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Digital TV Irritance
http://x404.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1214		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  ProfessorF [ Fri Jun 12, 2009 8:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Digital TV Irritance
We have two TV sets here, one in the lounge, one in the kitchen.
Both have a digital box attached, one Matsui and one Philips.

Both are fed from the same aerial in the loft. I can see the lights on two transmitters from the house at night - so we're pretty much LOS for two transmitter masts.

And yet, the box in the lounge gives a picture full of blocks and artefacts, freezing, pixellation etc. on a lot of channels.
The one in the kitchen doesn't, but for some unfathomable reason, that one won't hold a tune. After about 12 or so hours, it's lost the channel information.
Usually ITV and Five go, and it spreads from there until there's no channels displaying.

Any digital TV boffins have a solution? Are we looking at two new digi boxes?
Author:  Linux_User [ Fri Jun 12, 2009 11:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Digital TV Irritance
When are you due for the switchover? Supposedly the signal will be better after the switchover.
Author:  ProfessorF [ Sat Jun 13, 2009 10:07 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Digital TV Irritance
We're the first in the country to go fully digital.
And, to be fair, the image did improve. Now the break ups we're getting are much smaller in size, and the audio isn't affected 98% of the time.
Author:  pcernie [ Sat Jun 13, 2009 10:18 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Digital TV Irritance
The only thing I can think of is a two-way booster for the signal, and making sure anything else connected (DVD player etc) is retuned to another channel or it's port changed :?

Is this a recent problem?

Oh, and I'm no genius when it comes to such matters, just trying to be helpful ;)
Author:  JJW009 [ Sat Jun 13, 2009 2:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Digital TV Irritance
What is your aerial like? Is it definitely wide-band? Is it up a pole or in the loft?

Alternatively, I wonder if the signal is actually too strong?

If you're that close, you could probably try with a portable aerial. That would at least give a clue where the problem lies.
Author:  ProfessorF [ Sat Jun 13, 2009 2:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Digital TV Irritance
JJW009 wrote:
What is your aerial like? Is it definitely wide-band? Is it up a pole or in the loft?


I haven't a clue, simply. It's in the loft, but there is one pointing to the other transmitter on a pole at the other end of the house.
Getting up there to wave it about a bit won't be easy either - the loft's got 10 inches of insulation in it now. If I don't put a foot through the ceiling, I'll be inhaling fibreglass. When we moved in we sorted the wiring out so that the signal booster wasn't connected to the lighting circuit anymore (:shock: used to be able to freeze the TV picture if you turned the dimmer up too high in the lounge) and sorted the cable runs from the booster to the lounge, kitchen and my bedroom (but I have no digi box).
Author:  cloaked_wolf [ Sat Jun 13, 2009 4:44 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Digital TV Irritance
I found the set-top box can vary in picture quality despite having the same feed.

Moved into a flat with a mate, used a signal booster to boost and split the signal so matey and I had a strong signal each. His TV came with a digital tuner built in and picked up all the channels fantastically. I bought a philips digibox for £30-40 and it was small, sleek and sexy. Unfortunately, it barely picked up half the channels and many of them were blocky. Changed it for a cheapo unit and that has worked flawlessly.
Author:  davrosG5 [ Sun Jun 14, 2009 10:45 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Digital TV Irritance
How old are the digiboxes?

If you can afford it you might end up better off getting a proper digital (wideband) aerial installed with the necessary gubbins if your aerial is quite old.
Try finding an installer from this lot: CAI. Just get a couple of quotes though as I found they could vary quite a bit for what was essentially the same job.
Author:  saspro [ Sun Jun 14, 2009 8:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Digital TV Irritance
Are they split with a booster?
I usually get artifacts when my signal is too strong.
Author:  dogbert10 [ Mon Jun 15, 2009 7:20 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Digital TV Irritance
I think your problem is down to the aerial being in the loft. I used to be in the same situation, and even with a high-gain aerial I was still having problems. Only when I moved to an outdoor one did I get a good picture.
Author:  hifidelity2 [ Tue Jun 16, 2009 9:37 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Digital TV Irritance
ProfessorF wrote:
We have two TV sets here, one in the lounge, one in the kitchen.
Both have a digital box attached, one Matsui and one Philips.

Both are fed from the same aerial in the loft. I can see the lights on two transmitters from the house at night - so we're pretty much LOS for two transmitter masts.

And yet, the box in the lounge gives a picture full of blocks and artefacts, freezing, pixellation etc. on a lot of channels.
The one in the kitchen doesn't, but for some unfathomable reason, that one won't hold a tune. After about 12 or so hours, it's lost the channel information.
Usually ITV and Five go, and it spreads from there until there's no channels displaying.

Any digital TV boffins have a solution? Are we looking at two new digi boxes?



Have you tried swapping the digi boxes around to see if the fault follows the box or the cable

That would at least tell you if it was a shoddy box issue
Author:  Nick [ Fri Jun 26, 2009 4:05 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Digital TV Irritance
hifidelity2 wrote:
Have you tried swapping the digi boxes around to see if the fault follows the box or the cable

That would at least tell you if it was a shoddy box issue


That's what I was going to suggest, too.

Also, if the room which gets lots of artefacts etc still has the same then there could be interference somewhere. It's odd that from the same arial, one room would get okay signal and the other would be dodgy. :s
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