Digital TV - pixillation (I think!)

Allexie

Got a Sony digital TV. Some channels are sometimes either impossible to watch as the picture breaks up into little coloured squares, (pixillation is it called?), or there is no reception at all. Is it just one of those things with digital or should I have a moan to Sony? The warranty is nearly up!

Not that I watch much TV these days mind you :-/

Hellion

Whats your signal strength like?

Allexie

Normally quite good....I live in a flat tho so it's a shared ariel.....

Joe_Bloggs

A shared aerial is not ideal for digital TV reception. You can be assured that is setup for analogue TV reception. You have no control of the transmitter it is pointing at, and bands of frequencies it responds to. You will also pick up impulsive interference from your neighbours due to the long aerial cable runs throughout the building.

The power of a digital transmitter is at least a 100 times less than that of the analogue stations.

Often digital TV shares the same transmitter location and aerial group hence you don't need a new aerial.

Try http://www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/tvd.exe?
Use your postcode to identify your local surrounding digital TV transmitters and aerial types likely to receive the transmissions (scroll to the far right of the screen).
Maybe a set top aerial pointing at the transmitter will suffice.
J_B.

Allexie

Thanks 'Joe' - just did as you suggested...seem to be in local range of 6 x DTT transmitters and the ariel suggested was

'amplified, extra hi-gain'

Just had a quick look around but can't find anything quite like this.... (lots described as 'amplified'), could you suggest one??

Thanks for taking the time to reply, (also to Hellion)

Joe_Bloggs

Amplified extra high gain indicates a very long aerial with a mast head amplifier to boost the signal from the aerial. If you try and boost the signal at the TV end then you will boost the interference that was picked up by a long run of aerial cable.

Aerials can be tuned by their construction and this tuning is catagorised in to groups A to E and also W for wideband

What are you planning to do ?
J_B.

Joe_Bloggs

Televes are a popular brand of aerial amongst those in border line reception communities. They seem to incorporate two aerials into one.

If you have more queries then you can try the digital terrestrial forum at digital spy. Don't hold back on facts. Don't give your full postcode away either.
http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/forumdisplay.php?f=13

If you can figure out line of sight etc towards a transmitter avoiding local buildings and dense trees then you can try to eliminate geological obstructions (hills/mountains) with http://www.megalithia.com/elect/terrain.html
Altitude helps avoid terrain based obstructions.
J_B.