Extremely Poor 7, 9 & 10

[russj]

I am having problems with chanles 7, 9 & 10. They are that bad I cannot watch them...Massive pixalation and image tearing, plus if I change channel, the channel I change from seems to affect the channel I am changing to, e.g. changing from 7 to 9? I live in West Melbourne, I'm not sure what the signal quality should be like in this area...

ABC and SBS seem to be unaffected.

Only started happening 4rd of April.

BTW, what is CNR? I generally have a CNR in the order of 65% - 88%.

[pgdownload]

Basically you have a reception issue. I would recommend getting an antenna guy to come around and test out your setup. He can quickley identified what part (cable, antenna, plugs, STB, etc.) is failing and hopefully its an easy fix - should cost under $100 for diagnosis.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

[russj]

I live in an apartment complex, so hopefully the body corporate will come to the party when it comes to resolving this issue.

[mtv]

CNR = Carrier to Noise Ratio aka SNR ,Signal to Noise Ratio

If this measurement is taken from a receiver, it means very little, as they are indicative only, and do not show true values, as would professional signal measuring instruments.

Have you checked if other residents in your apartment building are also experiencing the same problems?

Given that fact that your reception has degraded suddenly suggests it is a fault with the antenna/distribution system.

I'd recommend reporting the problem to the appropriate person. Body-corporate/agent/landlord.

[pgdownload]

Apartment distribution systems can often 'block' the digital spectrum - they're meant to block it all but most let enough through to provide some signal. You might want to try an indoor antenna. Unlike analogue it possible you may get crystal clear reception with one. I recommend the L4016 from Dick Smith ($20 15 day money back guarantee) - There's an indoor antenna sticky around the forum here to help set up. But as a first suggestion try it with the rods fully retracted but sticking out at 180 degrees at the base.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

PS the booster may also help with the indoor antenna.

[alanh]

russij,

Go to the Geographic Viewers’ Forum, which is near the bottom of the main forum’s home page. Select your region and read the pinned post “Get the Best Reception”. Please post any further correspondence in this strand for all in your region to see. I will see it anyway. You could also search your location in that strand for others in your area.

AlanH

[russj]

I was actually thinking that it may be my STB. I have a Thomson DTR6000AU (yes the really dodgie one), and I think it is finally starting to die. Since I have had this box, around 2 1/2 years now, seven digital would just drop off and I would have to re-tune the box for seven only. Then things would be fine for a little while until it would happen again, then I would need to go through the tuning process again. Annoying, yes but I just got used to it....

Now my problems with extremely poor reception started when seven dropped out. I re-tuned the box and since then I have experienced the issues where the commercial channels are, most of the time unwatchable. As I mentioned ABC & SBS are fine (watchable at least & I'm glad I don't watch much commercial TV)...

So I was going to go out and buy a new STB, probably a Topfield as other users in these forums have nothing but praise for the Toppies.

Have I come to the right conclusion?

BTW, why is it that the stations which have a limited budgets i.e. ABC / SBS seem to have better coverage and signal quality, plus they are using the technology e.g. ABC2, compared to the commercials which have a larger budget but seem to have lower signal quality / coverage and are not going to do the multicasting until the government forces them...(Just thought I might put this out there)

[pgdownload]

Have I come to the right conclusion?

Maybe, it occurs to me that your rescan might have latched on to some weaker signals from another tranmitter - normally you'll get duplicate channel but some STBs just take the first signal they find and ignore the stronger ones. Topfield PVRs are well reknowned. There STB are also great but if you're buying a SD STB I wouldn't spend much more than $150.

BTW, why is it that the stations which have a limited budgets i.e. ABC / SBS seem to have better coverage and signal quality, plus they are using the technology e.g. ABC2, compared to the commercials which have a larger budget but seem to have lower signal quality / coverage and are not going to do the multicasting until the government forces them...(Just thought I might put this out there)

Main reason is that the current regulations in place make digital TV pretty much an expensive pain in the arse for commercial networks. ABC has less restrictions and they also aren't so worried if they split there audience between channels (unlike commercial networks that can see little upside)

Regards

Peter Gillespie

[Guest Kano79]

Hi all,

I notice the last post on this topic is quite old but I wasnt able to post a new topic so thought I'd just post here and see how I go. I'm not entirely up to speed with all the DTV lingo so will explain the situation I have as best as possible.

