Can a signal be too strong for DTV?

DUTR

Bought my Mum a 19" DTV for the bedroom in her flat, ran about 15Metres of coax to the TV via a distribution amp, the TV does not want to show the ITV stations on DTV and on terrestial there is a lot of ghosting , now that I have got back home I'm wondering if the aerial feed from the external aerial is already amplified and hence the signal is to large for the TV, I will try an attenuator when I next visit,, but was hoping some here may have some knowledge, as the last time I faffed about with TVs a phillips G8 was the fashion

PS the main TV transmitter is Sutton Coldfield and she resides in B10 postcode.

Moneymaker

Yes it can be too strong. More to the point, if there's an analogue signal, it will be even stronger and could well "blind" the digital receiver.

You need to ensure that she has the correct type of aerial, correct (double-screened) cable, and that the signal strength is within reasonable limits.

DUTR

Moneymaker wrote: »

Yes it can be too strong. More to the point, if there's an analogue signal, it will be even stronger and could well "blind" the digital receiver.

You need to ensure that she has the correct type of aerial, correct (double-screened) cable, and that the signal strength is within reasonable limits.

Yes there is shadowing on the analogue, the sig strength is high but says poor quality, will try an attenuator on the long lead :beer:

will-in-estoril

Much better having an aerial with the correct gain installed in the first place.

DUTR

will-in-estoril wrote: »

Much better having an aerial with the correct gain installed in the first place.

Mum had no choice in what aerial was installed prior to her moving in

DUTR

Just to bring you up to speed, got a 6db attenuator , plugged it in....NOTHING, so used a female to female aerial connector and supplied just the 2nd TV, little or nothing , re-checked the coax connection at the source , all looks good, at the 2nd aerial point, that stupid core screw was causing a short circuit! Was unable to use the thread, fortunately there was another plug there, so re-made the connection and all the channels are all fine now Mum's happy which means I must be too

4$£&*(£$&*(!

I am sorry I did not see this thread before you purchased the attenuator, as ghosting is a very specific type of problem that is caused when the same signal is being received 'twice' at the TV and we could have solved the problem earlier on. The main causes of ghosting are other structures reflecting a signal (particularly problematic with low-down aerials or near block buildings), or in your case the shorting would have sent the signal back along the shielding of the coax which was the second signal it received.

This does make me wonder what will happen when DTT becomes standard and analogue is switched off - lots of problems which are easy to cure right now could get a whole lot harder over the next couple of years.