Weak digital tv signal help?

Hoploz

Well I have been in touch with the 4G people and they say it sounds like it could be that. They are sending me a filter to try on her tv and if it proves to be the solution they will send out a powerful filter for the communal aerial.

It would make sense, as having tried the little separate aerial with no joy I thought it must be some sort of interference.

Fingers crossed!

Hoploz

Tried 4G filter - no different

Have brought the tv to my house to try. Am getting 78% signal strength again from my main aerial, but no loss of picture, it's fine. At her house it seemed to fluctuate mainly 70% but then drop down to 38% and back all the time. On her main aerial AND on the little desktop aerial.

I don't know what to do to solve it. Tearing hair out!

maninthestreet

What signal strength/quality did you get when using the signal booster?
A signal strength of 38% is probably too low to get a decent picuture.

ic

Does the problem affect all channels, or just a collection of channels? Has the flats got a wide band aerial? (see this page: http://russelldigitalservices.co.uk/Aerials.html)

I recently moved back to Freeview and discovered I couldn't get a lot of the HD channels - had my aerial upgrade and the signal strength jumped and I now get all the channels.

C_Mababejive

Dont mess around with "boosters" and amplifiers. They are generally a waste of time. There is no substitute for highly tuned metalwork in the sky.

Incidentally, talking about sky,,,you mother could also receive satellite TV by using a sky type dish and a freesat for ..err...free,i.e no subscription.

She would get all the main HD channels plus a load of other stuff.

Does she have anywhere to put a dish? Is there a communal dish?

Incidentally i have a sky type dish here feeding a blade media box which is an open digital satellite receiver,cheap and effective.

I installed it myself.

I also had increasing issues with terrestrial freeview. I replaced the original antenna,,a common yagi, with a small log periodic and it sorted the problem.

Hoploz

There is communal sky.

However she is 82 and can barely manage the one remote for the digital tv. Had no end of problems when she had an old tv with separate freeview box! Would find it hard to go back to two remotes again.

The signal boosters made no difference, it was still fluctuating and breaking up. Have tried changing the lead from tv to wall. Same with the 4G filter plugged in. Signal remains constantly strong enough now I've brought it to my house. The fact that it's the same with the main aerial and the little desktop one makes me think it can't be the communal aerial that's the problem.

Any other suggestions for the Noise/interference issue? Suppose I could try a different set and see if it improves it. Can't really swap it with my own tv as they are the same model! Could buy a new better make and return it if no better perhaps.

keith969

Hoploz wrote: »

Tried 4G filter - no different

Have brought the tv to my house to try. Am getting 78% signal strength again from my main aerial, but no loss of picture, it's fine. At her house it seemed to fluctuate mainly 70% but then drop down to 38% and back all the time. On her main aerial AND on the little desktop aerial.

I don't know what to do to solve it. Tearing hair out!

So the tv's ok, at least with a strong signal. Having said that I'm not sure that the signal strength shown by TVs is very useful. Had a problem with mine, it was showing about 65% and picture was breaking up, tried a new aerial, then tried moving the aerial as aerial man thought a neighbours tree might be shielding the signal, still no luck. Finally found it was a bad connection where the aerial cable plugged into a splitter to feed the tv points round the house. And with the fixed connection I get a perfect picture but the tv says the signal is only 59%!

Have you tried retuning?

Hoploz

Yes I've retuned several times when trying different aerials and the filter.

Norman_Castle

Signal quality is more important than signal strength. Does this tv work in the lounge and does the lounge tv work in this room? If the room is the problem interference from other electrical items may be the problem.

http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/help_and_advice/reception_guide