BT signal issues at new home

FlyMeSomewhere79

Hi All

We moved house in March, we moved 2.5 miles up the road so not far and we took our BT TV subscription with us but moving in we had really bad signal issues, a lot of channels were barely watchable with the pixelating and breaking up completely. We were getting signal strengths of about 4 to 6% a lot of the time.

We fitted a signal booster the other week which has helped to a degree but even now our channels are breaking up a bit again and dropping down to 18% - it's up and down very erratically! We had no issues at our past address.

What are people's thoughts on a neighbours solar powered heating system causing possible interference? I've read that they sometimes do if the inverter isn't shielded properly and we've two houses right behind us with these systems?

It's a call to BT that my other half knows he needs to make but is dreading the hours on hold! And the trouble is if it is the solar powered heating systems it's a difficult one to know how to tackle.

flaneurs_lobster

Have you got (new) neighbours you could check with, in case the problem lies with your ariel or other kit?

FlyMeSomewhere79

They keep themselves to themselves around here but I did meet a nice man next door so it's something I should remember to ask him about when I next see him outside.

Our aerial is in the loft so  shielded from the elements but I wonder if being indoors is more problematic than if it was on the roof.

littleboo

I would get an aerial installer to take a look.

iniltous

What happens if you view the same channels directly from the TV ,
have your rescanned the box in its new location,
loft aerials can be rubbish and if you are in a new property and the address is in an area where reception from two transmitters is possible ( that’s the case with myself, roughy equal distance from a transmitter to the north ( Pontop Pike ) and one to the south ( Bilsdale ) the indoor aerial may be pointed at the wrong one ,
finally there is evidence that solar panels can cause electrical interference, but is the least likely reason for you issues , or at least eliminate other potential causes first .
If your BT TV box is a Pro model , then you could try the TV in IP mode , AFAIK the aerial isn’t used when in IP mode .

FlyMeSomewhere79

iniltous said:

What happens if you view the same channels directly from the TV ,
have your rescanned the box in its new location,
loft aerials can be rubbish and if you are in a new property and the address is in an area where reception from two transmitters is possible ( that’s the case with myself, roughy equal distance from a transmitter to the north ( Pontop Pike ) and one to the south ( Bilsdale ) the indoor aerial may be pointed at the wrong one ,
finally there is evidence that solar panels can cause electrical interference, but is the least likely reason for you issues , or at least eliminate other potential causes first .
If your BT TV box is a Pro model , then you could try the TV in IP mode , AFAIK the aerial isn’t used when in IP mode .

The signal is stronger which is the weird thing. We've done lots of retuning and the signal booster has helped but at times it's still erratically shooting up and down in terms of signal strength through BT! Like we literally can sit and watch it flickering up and down! 

Our box is a couple of years old now so not sure of it's a pro model but it's something for me to investigate.

JSmithy45AD

FlyMeSomewhere79 said:

iniltous said:

What happens if you view the same channels directly from the TV ,
have your rescanned the box in its new location,
loft aerials can be rubbish and if you are in a new property and the address is in an area where reception from two transmitters is possible ( that’s the case with myself, roughy equal distance from a transmitter to the north ( Pontop Pike ) and one to the south ( Bilsdale ) the indoor aerial may be pointed at the wrong one ,
finally there is evidence that solar panels can cause electrical interference, but is the least likely reason for you issues , or at least eliminate other potential causes first .
If your BT TV box is a Pro model , then you could try the TV in IP mode , AFAIK the aerial isn’t used when in IP mode .

The signal is stronger which is the weird thing. We've done lots of retuning and the signal booster has helped but at times it's still erratically shooting up and down in terms of signal strength through BT! Like we literally can sit and watch it flickering up and down! 

Our box is a couple of years old now so not sure of it's a pro model but it's something for me to investigate.

When it's direct through the TV is it a good signal, bad or just indifferent? You can move into the house next door and get a different level of reception through Freeview so 2.5 miles could make a huge difference. Add in a new aerial and cable, outside obstructions, a possibly foil lined loft area and it can be apples and oranges.

A rooftop aerial is always the best starting place along with a new cable as you don't know how old the original one is (water ingress isn't unusual).

