Freeview Recorder

LLM

Hello techie peeps,

Last week I bought a freeview recorder from Asda, it's like a sky plus box but works on freeview.

All has been going well until the weekend, we were recording things and the playback kept jumping.

Is this likely to be a fault on the recorder?

Should I take it back and ask for a replacement?

johnmc

More likely to be the signal from the aerial breaking up. Digital either works brilliantly or not at all.

What sort of area are you in for Freeview? There are a number of sites which will predict what you can get (Google for them).

Check the built in freeview box' signal meter to see whether you've got a decent strength.

Did you upgrade your aerial and, just as importantly, coax? You need double screened "satellite grade" coax.

I am in an area which, they say, is borderline and find that weather affects the signal badly (loft mounted wideband, high gain, aerial). Low pressure (like last weekend) and heavy rain in particular.

Upgraded my coax and the difference is phenomenal.

LLM

What is a coax?

We have freeview upstairs and it seems to work fine.

The quality on the one downstairs seems to be fine (except for when a moped goes past! :rolleyes:) but its just everything we record, jumps, it's so bad that you cannot watch it

BexTech

Coaxial (Co-ax) is the type of lead used from the aerial to the TV / Box.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaxial_Cable

judderman62

Ooooh interesting thread.

I have a Humax 9200 and occasionally get issues that I assumed where problems with the box and I would have to take it bacvk at some time - maybe this isn't the case.

Problems I get include:

Picture going blocky - from slightly to really rather badly.
sound dissapearing - mostly for just a second or 2/3 - sometimes only occasionally in a recording , sometimes every few seconds that makes a recording unwatchable.
a sort of high pitched squealing (best I can describe it) noise.

I always put this down to likely being dodgy sectors on the hard drive- what do others think please ?

Thanks

Judders

BexTech

High pitched squealing is a give-away to a poor / borderline signal coming in.

As is the blocking (pixelating) and sound dips.

With digital the picture is sent as either on or off (0 or 1) when the signal is ropey and is too bad for the error correction to even correct the incoming data you will find the picture becomes pixelated as the digital box can't recreate the correct parts to the picture, the same happens to the audio hence the pops, squeals and sound breaks.

Some boxes have more sensitive tuners than others, so if you are on borderline reception some boxes maybe fine, others struggle occasionally other simply won't get anything at all.

Improving the coaxial cable, ensuring you are using a suitable aerial for your area (high-gain or extra high-gain for people not in strong areas) and the aerial should really be on the roof as if it's inside a loft a great deal of the signal is lost before the aerial has a chance to pick it up.

At the moment digital TV signals are broadcast at a lot lower power than analogue (For example from Sutton Coldfield analogue channels are broadcast at 1000kW, whereas the digital channels are only 8kW). Hence some people require aerials suitable for low-signal areas and why the aerial really needs to be outside for it to get any chance of picking up a usable signal.

Once analogue is switched off the power to the digital signal will be increased.

judderman62

Thanks to the pedantic man for that - most useful

Now I am in ahousing association flat with a shared aerial (hardly ideal) would a higher quality co ax from the wall to the box make any difference , bearing all that in mind ?

thanks again

Judders

BexTech wrote: »

High pitched squealing is a give-away to a poor / borderline signal coming in.

As is the blocking (pixelating) and sound dips.

With digital the picture is sent as either on or off (0 or 1) when the signal is ropey and is too bad for the error correction to even correct the incoming data you will find the picture becomes pixelated as the digital box can't recreate the correct parts to the picture, the same happens to the audio hence the pops, squeals and sound breaks.

Some boxes have more sensitive tuners than others, so if you are on borderline reception some boxes maybe fine, others struggle occasionally other simply won't get anything at all.

Improving the coaxial cable, ensuring you are using a suitable aerial for your area (high-gain or extra high-gain for people not in strong areas) and the aerial should really be on the roof as if it's inside a loft a great deal of the signal is lost before the aerial has a chance to pick it up.

At the moment digital TV signals are broadcast at a lot lower power than analogue (For example from Sutton Coldfield analogue channels are broadcast at 1000kW, whereas the digital channels are only 8kW). Hence some people require aerials suitable for low-signal areas and why the aerial really needs to be outside for it to get any chance of picking up a usable signal.

Once analogue is switched off the power to the digital signal will be increased.

BexTech

judderman62 wrote: »

Thanks to the pedantic man for that - most useful

Now I am in a housing association flat with a shared aerial (hardly ideal) would a higher quality co ax from the wall to the box make any difference , bearing all that in mind ?

thanks again

Judders

There's always the possibility, it could be that final metre or so that pushes over the borderline.

judderman62

BexTech wrote: »

There's always the possibility, it could be that final metre or so that pushes over the borderline.

thanks for that - so I'm guessing Comet/Currys/PC world wouldn't be the best place to go.

What about maplins ? - any where cheaper/better ?

Funnily enough re your sig I had real problems getting my MAC CODE :whistle: :whistle: RECENTLY HAD TO TAKE SNEAKY MEASURES TO GET IT.

oops 'scuse caps lock

BexTech

judderman62 wrote: »

thanks for that - so I'm guessing Comet/Currys/PC world wouldn't be the best place to go.

What about maplins ? - any where cheaper/better ?

Probably best to find a satellite installer shop or a very decent aerial installer (trouble is there are many cowboys) and see if they can make you up a small fly-lead using satellite grade co-ax.

There are DIY shops that have 'satellite grade' cable, however this is 99% of the time not satellite grade, but low quality cable.

There's only the slim chance this will make a difference.

judderman62

BexTech wrote: »

Probably best to find a satellite installer shop or a very decent aerial installer (trouble is there are many cowboys) and see if they can make you up a small fly-lead using satellite grade co-ax.

There are DIY shops that have 'satellite grade' cable, however this is 99% of the time not satellite grade, but low quality cable.

There's only the slim chance this will make a difference.

Oh OK so probably not worth it maybe just wait till they switch analogue off

thanks again for all the info

Judders