Trouble with my TV picture.
- 30 June 2009 07:1624764Is anybody else having trouble. a bit of warm weather and my picture here high up in Boland Towers hits the buffers. It breaks into multicolour boxes and then goes altogether. This keeps happening. Lost my TT coverage at the totally wrong moment. Have lost too the tail end of films and just when I was about to find out whodunnit !? Have lost Boxing matches etc etc.
I have almost accepted this miserable plight although I know if I was in London with the high flyers, and where the streets are paved with gold, it wouldnt be allowed to happen.
When they switch off the analogue next year I will be well and truly stuffed as I wont get a tv picture from may til september. Okay Im exagerating, its here some of the time during those months and goes at other times, but its an abysmal third world service, even though we appear to have a state of the art system here in the Gateway.
Is it because we are so close to France. Im the very closest to France. So there you are, I blame the French! They must be the guilty ones! It must be their fault!lol
I wonder if there is a booster device one can get.
Baffled in Bognor! or ermmm I mean Dismal in Dover.email: dover7@msn.com - 30 June 2009 07:3124766The same happened up at the Hamlets despite a state of the art new ariel and booster. Freeview became no view so I had to revert to the 4 old type stations.Not sure what the problem is? but it is a worry for the big switchover as some households will be plunged back into the 'dark ages'.Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter) - 30 June 2009 07:3624768Yes I should have said..Im talking about the freeview digital system too. The 4 old stations I can get on analogue but as we said they will all be switched off..then total blackout once the sun shines or it gets humid. Somebody fix it!!email: dover7@msn.com
- 30 June 2009 08:4324772Satellite or cable are the only other alternatives I think.
Interference from French TV channels might be having an effect too. It was claimed to be the reason why Channel 5 wasn't available on analogue in this corner of the country.Phil West
If at first you don't succeed, use a BIGGER hammer!! - 30 June 2009 08:5524773I dont have any problems with Freeview. It does get 'blocky' at times with bad atmospherics but it is not often and with my new tv and PVR it is less of a problem than previously. I do think the quality of the receiver is important in this respect. When they do the analogue switch off I understand that the Freeview will get its signals boosted which should improve things.
- 30 June 2009 11:0724782Are you sure you're not all getting interference from the Telly By The Ellie?
- 30 June 2009 11:1624784Freeview is very fussy about signal - too strong and it fails and too weak etc. It also doesnt like sharing a signal ( I have sky and freeview and they clash sometimes ).
Likewise all digital signals are subject to atmospherics more than analogues. I also found that freeview boxes differ greatly in quality. Enormously!
I fiddle a lot with the recievers and found to my surprise that a humax box gave better reception than Sony and the cheap £15 ones were worse still.
What I havent done for the past 5 years is pay for a signal as the free to air stuff is sufficient.
My youngest son is in the business but it doesnt get me any benefit - just "I said you get what you pay for" .
- 30 June 2009 23:2124796i have the same problem with freeview.
the bit i do no understand is why the tv switches off but the radio has no problems.
when you go into a shop to purchase a box they simply ask you for your postcode, which to me means that if you get the ok, there should be no problems. - 1 July 2009 08:3924800My freeview is built into the TV. The TV is one of those big silver ones with matching stand which were all the rage a few years ago. I bought mine thinking I was the bees knees as i got a bargain but the following week the design of televisions changed forever leaving me with a rather huge ungainly lump suddenly and woefully out of date. One or two of you guys might remember I couldnt assemble it myself and Croc Ian Lillford had to come and do it for me...doh! I wouldnt say I was dumb or anything but....
The picture reception is truly unacceptable in this day and age but there isnt a hue and cry about it...Gimme some hueing and crying!!lol
But no seriously though its not amusing if you are watching Real Madrid against Manchester Utd and your picture goes. Something should be done about it!email: dover7@msn.com - 1 July 2009 08:5024802When did you last do a Channel re-scan Paul. With Freeview you should re-scan every month or so.
