Constant Freeview problems

Constant Freeview problems

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anonymous-user

Original Poster:

60 months

Tuesday 15th December 2009
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[redacted]

robinhood21

30,831 posts

238 months

Tuesday 15th December 2009
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It's possible that your ariel signal is not strong enough or, the decoder in your TV is not up to it. The signal to my TV (with on-board decoder) sometimes struggles with the signal, yet if I use my off-board decoder (Sagem PVR) the picture is fine. Might be worth having a ariel installer look at the ariel and see if it's up to the job for your area. Could also try retuning your TV to see if it makes a difference.

bobthemonkey

4,000 posts

222 months

Wednesday 16th December 2009
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It's a Freeview PVR/recorder. Think Tivo or Sky+ for Freeview.

It is possible that is may fix the problem if your existing tuner is st. If you have the same problem on more than one Freeview receiver then it wouldn't. Then again, they are great bits of kit.

Sounds like an ariel fault; it could also be the weather and interference from other sources. Most transmitters are broadcasting Freeview at reduced power until the switchover for your region.


headcase

2,389 posts

223 months

Wednesday 16th December 2009
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You need to tell us what transmitter you are on and what TV you have that is having the problem.
The problem you describe is consistant with a poor signal, it could well be that your Aerial is so good that you are picking up from an adjoining region and you are unknowingly watching that wink

Once you know what transmitter you should be on then you need to do a manual tune to make sure you are recieving from that transmitter then we take it from there.

The Riddler

6,565 posts

203 months

Wednesday 16th December 2009
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I had similar problems to what your experiencing, after trying 4 areils and several boxes i decided to cut my losses and just get a tv package from a tv package provider, I needed a phoneline and broadband anyway, so it made sense to get all 3 together.

Sorry i cant add anything too constructive..

hairyben

8,516 posts

189 months

Wednesday 16th December 2009
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Problem with weak digital signals is there's a cliff-edge where they just stop working, not like old analogue where the pic just gets progressively worse as the signal weakens.

Sounds like a signal problem, there should be a menu in the telly you can see the signal strength on. Worth talking to the neighbours to make sure it isn't a problematic area before getting a aerial rigger in.

Other things it could be are damaged co-ax downlead from the aerial to the telly, or an old non digi compliant booster, diplexer or distro amp.

Ultuous

2,248 posts

197 months

Wednesday 16th December 2009
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headcase said:
You need to tell us what transmitter you are on
yes I've used this during my last couple of moves when I've needed to check out the freeview availability situation/ whether it's worth getting a professional aerial installer in to sort it out!

Deva Link

26,934 posts

251 months

Wednesday 16th December 2009
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anonymous said:
[redacted]
It's a cheap crappy telly to be honest so if anything is a bit marginal then you'll struggle.

Digital TV is broadcast in groups of channels and they're broadcast at different powers so it makes sense that some channels are fine and others aren't.

Try to doing a complete factory reset and see if that helps. Is your aeriel lead good, and does it go straight to the TV? Is there a menu in the TV for showing the signal strengh (60%+ should be OK) and its quality - look at the stats for one of the channels that doesn't work.

Ranger 6

7,152 posts

255 months

Wednesday 16th December 2009
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Ever since the re-tune I've had similar issues with one of the multiplexes - the ITV one.

This is good to see coverage - from that site the Guildford Transmitter is not a digital one.


Deva Link

26,934 posts

251 months

Wednesday 16th December 2009
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Ranger 6 said:
.. from that site the Guildford Transmitter is not a digital one.
There is a small low power one at Guildford - http://www.ukfree.tv/txdetail.php?a=SU975486

There's a lot of information on that page, including that the power will be boosted dramatically when the switchover happens.

Deva Link

26,934 posts

251 months

Wednesday 16th December 2009
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anonymous said:
[redacted]
Sorry, I was probably being a bit harsh. From the link I posted you've got significant problems with the transmitter.

