Lost ITV, C4,C5 etc on Freeview

ally18

What does shield them mean exactly please?

kevanf1

Firstly I have to admit that I am not a TV engineer or an electronics genius or anything. I do, however, know that not all receivers are the same when it comes to being able to broadcast a decent picture (and audio). Some receivers are simply better than others and it's not always newer equipment that is better. So, this really needs to be born in mind if you have different makes and even models from the same manufacturer dotted around the house.

Next, be aware that a standard tv aerial is really only meant to give a signal to one receiver at a time. Of course most are good enough to be able to give a signal to both a tv and DVD/HDD recorder and possibly another tv set too. If you do get poor reception on one tv you may need to look at getting a signal amplifier or possibly an aerial with a bigger array (more elements).

Now, our problem. We live in an area of Staffordshire where some people get a signal from the Sutton Coldfield transmitter while others, us included because we have a hill separating us, get one from the Wrekin transmitter. The Wrekin went fully digital a few weeks ago, Sutton is still only partially digital and still has the analogue signal being broadcast too. We used to get a wonderful analogue signal and then a very good digital signal until 12 months ago. They started to mess about with the power of the digital signal and we found we couldn't get certain stations (specific multiplexes or groups of channels). Ok, we could always watch the main 5 channels in analogue. Since the switch over we are getting no end of drop outs on the signal and still losing some stations altogether. Yet, the digital signal has supposedly been boosted now to full power.

Let's just say we are not very happy about this. I dread the day coming when they switch off analogue radio

G6JPG

ally18 wrote: »

Hi,

>A quick question please.

>I had the same issue until I connected a booster and then got these channels with no problems but since then I find that these channels will start to break up occasionally and I don't know why.

>We had a bad thunderstorm the other day and the channels disappeared which I expected so retuned but I've noticed that the

Do you mean they disappeared permanently (i. e. didn't come back after the storm)? I can't think of any reason for that.

>picture can break up through other reasons. I have an airwick freshner in the same room which sprays air freshner every 30 mins. Believe it or not but this spray causes the picture to break up each time it goes off, how can that happen? Obviously it has now been turned off.

Because it (the air freshener) takes a surge of current when it squirts, which causes interference - similar to the 'fridge cutting in and out. I'm slightly surprised - it suggests either the squirter is very poorly designed (probably breaking today's regulations), or your aerial system is very marginal.

>My neighbour was doing some drilling at the weekend and this interfered with the tv picture. As soon as he stopped, the picture went back to being fine again. He wasn't even in the room that backs on to mine but in a different part of his house. I know it was this that caused it because I had someone checking when he stopped and started.

Drills are notorious: their motors spark (look through the holes at one when it is working hard). Basically, sparks cause interference. In the days of analogue telly, you got streaks on the picture; with digital, you get freezes and dropouts.

>Is this sort of thing going to carry on happening once the switchover is complete do you think? I know the weather can effect signals but why would other things affect the picture?

Anything which generates interference will. The stronger the signal, the less it will be affected. Switchover may have a few stages depending on where you live: the main one is when it happens in your area, at which point the digital signals will get stronger (because they no longer have to worry about it affecting the analogue signals), but it may later be turned up a litttle more when adjacent areas are switched.

>I have days with no problems at all so I know the aerial is fine.

Not necessarily - it may be only just good enough when there is no interference: in other words it's providing enough signal, just.

G6JPG

ally18 wrote: »

What does shield them mean exactly please?

Putting it simply, you have to keep unwanted signals out of your cables, connectors, and the like. What follows is a gross simplification, but think of the signal you want as being picked up by the aerial, then carried down a wire inside a metal tube. The wire acts like an aerial so will pick up anything else on the way down; the tube keeps them out. The tube is the metal (usually copper) braid which is the outer part of the aerial cable, and the outer parts of any connectors (including inside walls, at wallplates etc.); if damaged or corroded, or just not plugged together properly, they will let interference in, which will be stronger than the signal (because the source is nearer). Similarly any break or poor connection in the inner wire will reduce the wanted signal.

(The aerial itself will pick up local interference too, but less so.)

[Deleted User]

Hi ScottySmog

The same thing happened to me with ITV, Channel 4 and 5 breaking up very badly for a few days recently. We're on the Belmont transmitter (Yorkshire TV region) and our digital change over is later this summer. We are planning to get a new aerial installed next week as we need more sockets anyway and the reception in this area is always a bit iffy to say the least.

My TV is a Panasonic with inbuilt Freeview and I do retune it regularly as new channels appear from time to time. The channels I get on it are pretty limited but a new one ( to me anyway) called 301 appeared a few weeks ago. It's quite good (apart from the continual 'loops' such as the Royal Wedding for hours on end!) as it ran a lot of extra snooker coverage during the recent championship.

I thought a quick retune might clear up the 'breaking up' of the ITV channels but like yours they disappeared completely and nothing I could do would reintall them:mad:. I left it a few days and tried a retune again last night and they all came back:j. No break-up or anything so far.

Try yours again, you may be lucky this time.:beer:

P.S. Just read further down thepostings and see you solved your problem, ScottySmog. Sorry, reply is now irrelevant (should have gone to Specsavers!) but will not delete it as it may be useful to someone.

Gizmo72

I have a similar problem - on the TV in my bedroom I seem to have lost some channels including Yesterday, Viva and 4Music. I have rescanned it lots of times but can't get the channels back, although the TV in my living room still has the channels.
Edit: I've got the channels back! I had to use Auto Start-Up instead of Auto Tuning, and I briefly messed up the channel my PlayStation is on, but all the missing channels are back.