Tv aerials

[nod]

Right I originally installed a loft aerial 

With a seven point booster 

While I can get a perfect picture on all The screen often momentarily freezes or fills with colour 

It ok on the bbc channels as I just press the green button to get it through the WiFi Or go on Netflix 

The aerial is pointing at trees 

Is there any other solution than mounting one on the outside of the house 

[joe90]

Watching this with interest as our in loft aerial only gives 50% signal strength and 50% quality (according to the hard drive recorder) bbc1 last night was constant freezing intervals. Considering higher gain aerial or amplifier.

[ProDave]

Check your coverage on the digital tv postcode checker, that will advice what signal strength you have and indeed if you have it pointing in the right direction. http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/coveragechecker/

 

If you can't get a decent signal with an indoor aerial and don't want an outdoor aerial (why not) how about freesat? A satellite dish does not need to be high up if that is your objection to an outside tv aerial.

[nod]

10 minutes ago, joe90 said:

Watching this with interest as our in loft aerial only gives 50% signal strength and 50% quality (according to the hard drive recorder) bbc1 last night was constant freezing intervals. Considering higher gain aerial or amplifier.

Yep 

Me to 

[nod]

10 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Check your coverage on the digital tv postcode checker, that will advice what signal strength you have and indeed if you have it pointing in the right direction. http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/coveragechecker/

 

If you can't get a decent signal with an indoor aerial and don't want an outdoor aerial (why not) how about freesat? A satellite dish does not need to be high up if that is your objection to an outside tv aerial.

I’ll try that Dave

Could site it in place of the aerial

 

It was a planning condition that we didn’t put one on the outside of the house 

[ProDave]

16 minutes ago, nod said:

I’ll try that Dave

Could site it in place of the aerial

 

It was a planning condition that we didn’t put one on the outside of the house 

A satellite dish won't work in the loft.

 

If that is the exact wording of your planning condition,. put the TV aerial on a free standing pole or attached to a shed, i.e. "not on the outside of the house"

 

My satellite dish is away from the house because of the trees, it is actually clamped to one of the jacks of a wind up radio mast trailer 

[joe90]

@ProDave your a star mate, thanks fir the link, found out my aerial was about 25’ out, now I get 76% strength and 100% quality.

 

(advantage of indoor aerial is I don’t need a ladder to alter it) ????????

[Temp]

Sounds like you got it sorted but just for info... usually a bigger aerial (higher gain) is better than a small(er) aerial and an amplifier. That's because amplifiers add their own noise. 

 

One issue is that a very high gain aerial can be very directional so very important to point it exactly right direction or you loose all the gain.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 11, 2019 by Temp

[daiking]

I’ve had this problem every summer since we moved here in ‘15. Someone must have trimmed a tree as this summer it’s been bearable. 

 

Another problem solved cost effectively by complete inaction.

[Onoff]

Also a consideration is having the correct "band" aerial. As in Band A, B etc. You might be lucky enough and get away with a "WB", wide band aerial depending on the distance to the transmitter.

 

This is the place for info and help:

 

https://www.aerialsandtv.com/

 

 

[Temp]

+1

In many areas you now need a wideband to get all the channels/MUX. However if you can use a group/narrow band they can work better (lower noise and more gain than a wideband).

 

 

 

[ProDave]

Don't forget the definition of a "wideband" aerial is different to what it used to be.  A few years back the top end of the TV broadcast spectrum was chopped off and given over to mobile phones, so an older wideband aerial may now give you problems.

[Onoff]

39 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Don't forget the definition of a "wideband" aerial is different to what it used to be.  A few years back the top end of the TV broadcast spectrum was chopped off and given over to mobile phones, so an older wideband aerial may now give you problems.

 

23 to 56 now whereas it used to go to 68 wasn't it?

[Temp]

Yes. They are using the 57-60 for the 5g mobile phone network. People with "old" wide band aerials may need filters to prevent interference. I think they also plan to pinch a few more frequencies in future.

