All posts by Ed
Below are all of Ed's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Thank you Steve P and jb38 for your replies.
I erased the services list from my Icecrypt box and looked at the signal received on channels 45 and 39. The level kept on flashing between 0% and 30% for strength and 0% and 2% quality. The hill where I live is about 95 degrees to my house and so the Sutton Coldfield (51 deg) transmitter is likely to be more affected by this than Brierley Hill (33 deg).
On The Icecrypt box gave a fairly steady 73% strength and 2% quality on Brierley Hill's channel 55 but constantly flashed between 0% & 60% strength on 59.
Yesterday I bought a TVI RF Filter from Maplins - badged as "Moonraker" but the same as the "AKD" / "Garex" ones. I couldn't fit it between my aerial and amplifier as recommended as doing so stopped the amplifier from working (the red LED didn't come on) but it also blocked the radio signals that I need for my hifi tuner. I plugged it in immediately before the Sony box, which then feeds to the Icecrypt box, which then feeds to the TV.
Last night I watched a whole episode of "The World At War" on Yesterday and bits of Sky News and it not freeze at all. I'm hoping this cures the problem permanently. If not, I think I will just have to live with the occasional glitch on some channels.
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Friday 7 October 2011 3:22AM
Stourbridge
I'm having slight problems with intermittant picture freezing / blocking, which occurs every 15 minutes or so on some channels and lasts 2 or 3 seconds. The stations on channels 23, 26, 30 (HD) appear to be fine. I'm not sure about the stations on channel 41 as I don't watch these ones much. But I've noticed this intermittent freezing on stations on channels 44 and 47, like Sky News and Yesterday.
I live in Stourbridge (DY8) postcode. Ideally I would tune into the Brierley Hill transmitter. Unfortunately, I live on the side of a hill. Some houses at the top of my road are tuned to Brierley Hill, one aerial points to Ridge Hill, others (including mine) point to The Wrekin 23 miles away. The aerial guy advised me to keep it tuned to The Wrekin due to possible interference from the hill and nearby trees that are in line with the Brierley Hill transmitter.
In January 2011 I had installed a new TV aerial, new omni-directional radio aerial, new cabling, dual TV and radio wall sockets in 4 rooms. The TV aerial is mains-powered using a 12v "Fringe Electronics" power supply that was fitted by the same company that fitted the aerial and cables. It appears that the signals from the TV and omni aerials come down the same cable and the signals are split at the sockets.
My TV, dvd player, dvd recorder, blu-ray player, Sony VTX-D800U STB and Icecrypt T2200 STB are all connected to a 6-way extension socket which includes mains filter. I retuned both my boxes and TV after 28 September switchover. Amazingly, when the Sony box was scanning for new channels, the scan halted at about channel 50 as it had already located 200 channels. So the aerial can certainly pick up duplicate stations from Brierley Hill and maybe elsewhere.
What could be causing the intermittent freezing problem? Will The Wrekin signal improve or get stronger in the future? Will an RF filter fitted to my STB or mains aerial amplifier help?
Sometimes when I listen to Jazz FM on my DAB radio, which is plugged into one of the
sockets served by the TV and omni aerials, I hear an occasional (once a hour) break in the sound that lasts a few seconds. Is this connected to the TV problem?