All posts by Andy Parrett
Below are all of Andy Parrett's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.A
My Freeview box has no EPG, is blank on FIVE, ITV3, ITV4, ITV2+Monday 9 May 2011 12:10PM
Bury St. Edmunds
I don't know why my post of yesterday got the heading "My Freeview box has no EPG, is blank on FIVE, ITV3, ITV4, ITV2+1, has no sound or the channel line up is wrong": all I want to know is why I sometimes (most times?) get no sound on BBC3 and BBC4.
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My TV reception has deteriorated recently. (2 x TVs in house + DVD recorder) Aerial points to Tacolneston and has a booster. I have retuned after having unplugged everything and there's no improvement. I can get BBC-1 and 2, but no ITV, Ch4, Ch5 or HD. There's a smattering of other stations but most are unwatchable due to serious pixellation. Some come up with numbers in the 800s - but on trying to access there's no picture and "bad signal" message. There's nothing wrong at the transmitter according to the message on this site so do I assume that something's gone wrong with the aerial (or the booster - model by Antiference, has been in situ for many years)? nb I have looked at the aerial and can't see anything different.
Thanks
Kind regards
Andy Parrett
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Richard Cooper: Thank you for your reply, Richard. My postcode is: IP295NR. My booster is in the loft and the aerial is fixed outside to the chimney. I'm afraid I don't know how long it's been up - must be in excess of 10 years. The only other thing I can add is that when I retuned (I've tried it several times) the stations that I have are showing 'signal' at about 7 out of 10 and 'quality' at about 3 out of 10. Since we used to be able to get pretty well all stations (except ITV-4 when I wanted to watch the cycling Tour of Britain last year!) it seems to me that something's gone wrong in the last couple of weeks. I don't think there's anything amiss with connections. Regards, Andy
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Richard Cooper: Thanks v. much for your help, Richard. We have a chalet bungalow so the booster is just in a side attic, easily accessible and the power socket is in the adjacent bedroom. I can't see any problem with it - there's a green light on for 'UHF' and a red light for power (though this one does seem to flicker a little. I have tried bypassing the booster but then the TV was unable to find ANY stations. So I think I'm going to have to call an aerial engineer. However, when in Hughes in BSE this morning to get a F-2-F connector for the aerial cable the salesman asked if I'd had reception problems for about 3 weeks and I said yes. He replied that there have been atmospheric etc problems during this time in the area, though he thought things had since 'settled down' again. A solution, he suggested, would be Freesat ......
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Richard Cooper: Thanks again Richard. I have emailed friends in the village and although some have said that they sometimes get problems (pixellation etc) no-one seems to have issues to the extent we currently do. Thanks for your suggestion about self-installation but although I have been up on our roof a number of times, for various reasons, I don't feel confident about removing an aerial and installing another - if only because the chimney to which it is fixed is on the side of the house where directly below there is a conservatory with a glass roof! Also, don't you need direction-finding equipment to be certain that you're getting the best signal? (I should say that the current direction may not be best since we had the chimney repointed and the builder put the aerial back at what he thought was the right direction. This was about 5 years ago and we didn't notice any deterioration at that time.) Thankyou also for your friendly attitude to my problem (!) and I'm sorry that you're suffering from left side weakness. As for Hughes, I do find them helpful but I don't think they have their own engineers. I asked the man in the shop if he had any more info on 'Group T' aerials and I'm sure he said that they didn't sell aerials - and he didn't offer an in-house engineer. I'm looking at calling a local person. BTW where we live is served by both Sudbury and Tacolneston but the maps on this website show a better coverage from Tacolneston than Sudbury, certainly where our house is.
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Sunday 8 May 2011 7:31PM
Bury St. Edmunds
I have recently reverted to using a HUMAX Freeview box as my DVD recorder with built-in Freeview has died. I am reminded of a problem which I suffered when I used the HUMAX box before (a couple of years ago) ie no sound on BBC-3 or BBC-4. It has been intermittent, but it's certainly happening now! Other channels = fine. Aerial is roof-mounted and pointing at Tacolneston. An explanation would be welcome, thanks!