Freeview picture poor on some channels

Jolaaled

Hope someone can help.

Have just moved home and have set up my tv (which has built in freeview) and scanned for available channels.
BBC1, BBC2, BBC3 and BBC4 (plus some others eg. Dave) work fine.

However, other channels are unwatchable and severely pixellated.

Do I need to do something about the aeriel, or maybe get a signal booster??

Have tried re-scanning a few times, but the picture is still just as bad.

thanks all

jem16

I would do something about the aeriel first.

Harrowing_2

If it's any help on pricing, a Hi-Gain Roof Aerial cost us £150 fitted 2 years ago, and couldn't get much cheaper from a few phone calls. This is a London suburb, mind, so hopefully you can do better than that for price.;)

freddi_2

I have an aerial in the attic and the analogue picture was grainy but watchable but I got Sky so I never watched the analogue channels unless I wanted to tape something. This was before Sky +.

I bought myself a new TV a couple of months ago and it has a digital tuner so I tuned in the digital channels I could get, this was from the Angus transmitter. I got all the channels but some of them were breaking up and pixelating so back to watching Sky.

However last month was the analogue switch off and the transmitter power was increased so now all the channels are perfect.

So yes I would check the aerial first then also if the transmitter had the analogue signal switched off.

Hammyman

Antenna is always first port of call along with the co-ax cable. Co-ax has a lifespan of 5 years. Most in the UK is older than that and this means corrosion and water ingress which degrades the received signal. I can guarantee that if you stripped back the insulation at the antenna end, the wire would be black and/or green for the first few feet.

Also, the frequencies the MUXs are on are different than analogue meaning most people have the wrong antenna - i.e one that covers the lower channels only.

Kurtis_Blue

Hammyman wrote: »

Antenna is always first port of call along with the co-ax cable. Co-ax has a lifespan of 5 years. Most in the UK is older than that and this means corrosion and water ingress which degrades the received signal. I can guarantee that if you stripped back the insulation at the antenna end, the wire would be black and/or green for the first few feet.

Also, the frequencies the MUXs are on are different than analogue meaning most people have the wrong antenna - i.e one that covers the lower channels only.

^^^ Where do you get this stuff from?

Cable has a much longer lifespan than 5 years for UV damage, if water is getting in at the antenna end it shows a poorly water proofed connection not an end of life cable.

The VAST majority of the UK will not require an aerial change due to channel groupings, even if this was the case most property's have wideband aerials fitted any how.

I dont mean to disagree so much but this sort of advice costs people money, the amount of OAPs etc I see that have been caught out by salesman with that sort of patter.

Kurtis_Blue

Harrowing wrote: »

If it's any help on pricing, a Hi-Gain Roof Aerial cost us £150 fitted 2 years ago, and couldn't get much cheaper from a few phone calls. This is a London suburb, mind, so hopefully you can do better than that for price.;)

That's a good price for Harrow (might have been us ) you probably wouldn't get it done for that now.

moonrakerz

jem16 wrote: »

I would do something about the aeriel first.

....spell it properly ?? :D

Moneymaker

Kurtis_Blue wrote: »

^^^ Where do you get this stuff from?

Cable has a much longer lifespan than 5 years for UV damage, if water is getting in at the antenna end

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=904492
Typical useful outdoor life = 5 years for satellite (dish) connection.

For a Freeview aerial connection, you'd be unlikely to notice such degradation for maybe 10 years (unless water ingress has occurred).

However, water ingress is very common due to poor installation. Also, many installers still don't use the proper cable, preferring to save a few pennies. So replacing the cable with something like WF100 will almost always result in some improvement.

Kurtis_Blue

Moneymaker wrote: »

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=904492
Typical useful outdoor life = 5 years for satellite (dish) connection.

For a Freeview aerial connection, you'd be unlikely to notice such degradation for maybe 10 years (unless water ingress has occurred).

However, water ingress is very common due to poor installation. Also, many installers still don't use the proper cable, preferring to save a few pennies. So replacing the cable with something like WF100 will almost always result in some improvement.

Thats just a link to another internet random stating the same, correctly installed cable will not degrade in 5 years.

Moneymaker

Hammyman wrote: »

Also, the frequencies the MUXs are on are different than analogue meaning most people have the wrong antenna - i.e one that covers the lower channels only.

The intention was that, after "switchover", the existing aerial would be fine. The idea that everyone needs to change their aerial is wrong in over 90% of cases POST switchover.

Also, unless an aerial is visibly broken or the contacts so badly corroded that you can't connect the cable, a new replacement is unlikely to make any difference. However, an installer is unlikely to admit that!