[joe90]

I was at a friends house today who has a rented tv and they called the shop out as some channels had disappeared, when the engineer arrived he explained about the channels being ceased to give 5g more “space”, my friend was not happy but He understood it was not their fault.

[Jeremy Harris]

40 minutes ago, joe90 said:

I was at a friends house today who has a rented tv and they called the shop out as some channels had disappeared, when the engineer arrived he explained about the channels being ceased to give 5g more “space”, my friend was not happy but He understood it was not their fault.

 

I believe that they've just had to move some Freeview multiplexes, rather than delete them, so a retune should get the channels back (assuming that the bandwidth of the aerial is wide enough). 

 

Freeview was a bit of a disaster for us, as it meant we lost all access to terrestrial TV, when the old analogue service was switched off.  The flip side is that we were forced to switch to Freesat in order to continue to receive free-to-air TV.  That turned out to be for the best, as the quality of signal, and resolution, we get from Freesat is very good indeed.

[joe90]

31 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

I believe that they've just had to move some Freeview multiplexes, rather than delete them, so a retune should get the channels back (

 

Thats not what the tech guy from the shop said, my friend had already done a retune hence the reason for calling the guys out. The channel list shows the channel with a symbol next to it to show it’s not available anymore. (His favourite 80s music channel was one of them ?)

[Temp]

If that was "Now 80s" then google says it is/was in multiplex "Com 8". That's broadcast by about 75% of the TV transmitters. Would have been 83 on the programming guide.

 

If he can't get that it looks like its on Spotify and Sky (Freesat?).

 

Edit: Apparently Com 8 is broadcast from Sandy Heath which is my transmitter but I can't immediately see any of the channels in that multiplex. That's probably because my Freeview Tuner doesn't support HD. Could he have same issue? What transmitter is he pointed at?

Edited August 12, 2019 by Temp

[joe90]

@Temp like me he is just outside Bude, the tech guy was telling us that our area was one of the first to go digital (guinea pigs) and now one of the first to loose channels ready for 5G.

[Temp]

I cant immediately workout OK which transmitter you point at but:

 

The Tavistock transmitter is only a Freeview Light transmitter which doesn't broadcast the Com multiplexes. 

 

There are full service transmitters at Caradon Hill and Huntshaw Cross. Caradon Hill appears to cover Bude.

[Onoff]

Crystal Palace me. Direct line of sight but for the sides of the valley I have to point at with the highest gain Band A I could get.

 

I might try and make another sheet/mesh trough antenna before I give up on terrestrial all together. I had a word with the neighbour as an aside and he's happy to lop off the problem conifers.

[Jeremy Harris]

10 hours ago, joe90 said:

 

Thats not what the tech guy from the shop said, my friend had already done a retune hence the reason for calling the guys out. The channel list shows the channel with a symbol next to it to show it’s not available anymore. (His favourite 80s music channel was one of them ?)

 

Everything I can find just says that TV channels are being moved as a consequence of the 5G changes, not that any channels are being removed.  Which have some advice here: https://www.which.co.uk/news/2018/05/have-you-lost-freeview-channels-this-could-be-why/ that suggests that they may offer free replacement aerials for some who cannot get their old channels back by retuning.

[joe90]

Thanks @JSHarris will pass this info on to my friend.

[SteamyTea]

9 hours ago, joe90 said:

guinea pigs

I seem to remember that Channel 5 was the first to broadcast digitally from Carn Brae.

You can see that mast, at night, all over the country (well not quite, but a fair slice of Cornwall).

Not sure where the digital radio mast is, but when it rains heavily, DAB stops.

 

[ProDave]

12 hours ago, joe90 said:

 

Thats not what the tech guy from the shop said, my friend had already done a retune hence the reason for calling the guys out. The channel list shows the channel with a symbol next to it to show it’s not available anymore. (His favourite 80s music channel was one of them ?)

Actually the number of tv channels has increased. As real time multiplexers have got better, they have managed to squeeze more and more channels onto each multiplex.  Though sometimes at the expense of the quality of the picture (over compression)

 

that is one aspect where freesat is better, less pressure to over compress as many more channels available for transmission.