aerial failure?

[stardanny]

Hi.

I have a problem. I have a philip lcd Tv with freeview build-in in bedroom and a lounge LG lcd tv with freeview build in. I have noticed I'm losing ITV, CHANNEL 4 and CHANNEL 5 and a few channels on philip tv and the main lg work fine. So I've moved philip downstair so I can test it with aerial feed in. I've got all channel bar some which is block picture, but noticed the signal is really low on ITV C4 C5. I've work out the channel number for above is 68 or 85000 on philip. The rest of channels eg bbc1 2 3 4 dave itv3 etc work perfect with excellent signal.

Only channel 68 has bad signal yet rest of channels is excellent, why is that? What the problem?

The setup: Aerial feed into SKY HD and RF 1 to main tv LG, and RF 2 to bedroom tv PHILIP via a amp as I have long cable to bedroom.
SKY HD connect to main tv with HD lead.
I also have a sky eye for bedroom to control sky.

Bedroom has excellent picture except ITV C4 C5.
Main tv has excellent picture with build in booster switch on.

The transmitter is OXON / BUCKS.

What the problem and does it need a new aerial?

My area due to be switch off in 2012.

Thanks
Dan.

 

[ericmark]

SKY HD and RF 1 to main tv LG, and RF 2 to bedroom tv PHILIP via a amp as I have long cable to bedroom.

That's likely the problem Sky uses 68 as default output.

Press [Services] 401 [select] without looking at TV screen.
Select option 4, 'RF outputs' and change output RF to clear channel. Don't forget to save.

 

[stardanny]

I've tried that, it on 22.

But, i've plugged in straight from aerial and it still the same.

 

[ChrisFrost]

Have these problems happened recently or has it always been his way?

 

[stardanny]

These problems happened recently. Only channel 68 drop down to poor signal. Other channels signal is excellent.

Dan.

 

[ericmark]

I had similar problems with my parents house. We considered likely due to neighbours Sky box and we moved the aerial about 4 foot to one side and this cured problem.

Now in my area switch over is complete channel 68 is no longer used by broadcast stations so no longer a problem.

So maybe a new aerial will help but not in same position as old one.

The old analogue system was designed to work with 4 channels. Then a 5th was slotted in and to do this Channel 5 had to come to many homes and re-tune video recorders etc. Then they tried to slot in another 6 digital frequencies on top of the already crowded network. These were slotted where ever there was a gap and in some cases very directional transmit aerials had to be used to prevent cross channel interference and also power had to be quite low. The whole idea of switching off analogue is to redress this problem. As a result you may find channel 68 is a weaker signal than rest or you aerial may be banded and not as good at receiving higher frequencies.

"ChrisFrost" comment "Have these problems happened recently or has it always been his way?" is very valid. It may be impossible to improve! I use satellite and glad I do with change over as TV is forever auto-retuning and has been failing on regular basis. However Channel 5 is a problem with free-to-air satellite as it is special and does not have program guide like the rest. Freeview gets Yesterday, Fiver and FiveUS for free but with satellite Yesterday has to be paid for and Fiver and FiveUS require a one off payment with Freesat.

Since you already have a dish and most have a quad LNB unless you want FiveUS, Yesterday or Fiver I would consider using a free-to-air satellite receiver. They start at around £40 but cheaper ones don't have good electronic program guides. Many only have now and next. But Lidi is where I got one of mine. And very happy with it. I see Screwfix also does one for £40 the second I got came off canal boat and has built in satellite finder same make as Lidi one and third came from Turkey the latter has much better program guide. All will allow scan of only free channels so unlike SKY boxes you don't wade through channels you can't watch and you can also delete channels so can remove all the sex and shopping channels. I sit in bed and watch films for men on many a night.

 

[stardanny]

Hi.

I've rung up for aerial installers and some quote between £200 to £350.

That seem a bit too much, so I have bought and installed a new high gain digial aerial ( nearly 6 foot long ) from Maplin in my loft, mounting on rafter and ran new cable to sky aerial in. And left the old one up on roof.

It work perfect! Clear picture and got 8 more channels. Channel 68 is now very high.

Ericmark, chrisfrost, Thank you for your help.

Dan.