Have you tried the Freeview channel checker? https://www.freeview.co.uk/freeview-channel-checker It will give your predicted transmitter and if you click on 'Detailed Transmitter View' it will give you alternatives in case you have a block of flats in line of sight that the website isn't aware of for instance.

There's a https://www.freeview.co.uk/help/updates-alerts page and a https://www.freeview.co.uk/corporate/platform-management/planned-engineering-works page which are both helpful to see if there's local issues or work going on at your transmitter.

FlyMeSomewhere79

JSmithy45AD said:

FlyMeSomewhere79 said:

iniltous said:

What happens if you view the same channels directly from the TV ,
have your rescanned the box in its new location,
loft aerials can be rubbish and if you are in a new property and the address is in an area where reception from two transmitters is possible ( that’s the case with myself, roughy equal distance from a transmitter to the north ( Pontop Pike ) and one to the south ( Bilsdale ) the indoor aerial may be pointed at the wrong one ,
finally there is evidence that solar panels can cause electrical interference, but is the least likely reason for you issues , or at least eliminate other potential causes first .
If your BT TV box is a Pro model , then you could try the TV in IP mode , AFAIK the aerial isn’t used when in IP mode .

The signal is stronger which is the weird thing. We've done lots of retuning and the signal booster has helped but at times it's still erratically shooting up and down in terms of signal strength through BT! Like we literally can sit and watch it flickering up and down! 

Our box is a couple of years old now so not sure of it's a pro model but it's something for me to investigate.

When it's direct through the TV is it a good signal, bad or just indifferent? You can move into the house next door and get a different level of reception through Freeview so 2.5 miles could make a huge difference. Add in a new aerial and cable, outside obstructions, a possibly foil lined loft area and it can be apples and oranges.

A rooftop aerial is always the best starting place along with a new cable as you don't know how old the original one is (water ingress isn't unusual).

Have you tried the Freeview channel checker? https://www.freeview.co.uk/freeview-channel-checker It will give your predicted transmitter and if you click on 'Detailed Transmitter View' it will give you alternatives in case you have a block of flats in line of sight that the website isn't aware of for instance.

There's a https://www.freeview.co.uk/help/updates-alerts page and a https://www.freeview.co.uk/corporate/platform-management/planned-engineering-works page which are both helpful to see if there's local issues or work going on at your transmitter.

Thanks for taking the time to reply, the tv signals are good, they've tended to be up in the 70odd percent quality range but through BT they may get to 50 to 54% if we are lucky.

We are on the Emley Moor transmitter, we are on the edge of our town and at the bottom of a hillside but the TVs seem to have no issue with the signal to wonder if it's that. 

JSmithy45AD

FlyMeSomewhere79 said:

JSmithy45AD said:

FlyMeSomewhere79 said:

iniltous said:

What happens if you view the same channels directly from the TV ,
have your rescanned the box in its new location,
loft aerials can be rubbish and if you are in a new property and the address is in an area where reception from two transmitters is possible ( that’s the case with myself, roughy equal distance from a transmitter to the north ( Pontop Pike ) and one to the south ( Bilsdale ) the indoor aerial may be pointed at the wrong one ,
finally there is evidence that solar panels can cause electrical interference, but is the least likely reason for you issues , or at least eliminate other potential causes first .
If your BT TV box is a Pro model , then you could try the TV in IP mode , AFAIK the aerial isn’t used when in IP mode .

The signal is stronger which is the weird thing. We've done lots of retuning and the signal booster has helped but at times it's still erratically shooting up and down in terms of signal strength through BT! Like we literally can sit and watch it flickering up and down! 

Our box is a couple of years old now so not sure of it's a pro model but it's something for me to investigate.

When it's direct through the TV is it a good signal, bad or just indifferent? You can move into the house next door and get a different level of reception through Freeview so 2.5 miles could make a huge difference. Add in a new aerial and cable, outside obstructions, a possibly foil lined loft area and it can be apples and oranges.

A rooftop aerial is always the best starting place along with a new cable as you don't know how old the original one is (water ingress isn't unusual).

