Any Freeview People About?

kah22

Hi guys, I’d appreciate some of your thoughts.

Recently I upgraded my aerial and added a cheap Freeview box I’d bought a day or two before Wollies closed their doors (Sagem ITD60; cost me all of nine quid so I’m not really that worried!)

Anyway I don’t want to invest in another box at the moment until I can get one which will decode mpeg 4 as well as the current UK standard mpeg 2 – coming from Northern Ireland having an mpeg 4 means that I’ll be able to pick up the Irish Republic’s Television Service.

At the moment I’ll get a pretty good picture with the Sagem for two or three days and then part of the picture starts to get a bit flaky.

When I run my postcode through Freeview’s Coverage Checker they don’t really give a clear answer, here’s part of their reply:

‘It looks like you can receive Freeview channels but we don't have enough information at this stage to tell you more.’

The box itself keeps wanting to do an auto tune and keeps telling me that it has found new channels.

Which of these are more probable: the signal strength is not strong enough and is been affected by outside influences e.g. weather conditions, or the Sagem ITD 60 is just not up to the job? Or more likely a bit of both?

I appreciate the question is a bit like asking how long is a piece of string but any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated.

DCFC79

Could you not borrow a box of a friend and see if the same thing happens, what do you mean gets a bit flaky?

KenMB

Why don't you buy a cheap signal amplifier and see if that helps with the signal quality issue. It helped with me.

tnor_fo_tkcab

Poor arial connectors made my digital picture "flakey" some time ago so I replaced the homemade versions with pre-built arial leads (RF ?)

In pre-digital days we suffered with "snowy" pictures but the stuttering and pixelating (not sure if that's a word ? ) is a pain with digital.

Jac

aliEnRIK

Most probable is your signal strength and quality isnt high enough

An amplifier might help (For a cheap fix ~ but at the expense of true quality)

For a true fix (Or at least try at a fix), you need to get the best aerial you can on your roof and the best quality aerial cable (Not all cables are the same)

kah22

Thanks for the replies.

Why don't you buy a cheap signal amplifier and see if that helps with the signal quality issue. It helped with me.

I had thought about that KenMB but as I bought a new aerial and had it installed by a reputable person I'm assuming that he would have added the amplifer if it were needed. When viewing analogue there is no issue at all, the picture is as near to perfect as you'd want.

Poor arial connectors made my digital picture "flakey" some time ago so I replaced the homemade versions with pre-built arial leads

Jac can you expand on what you mean by pre-built arial leads, is that the lead that goes from the digi box into the TV. I'm just thinking the scart lead that came with the Sagem box doesn't seem very rebust I'm wondering if replacing it would help.

wat you mean gets a bit flaky?

DCFC79 Ah that's a very technical term but in essence just means that the picture is given to breaking up slightly every now and again, the picture becomes misaligned and at times it looks like there are little squares forming, they remain for a second or so and then disapear, it's only when a lot of them come together that you get frustrated

Kevin

tnor_fo_tkcab

kah22 wrote: »

Jac can you expand on what you mean by pre-built arial leads, is that the lead that goes from the digi box into the TV. I'm just thinking the scart lead that came with the Sagem box doesn't seem very rebust I'm wondering if replacing it would help.



No, I'm talking about the lead from your arial that goes to your digibox (RF IN ?) If the cable, as mentioned by aliEnRIK, is of a poor quality or the fittings on the end of the cable (where it connects to the digibox) are not very well put together then your signal will be poor. You need a good signal to the digibox before you wire it up to the video or telly etc.

kah22

No nothing wrong with the cable, that was replaced when I had the new aerial erected, the installer told me it was the same cable used for satellite installation.

I've had a peek at the RF IN connection and it seems pretty sound, the aerial plug seems to be of good quality.

However, when I looked at the RF OUT connection the the set top box uses a Female Aerial Adapter Coupler to join the male aerial plug (is that the correct therm - it is the bit at the end of the aerial cable ) to the male aerial socket of the RF OUT socket - if I were to replace that with a female aerial plug would that make a difference?

Again many thanks for all the suggestions

Kevin

kwikbreaks

> The box itself keeps wanting to do an auto tune and keeps telling me that it has found new channels.

I had a Sagem box which kept doing the same thing and you had no option but to rescan. I fixed it my judicious use of a £20 note and a hammer (ie I went and bought a different box )

aliEnRIK

Kah ~ the scart cable isnt going to make any difference if its ok most of the time (Picture quality would be better if you had a decent signal in the 1st place mind ~ im sying your still going to have problems even if you change it)

The female connector isnt going to make much (if any) difference

How is the aerial connected? Is the aerial cable from the aerial itself connected to an aerial socket on the wall?

If so how long is the aerial from the socket to the box?

kah22

I fixed it my judicious use of a £20 note and a hammer (ie I went and bought a different box )

I know how you feel kwikbreaks.

At the moment I'm holding back from buying until they release either a set top box or PVR that will decode both mpeg 2 and mpeg 4. If I can get my hands on one that decodes mpeg 4 then living close to the border of the Irish Republic I'll be able to pick up their stations (RTE) dititally at the moment I receive them via analogue.

With Freeview starting to broadcast HD then the mpeg 4 box becomes a must.

I suffer on

Kevin