Digital tv probs

wannabe

Hi
Is there anyone that can help please.
I treated myself to the Sony bargain from John Lewis and a Humax recorder. Most of the time the tv is ok but some days (i.e. today) I can hardly get any channels either through my tv or Humax and it keeps telling me the channels are either scrambled or the signal is poor. Itv and channel 4 seem to be the worst affected. I don't understand why some days it is ok and others it drives me demented because I get a little bit of the prog and then nothing,
Is it the tv or my aerial? and is there anything I can do about it?
Many thanks and sorry if it is something obvious

espresso

You have insufficient signal and need a better aerial. You should be able to check the received signal strength in the Humax and the TV.

Hammyman

wannabe wrote: »

I don't understand why some days it is ok and others it drives me demented because I get a little bit of the prog and then nothing,
Is it the tv or my aerial? and is there anything I can do about it?
Many thanks and sorry if it is something obvious

It is like that some days and not the others because it is UHF and therefore range of transmitters is affected by rain, fog, mist and hot weather.

A better aerial would help the job and replacing the cable as well if its more than 5 years old.

wannabe

eeek my signal strength on ITV is only 7 and the signal quality is 0. What can I do?
Also I don't understand why it was fine last night...in fact the whole of last week.

wannabe

With all the technical ability I have I wiggled the aerial cable in the wall socket and have managed to get a signal strength of 18 on ITV - its very blippy but at least I have a bit of another channel to watch.
Does this mean my cable needs replacing (a gold plated one?), the wall socket needs replacing or I need a new aerial???
Thanks for helping me

marms

it could be caused by a loose connection either in the wall socket or the cable from the socket to the humax box, if you can borrow a cable off somebody you could try that but it'll probably be the wall socket.

scotsbob

Take the logical approach. You presumably had good reception before you bought new equipment. After installation, sometimes you get good reception and sometimes you don't. I would say everything points to a poor connection somewhere. I would be checking the connections on the ends of the cable from socket to receiver. Borrow another cable from a friend or neighbour and that will let you know if your cable is faulty.

worried_jim

marms wrote: »

it could be caused by a loose connection either in the wall socket or the cable from the socket to the humax box, if you can borrow a cable off somebody you could try that but it'll probably be the wall socket.

I had the same problem and I fixed it by leaning a heavy book against the socket and connection to apply a bit of pressure and hey presto all the channels.