Can only suugest that you look at neighbours equipment (preferably when the man of the house is out!) and see what works for them. Perhaps advice from a local aerial fitter would be useful.

bobthemonkey

4,000 posts

222 months

Wednesday 16th December 2009
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anonymous said:
[redacted]
Ah, I wonder if you are picking up the wrong transmitter; you may have tuned in to a bad, edge of area Ch5 and there is a stronger signal higher up the frequency range.

Use ukfree.tv to determine what tx you should be on, and manually tune in each multiplex, after restoring your set to default and wiping all stored channels.

Deva Link

26,934 posts

251 months

Wednesday 16th December 2009
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bobthemonkey said:
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Ah, I wonder if you are picking up the wrong transmitter; you may have tuned in to a bad, edge of area Ch5 and there is a stronger signal higher up the frequency range.

Use ukfree.tv to determine what tx you should be on, and manually tune in each multiplex, after restoring your set to default and wiping all stored channels.
That's a possibility - my daughter lives in Chester and autotune picked up all the Welsh stations, S4C instead of Channel 4 etc. She retuned manually and found the English ones.

To be honest, I've never done this so have no idea how it will look in the tuning menu of your TV but there's a list here of the frequency used for each mux (ETA - possibly some of the frequencies might have changed as we've partially switched over). Perhaps you could pick up Crystal Palace instead of Guildford?

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/reception_advice/dt...

Edited by Deva Link on Wednesday 16th December 18:17

headcase

2,389 posts

223 months

Wednesday 16th December 2009
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Ok fistly have a look at your Aerial (Binoclears may be reqd), if it is a Group B (with a yellow end cap) then this is indeed causing a problem as 2 of the Mux's are out of group, if it does have a yellow end cap then the Aerial needs replacing. If not then continue wink

the frequencies from guildford are as follows,

Mux 1 C49 697Mhz
Mux 2 C44 658Mhz
Mux A C41 634Mhz
Mux B C51 714Mhz
Mux C C47 682Mhz
Mux D C54 738Mhz

What you need to do next is a manual tune, i have no experience of that particualr set but the procedure is standard.

Firstly you need to delete all of the channels that are currently stored (this is important), sometimes there is an option in the menu to do this possibly labelled 'default or factory settings', if not you can start off the Auto tune then cancel it before it finds anything or pull out the Aerial and then run the Auto tune so it dosent find anything.

Next go into the manual tuning menu (im assuming it has one, if not there is another solution further down)
In the manual tune option there will be a place to either key in or select from a list either a Frequency (in the form of a 3 digit number) or a channel (2 digit number), there will also be a search option.
Refer to the list above and key in either C49 (channel) or 697 (frequency) then hit search, the tv will then search that particualr frequency and auto store what it finds on the correct preset number.
Repete that for all of the Multiplexes listed.

If the TV does not have a manual tune option and believe me plenty of them dont, you can see from the list that the lowest frequency you need to pick up is C41 and the highest is C54, so pull out the aerial and start off Auto tune then for the tricky bit you need to plug it back in just as the search reaches C41, leave it in until it gets to C55 then pull it out again, when it is finished plug it back in again. This can be tricky but sometimes it is the only way.

Doing this will ensure you are picking up from the correct transmitter, someone mentioned a similar problem in chester picking up wales, indeed i am based in that part of the world and this is the main problem i have been solving ever since we switched over!
If its still all to cock after that then you really need a new aerial.

caiss4

1,908 posts

203 months

Tuesday 22nd December 2009
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And if none of that works try a new coax lead from your wall socket to your TV. I had similar problems and tried every kind of re-tuning. As the aerial was shared in a block of flats I assumed the installation was not up to much and called in an aerial guy who soon discounted that assumption and traced it to a duff coax lead. No problems since!

Fourmotion

1,026 posts

226 months

Wednesday 23rd December 2009
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Dizeee, did this only start happening about a month ago? I live in Guildford, and my freeview was fine up until a month ago, and now is intermittent. Frustration doesn't cover it. It had been working without a hitch for the past three years.

I use a communal aerial, so I'm sure that isn't the issue. I've got a Humax box, which could be the problem as it's recently updated the software.

I'm going to give a few of the above ideas a go and see if it helps.

Edited for sheite spelling

Edited by Fourmotion on Wednesday 23 December 13:50