Have you tried the Freeview channel checker? https://www.freeview.co.uk/freeview-channel-checker It will give your predicted transmitter and if you click on 'Detailed Transmitter View' it will give you alternatives in case you have a block of flats in line of sight that the website isn't aware of for instance.

There's a https://www.freeview.co.uk/help/updates-alerts page and a https://www.freeview.co.uk/corporate/platform-management/planned-engineering-works page which are both helpful to see if there's local issues or work going on at your transmitter.

Thanks for taking the time to reply, the tv signals are good, they've tended to be up in the 70odd percent quality range but through BT they may get to 50 to 54% if we are lucky.

We are on the Emley Moor transmitter, we are on the edge of our town and at the bottom of a hillside but the TVs seem to have no issue with the signal to wonder if it's that. 

There is work scheduled for Emley Moor at the moment and normally Freeview wouldn't advise a retune as you can lose more channels until the work is complete. However that advice has possibly come too late for yourself so try unplugging the BT box and doing a full scan, this will remove the stored channels, plug back in and then re-scan.

If the box is still showing a 20% drop in signal strength then you'd need to contact BT. No two tuners are equal and it may be that the TV is just newer or better but that still seems a big drop. I am presuming that the picture quality reflects the difference?

FlyMeSomewhere79

JSmithy45AD said:

FlyMeSomewhere79 said:

JSmithy45AD said:

FlyMeSomewhere79 said:

iniltous said:

What happens if you view the same channels directly from the TV ,
have your rescanned the box in its new location,
loft aerials can be rubbish and if you are in a new property and the address is in an area where reception from two transmitters is possible ( that’s the case with myself, roughy equal distance from a transmitter to the north ( Pontop Pike ) and one to the south ( Bilsdale ) the indoor aerial may be pointed at the wrong one ,
finally there is evidence that solar panels can cause electrical interference, but is the least likely reason for you issues , or at least eliminate other potential causes first .
If your BT TV box is a Pro model , then you could try the TV in IP mode , AFAIK the aerial isn’t used when in IP mode .

The signal is stronger which is the weird thing. We've done lots of retuning and the signal booster has helped but at times it's still erratically shooting up and down in terms of signal strength through BT! Like we literally can sit and watch it flickering up and down! 

Our box is a couple of years old now so not sure of it's a pro model but it's something for me to investigate.

When it's direct through the TV is it a good signal, bad or just indifferent? You can move into the house next door and get a different level of reception through Freeview so 2.5 miles could make a huge difference. Add in a new aerial and cable, outside obstructions, a possibly foil lined loft area and it can be apples and oranges.

A rooftop aerial is always the best starting place along with a new cable as you don't know how old the original one is (water ingress isn't unusual).

Have you tried the Freeview channel checker? https://www.freeview.co.uk/freeview-channel-checker It will give your predicted transmitter and if you click on 'Detailed Transmitter View' it will give you alternatives in case you have a block of flats in line of sight that the website isn't aware of for instance.

There's a https://www.freeview.co.uk/help/updates-alerts page and a https://www.freeview.co.uk/corporate/platform-management/planned-engineering-works page which are both helpful to see if there's local issues or work going on at your transmitter.

Thanks for taking the time to reply, the tv signals are good, they've tended to be up in the 70odd percent quality range but through BT they may get to 50 to 54% if we are lucky.

We are on the Emley Moor transmitter, we are on the edge of our town and at the bottom of a hillside but the TVs seem to have no issue with the signal to wonder if it's that. 

There is work scheduled for Emley Moor at the moment and normally Freeview wouldn't advise a retune as you can lose more channels until the work is complete. However that advice has possibly come too late for yourself so try unplugging the BT box and doing a full scan, this will remove the stored channels, plug back in and then re-scan.

If the box is still showing a 20% drop in signal strength then you'd need to contact BT. No two tuners are equal and it may be that the TV is just newer or better but that still seems a big drop. I am presuming that the picture quality reflects the difference?

Yes, the picture quality is a lot crisper outside of the BT box.

400ixl

Are you using the same cables from the same aerial socket for both tests?

You would need to duplicate it on the TV side as I assume there are cables into and out out the BT TV box to check.

If you new neighbour also uses an aerial maybe ask if you can plug the BT box into his Aerial / TV to check it.