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digital TV aerial
russbost - 5/10/17 at 04:51 PM

Being about the only person on the planet who doesn't have either Sky or Virgin TV or similar I rely on this thing called an aerial to accept the pictures that come on the Freeview channels (yes, indeed, I am a tight git, but I bet I have a lot more money in the bank than many of you guys! ).

Now recently we've found that nearly every time we turn TV or TV & PVR on either one or both announce they need retuning & have found new channels, not only is this annoying, if you bother to retune it then loses any programmes you've already set to record so you need to add them from the guide again.

Where we live is surrounded by quite high trees (I mean like 60 - 80ft or more) so I don't think we get the greatest signal, for instance channel 10 which I know is a weak signal; sometimes we get it, sometimes we don't (not that I particularly want it, it's just a good example) & sometimes the picture is good, sometimes "blocky" & breaking up. The aerial was somewhat second hand when we moved in here, which was 20 years ago, I'm guessing it's around 30 years old, maybe more. As digital TV wasn't even a thought at that time I'm figuring that aerial technology may have moved on slightly in 30 years or so!

So, if I change the aerial (it already has a mains powered signal booster) what should I replace it with, is there such a thing as a "high gain" aerial or anything which will give a significantly better signal, I'm sure we must have some people on here that understand this technology!


gremlin1234 - 5/10/17 at 06:17 PM

no such thing as a digital aerial
yes you can get hi gain aerials for tv wavebands.
I suspect the reason it keeps finding new stations is that you are receiving from 2 (or more) transmitters crystal palace and bedford (sandy heath) would be my first guess

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/spectrum/information/tv-transmitter-maps

enter you postcode on the site below, should give useful details
http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/operations/about_the_coverage_checker


otherwise...
the fist thing to do is remove the aerial amp, and see if that makes it better. many of the transmitters ran at a low power as 'digital' was introduced, they are now high power. ie Too much signal

a selection here
http://cpc.farnell.com/c/audio-visual/aerials-satellite/aerials-antennas

I suspect, but obviously cannot guarantee that this would do
http://cpc.farnell.com/optima/l20f/aerial-20-element-compact-log/dp/AP03232

the other thing to do is look at where other peoples aerials are pointing, (but round here so many point to a very low power transmitter 5W focused to its local area (cos that what the fitter can see when he's on the roofs here), not the main transmitter 20 mile away) - 200KW!


loggyboy - 6/10/17 at 07:49 AM

As a curve ball suggestion, get a Freesat HDR/DVR. I bought a Humax one for my parents as my dad also refused to pay for TV. (more specifically TV owned by Rupert Murdoch). You'll need a dish but they are cheap as chips, and the quality is much better than terrestrial with only really bad weather ever causing signal problems. The Humax UI is superb and the recording function is very good.

On a side not and closer to your original question, there should be setting on the TV to disable notifications of new stations, just rescan manually once every 6 months or when channels get changed or go missing.


SJ - 6/10/17 at 09:06 AM

What Loggyboy said. We have had freesat for ages and it is great. The Humax boxes are very good as well.


nick205 - 6/10/17 at 10:19 AM

quote:
Originally posted by russbost
Being about the only person on the planet who doesn't have either Sky or Virgin TV or similar I rely on this thing called an aerial to accept the pictures that come on the Freeview channels (yes, indeed, I am a tight git, but I bet I have a lot more money in the bank than many of you guys! ).

Now recently we've found that nearly every time we turn TV or TV & PVR on either one or both announce they need retuning & have found new channels, not only is this annoying, if you bother to retune it then loses any programmes you've already set to record so you need to add them from the guide again.

Where we live is surrounded by quite high trees (I mean like 60 - 80ft or more) so I don't think we get the greatest signal, for instance channel 10 which I know is a weak signal; sometimes we get it, sometimes we don't (not that I particularly want it, it's just a good example) & sometimes the picture is good, sometimes "blocky" & breaking up. The aerial was somewhat second hand when we moved in here, which was 20 years ago, I'm guessing it's around 30 years old, maybe more. As digital TV wasn't even a thought at that time I'm figuring that aerial technology may have moved on slightly in 30 years or so!

So, if I change the aerial (it already has a mains powered signal booster) what should I replace it with, is there such a thing as a "high gain" aerial or anything which will give a significantly better signal, I'm sure we must have some people on here that understand this technology!



You're far from the only one who refuses to pay for more TV channels. We have Freeview and that's it - I'm simply not paying for more channels (don't watch the ones I've got much anyway). We have a PVR and SWMBO still refers to "taping" things. We've not had a VCR or any tapes for donkeys years!

We're not getting the "re-tune" issue, but it certainly sounds annoying. Have you been through the "settings" menu to see if if it they're set to an "auto-update" setting? Things do update their firmware these days and with that they can alter their settings.


britishtrident - 6/10/17 at 11:17 AM

Although we don't watch via an aerial often and we have a strong signal we had similar issues with Channel 5 on Freeview breaking up particularly when the nearby trees were in full leaf. We also had picture break-up particularly on frosty nights due to interference from the trains running on the local railway line.

The solution for us was to buy a square boosted and filtered external aerial although it is only mounted about 3 metres off the ground it gives great reception.

The re-tunning issue is usually due to the channels being added and reshuffled on your local transmitter.

Added Also we bought a Lab Gear DVB-T signal strength meter to align the aerial. --- only costs about £12 off ebay.

[Edited on 6/10/17 by britishtrident]

[Edited on 6/10/17 by britishtrident]


russbost - 6/10/17 at 12:23 PM

Yeah, we've been thro' the manual on both TV & PVR to get rid of the messages, we seem to be able to disable just about every other display but not that one. I've googled it for the machines concerned, both Panasonic & other peeps have had the same issue, but their "cures" don't appear to work for us!

What exactly is a "square boosted & filtered" aerial?

Signal strength meter sounds like a good call, will look into that

Hadn't even thought about Freesat, so presumably if you have a Freesat PVR that tunes via the dish & you only watch the Freesat TV via the PVR?

We still have an old Humax PVR & I was always very pleased with it, so I'm guessing their current Freesat offerings would be equally as good


britishtrident - 7/10/17 at 11:49 AM

This what work for us.







russbost - 7/10/17 at 12:13 PM

Great thanks for the info