Freeview Problems

If you're happy that signal strength is not your problem, try checking it on your freeview box. Then get hold of another box, I would recommend you get one from the likes of Tesco because they are happy to take these back whereas Argos won't.
Don't know about the Bush box, I bought Mum a Digilogic one from Tesco for around £30 which works fine.

The quality of the cable and connectors that link all these elements together should be considered together with the aerial suitability. You can have high signal strength but be prone to inteference because of poor aerial cable and significant sources of local unsurpressed interference. The fridge is often a source as are light switches and the Pizza boy's moped. There is no point in boosting the signal after it has picked up interference. It is far better to boost the signal at the mast of the aerial (masthead amplifier ) rather than allow it to deteriorate and suffer local intererence as it runs through the cable. At this stage it is far too late to boost the signal strength as the local interference gets boosted aswell.

Set top boxes have to have considerable computing power to be able to decode and correct errors in the digital stream. When the processor gets overwhelmed by errors then mistakes in sound synchronisation occur. Better firmware upgrades may make these problems less noticable. The temperature of a set top box must also be considered. Excessive heat due to poor ventilation may result in erratic behaviour.

These are just my thoughts. I am not an authority in the reception of electromagnetic signals.
J_B.

You haven't said which box you have but most boxes will display the received signal strength and signal quality.

Enter your post code or grid reference into the following website for more information on reception at your particular location and suggested aerial. Link

If you enter your post code at this site Link you will see what stations (TV & Radio) you can expect to receive if your aerial covers all of the multiplex frequencies in your region and you have sufficient signal strength. You can also 'list services by multiplex' by clicking on the link at the right. Those missing certain channels can use this page, to discover which multiplexes that they are actually receiving, because in some areas the digital frequencies have had to be put 'out of band' compared to the terrestrial frequencies and not all aerials cover the whole of the band. :wall:

If you do decide on a new aerial, make sure that the better quality satellite cable is used as this gives lower signal loss and it is double screened which helps with impulse noise interference.

If you haven't got sufficient signal strength, a new box won't help.

:eek:

If your problem is simply a weak signal, the small Sagem boxes have very sensitive tuners.

I needed a wideband aerial here instead of the old band B aerial that was fitted for analogue. I tried the old aerial with a Philips box, I could pick up channels from only 1 out of the 6 multiplexes, the BBC channels were all it would receive. However, I found that a Sagem picked up channels from 5 of the 6 multiplexes despite the incorrect aerial.

A wideband aerial obviously fixed my problems - if you are in the same boat and you need a wideband aerial instead of the band-specific one you may have fitted, there is no alternative to replacing the aerial. The DTG website quoted above also tells you the band required for analogue and digital reception - if they are different in your area, then this may be a clue to your problem.

You can usually tell your aerial's band by the coloured plug in the end of the aerial , or sometimes a letter stamp - most common ones are

Band A (Ch 21-37) - Red
Band B (Ch 35-53) - Yellow
Band C/D (Ch 48-68) - Green
Band E (Ch 35-68) - Brown
Wideband W (Ch 21-68) - Black

A decent wideband aerial can cost less than £10, it's the fitting which bumps up the price...