- Terry Nunn
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,321
1 July 2009 08:5724803Are you on the communal aerial system Paul? If you are there should be no problems otherwise everyone else is in the same boat.
TerryQuis custodiet ipsos custodes? - 1 July 2009 19:3624824BarryW yes I do an occasional re scan, have done an extra one just now following your suggestion, to see if it helps. Terry yes am on the Gateway system which appears to be a good one, its all fairly new anyway and installed at great expense, but because im out on the corner I think Im probably the worst, although I have complained everyone just scratches their head in bewilderment.
email: dover7@msn.com - Terry Nunn
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,321
1 July 2009 22:2424832Check that the lead from the tv to the wall socket is in good order, sometimes the plugs can work loose.
TerryQuis custodiet ipsos custodes? - 2 July 2009 07:5924842Ah well yes indeed I will do that Terry as they are funny little things that can work loose. Thanks again.email: dover7@msn.com
- 2 July 2009 08:4924846We are having a lot of trouble with break-up over the last week since the hot weather began, never had this level of distruption before, I can only conclude it must be something to do with the humidity.
- Terry Nunn
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,321
2 July 2009 09:0024848I'm afraid that Freeview viewers won't get a consistantly good picture until 2012. Until then the Hougham transmitter is running at very low power and it won't increase until the high power analogue channels are switched off. So until 2012 we are the mercy of possible aerial problems and those pesky French.
Living where I do I can't get Freeview at all, I rely on cable and Freesat (where BBC and ITV HD are brilliant by the way). Equally I can't receive Classic FM or Heart, but in the latter case that is no hardship!Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? - 3 July 2009 21:0924945So it was those pesky French all along, I have freeview and re scan at least once a week, but I'm sure it doesn't like the humidity 'damn frenchies again'
- 3 July 2009 21:4524949i would have thought that the pimpernel should be called in to deal with them.
do you not have family that side pb, i thought that all the "families" of europe were inter related? - Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
4 July 2009 07:2524963youre right there howard,they are our cousins. - 23 July 2009 04:2726111I would echo Terry's sage advice and make sure that your TV flylead is up to scratch as this is about the only item in the equation which you can do much about. It sounds very likely from your description that you are suffering from impulse interference where bursts of radio frequency energy are emitted all across the frequency spectrum from switch or relay contacts opening or closing in domestic electrical equipment or road vehicles outside.
For the same reason, you should keep your mobile phone away from your integrated digital TV (idTV). Also keep your computer well away from the idTV as both the processor and the monitor screen generate a lot of RF.
The sort of TV flylead you purchase for a pound or so at B&Q is complete rubbish, one step up from wet string. What is absolutely essential for the very low signal strength digital terrestrial television (DTT) signals is a high quality double screened coax flylead. This has a copper foil screen and a tightly wound copper braid around that. The cheap flyleads just have a thinly wound copper braid and no foil screen and let all manner of external interference in. They are only OK for the analogue signals, which are transmitted at immense power. Currys and Canterbury Hi Fi flog decent flyleads for a tenner up.
A booster would almost certainly be of no use whatsover. The place for a booster is up near the aerial to compensate for losses in a long coax run to the TV. Plugging one in at the TV end just amplifies the attenuated signal together with all the rubbish picked up on the coax run and makes matters worse.
You should also definitely have the idTV plugged into a surge protector/mains filter, not directly into the mains socket. This will help to eliminate mains borne interference.
Doubt if inversion effect is the culprit. This is actually not from other DTT transmissions but from analogue transmissions received outside their normal range due to being refracted by abnormal atmospheric conditions. Impulse interference is far more likely to be the reason.
Will have more to say on this at a later date but am off to bed (sound like Vic!).
Induction interference and mobile phone interference:
http://www.ukfree.tv/fullstory.php?storyid=1107051300&PGSTART=100
Inversion effect:
http://www.ukfree.tv/helpme.php?faqid=1107051114
Dover TV mast at Church Hougham:
http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/dover.php