I live in Norwood in a stand alone property. I have an LG DTV with STB downstairs which has worked perfectly for the past 5 years. There are 3 other TV's in the house, all of which are upstairs, which were all previously analogue and all worked fine. I recently purchased a second DTV to replace one of the analogue TVs upstairs. After several attempts at auto tuning I finally got what I thought was a clear picture for chans 2,7,9,10 and SBS. I found 7,9, 10 took several attempts to get tuned correctly. Anyway once I had all channels, I started watching chan 7 for a bit and noticed interference which got progressively worse. This happened when the downstairs LG DTV was both on and off. There was no interference of signal observed on the downstairs TV. I have read how adding additional DTV's to a single antenna could cause problems, but I would have thought that some interference may have been observed on the downstairs TV if this was the case. I checked the diagnostics on the upstairs DTV and found hardly any signal for channels 7,9 and 10. SBS and channel 2 appear to be fine. The new DTV pucrhased has an inbuilt tuner and the booster is on. I tried switching the booster off to see what would happen but made no difference.

Is 2 DTVs too much for my antenna? (not sure what sort of antenna, but suspect it was meant for analogue). Do I need an antenna more aimed at 'digital'? Would a new antenna affect the analogue TVs? I am not sure of the splitter arrangements, all I know is that the antenna signal is split between the 4 TVs and worked fine, only have problem with the new DTV upstairs, all other 3 TVs still work fine.

Any suggestions?

Kano

[I am not a duck]

Norwood what state?

Brand & model of new TV please.

Ordinarily speaking changing one of your TVs for a digital one would only be problematical if your antenna/cabling setup is deficient.

The signal at an outlet is fixed and does not usually change appreciably with plugging/unplugging antenna leads unless there is a fault wiring error.

[wahroonga farm]

Hi Kano 79,

A M'Bozo advises, as long as the antenna and distribution system is ok, tv's don't load the 'antenna'.

Does the signal/quality % across the channels show any differences of interest, between the upstairs and down stairs TV's?

Have you swapped the wall point to tv flylead on the new tv? They frequently are causes of failure..

[Guest Kano79]

Hi Kano 79,

A M'Bozo advises, as long as the antenna and distribution system is ok, tv's don't load the 'antenna'.

Does the signal/quality % across the channels show any differences of interest, between the upstairs and down stairs TV's?

Have you swapped the wall point to tv flylead on the new tv? They frequently are causes of failure..

Hi guys,

Sorry, to clarify I am in Norwood, SA.

The make of the new TV is LG 50PG60UD. See : http://au.lge.com/products/model/detail/tv..._50pg60ud.jhtml

I had cables everywhere when setting up the new TV, so may have changed the flylead (I assume this means the anternna cable between the TV and antenna port on the wall). Had to fit an adapter to suit from one of the other TV's to sue the cable. Maybe I swapped the flyleads in the process of setting up and have a dodgy flylead? Although wouldnt this mean all channels should have bad reception, not just a few?

The signal quality for channels 7,9 and 10 is fairly close to zero. SBS and chan 2 fine. All DTV channel signals on downstairs DTV are fine.

Cheers,

Kano 79

[wahroonga farm]

Can it / does it tune analogue channels? If so how are they?

I'd swap out the Tv to wall plate connecting cable to be sure.

[Guest Kano79]

Can it / does it tune analogue channels? If so how are they?

I'd swap out the Tv to wall plate connecting cable to be sure.

It tuned analogue channels but they werent flash at all, will try swapping TV to wall plate cable as suggested and will let you know whetehr that solves it.

[alanh]

Moved to here, in the Adelaide Viewers' forum

AlanH

[digitalj]

Moved to here, in the Adelaide Viewers' forum

AlanH

alanh,

these posts of yours are pointless, sorry to say, antennas are not the only way to get poor reception, you can also have faulty tuners, faulty amps, faulty flyleads, etc, these are not "local" problems, because if these are the reasons for poor reception in someone's home, they're not going to help others in the same area., "local" problems are things like interference from a nearby source, such as factories, other transmitters, poor signal strength in the whole area, etc. Unless someone has problems with these local things, the posts/threads are fine in here, because they only affect 1 person, not a whole neighbourhood.

