's better than ever now.
1. biggest wideband aerial I could buy. It is mounted in the loft, bad position I know, but it works. That got us a signal on Film4 but it kept breaking up.
2. replace all cable, including that from wall sockets to TV, etc, with double-screened "satellite" cabling. It was fairly cheap cable - a big roll from Wilkinsons. Apparently if you get a signal but it breaks up, you're not far away from success and little things like the cable make all the difference. I wouldn't have believed the cable made that much difference, but it did.
Those steps got us most freeview channels from our local Belmont transmitter, which has a low signal strength on some of the multiplexes. But following the re-tune and we lost film4, ITV3/4, etc.
I fitted a masthead amplifier from Labgear. This is powered via the coax so you can mount the power supply downstairs to the same wall socket as your tv. I bought it from a guy on Ebay who was very helpful, I guessed he does this for a living - this was it;
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...
That bought back all the channels we'd lost and I've got to admit it's better than ever now.
2012 is a long way away to live with that problem, if your not upto it yourself then get an aerial firm in. If the signal has dropped since the retune (im not aware of any power drops on any transmitters, the retune was suppost to be just a reshuffle of services within the already established multiplexes) then you are gunna need a better aerial/amp to pick up the weaker signal.
The amp may not be faulty, you need to link it out and see. Disconnect the aerial from it and one of the TV's then join the cables togeter (you will need an aerial coupler) then go and see if that 1 TV works ok. If it does then it is likely to be the amp at fault, if it is still the same then you will likely need an aerial upgrade. You can never say with any certainty as aerial stuff has a hint of black magic when it comes to tracing faults
Ranger 6 said:
OK, filling in more of the details...
The cabling is 18 months old and is screened co-ax. All the TVs are relatively new LCD/Plasma sets with built-in Freeview tuners.
So my guess is that replacing the labgear amp/distribution box may help?
Ok, bear in mind I'm no expert on this and can only recount our findings.The cabling is 18 months old and is screened co-ax. All the TVs are relatively new LCD/Plasma sets with built-in Freeview tuners.
So my guess is that replacing the labgear amp/distribution box may help?
If it's simple coax cable and you get a picture which just breaks up slightly, then moving to a better double screened cable worked for us. It's probably your last option as it's messy hiding the cable - floorboards up in our case.
Replacing the existing distribution amp might work but it depends how much boost it's giving the signal at the moment. The masthead amps seem to top out at 25db on my research and yours might be doing that already.
One thing you might try; we used to have a similar distribution amp and it had an output where it put full amplified signal out of just one connection. If yours has a similar output then you can see if a full boost solves the problem for a single tv - if it doesn't then there's no point wasting more money. If it does, you could always try a booster before the distribution amp ?
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