I'm sure that others will agree with my post.

Please only redirect people to the specific geographic forums if there are known problems with the suburb/town they live in.

digitalj.

[wahroonga farm]

Alan has mysteriously worked out that it's Adelaide's churches that are causing the problems

[I am not a duck]

It tuned analogue channels but they werent flash at all, will try swapping TV to wall plate cable as suggested and will let you know whetehr that solves it.

Your LG TV shouldn't be a problem.

A new user cannot start a new topic until their post count reaches 5.

Make some random posts here to get your post count up. But only if you want to.

You only need to make 2 more posts to qualify.

[Guest Kano79]

Your LG TV shouldn't be a problem.

A new user cannot start a new topic until their post count reaches 5.

Make some random posts here to get your post count up. But only if you want to.

You only need to make 2 more posts to qualify.

Hey M'bozo/wahroonga farm,

I tried a set of 'bunny ears' on the new tv and seemed to provide good reception for the digital and non-digital channels for all bar 1 channel (one of the chan 10 digital channels). This I can live with. Seems to have been a faulty flylead amongst all the cables I was using to set up at the time. Will get a new flylead and all should be sweet.

Thanks again

Kano79

[I am not a duck]

Kano79

That's good.

Sometimes it's the simplest things

[Guest Kano79]

Kano79

That's good.

Sometimes it's the simplest things

Well got a new flylead, things have improved but still get digital channels dropping out. Non-digital channels are still tuned quite poorly (very grainy). Non-digital channels were fine with the old non-digital TV that previously used he antenna port on the wall. Also noticed digital channels a bit grainy, particularly chan 7.

Have an LG techo coming out to clear up a dead pixel, will get him to check the tuner as well I think?

Any ideas as to what to try before then? Tried booster on and off when tuning which made no diff.

Kano79

[I am not a duck]

Turned out this problem was caused by a stray strand of braid at the back of a Clipsal 30TV75MS insert touching the centre pin. Was probably close enough that the act of pushing the flylead in distorted something enough to make it short, and then of course, it stayed broke.

There was also a 30PFM insert in the same plate where the F connector screwed to it had been crimped by a pair of long nose pliers.

[JZ76]

Turned out this problem was caused by a stray strand of braid at the back of a Clipsal 30TV75MS insert touching the centre pin. Was probably close enough that the act of pushing the flylead in distorted something enough to make it short, and then of course, it stayed broke.

There was also a 30PFM insert in the same plate where the F connector screwed to it had been crimped by a pair of long nose pliers.

Hi I am new to here and can't start a new topic so added my question here hope somebody can help.

My old SD box stopped working so I got a new HD one, but the new one doesn't pick up channel ten or nine with the outdoor antenna (I live in an apartment block), quality for SBS isn't too impressive either. I treid my own indoor antenna, this time it picked up channel ten but still no sign of nine, also lost channel seven but can see big improvement on SBS.

I brought the set up box back to the shop, where it worked perfectly. I can only conculde it is something wrong with my antenna. Can anybody think of any obvious reasons?

Thanks!

JZ

[sloanetce]

Hi there,

Anybody happy to help me?!

I can't post a new topic and I really want to know how to get ch9 and 7 on digital. I have ABC and 10 excellent reception but no 9 and 7.

After searching I get ch 9 but there is no picture.

I do receive ch 9 and 7 in analogue but no good picture. I would really like to watch Tri nation on 7.

I live in Mansfield, Brisbane

Thanks for your help. By the way , why I can not post a new topic?

[mtv]

sloanetce,

You need a minimum of 5 posts before you can start a new thread. (anti-spam measure).

Your question is probably best asked in the Brisbane viewers forum, as there are probably others who know better, what reception is like in your area.

What type of antenna are you using?.... Indoor, outdoor, apartment complex master antenna?

What type of digital tuner?... integrated in a screen, STB... computer card?