All posts by Chris.SE
Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Carol:
Hi again. Those SQ figures are bad. They should all be 100%, so there's either a major issue with your aerial/downlead (or a connection) OR you have strong wide spread interference.
Now, despite the fact that Restore TV claim to have not sent postcards to your postcode, that doesn't mean that you aren't now suffering interference from a new/upgraded phone mast!
Have you noticed any new ones appearing nearby? You are surrounded by at least 6 within a least 1km.
If you put your postcode in at https://restoretv.uk/post…ure/ then go to Contact Us and given them a call on 0808-1313-800 and tell them you've been having all sorts of problems with the HD channels in particular in recent weeks and occasionally on other channels and an engineer has; told you that your Signal Quality on all multiplexes is very poor. You can even quote the figures to them. Play the innocent, haven't got any technical knowledge etc. they MAY send you an engineer free of charge rather than just sending you the Free Filter.
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paulJ:
Hi again. 222 degrees is supposedly the precise angle for your postcode. It depends a bit on what may be on your line-of sight or within the beamwidth of the aerial (especially locally), as to whether 200 degrees rather than 220 makes much difference. It can make a difference to each multiplex, and there won't necessarily be an optimal position for all multiplexes, sometimes you have to have a compromise, especially with an aerial in a loft as very local parts of the structure or it contents can make a difference. Experiment.!
Did you ever get the free filter from Restore TV?
As for you COM5 issues, reasons could be various. They maybe doing things with the encoding, it could have been weather briefly but then I would have expected other COM5 channels to be affected. if it were weather. Went to have a look at whether I could glean any information on bitrates affecting Food Network. Nothing conclusive I'm afraid and nothing specific for the 1st June for Sandy Heath anyway.
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paulJ:
I wouldn't waste your money on calling the "Freeview Information service". They don't have a clue about anything technical. They are monkeys reading from computer scripts!
I have been highly critical of them in the past and no doubt will continue to be so when they are unable to get detailed technical information.
This Planned engineering works | Freeview is what they will look at.
If you used to get COMs 7&8 when they were operational then you may have a wideband.
These days, since 700MHz Clearance, the optimal aerial is a Group K (it cuts off anything above C48 - potential mobile cell interference). A log periodic will give you the flattest response BUT considering your distance from the transmitter and being in a loft, I would try this one -
https://www.blake-uk.com/56-element-log-periodic-group-k-aerial-new-double-element-design.html
and you'll need an F-connector for the aerial end.
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Jill Fenemore:
StevensOnln1 may have missed your previous post(s) but in essence he's given the same answer as I gave you. Unfortunately you will not get any useful information from Freeview helpline.
Believe you me, several of us have tried before, they don't have detailed technical information (even when the local manager has been pressed), they only have access to the same information that's come from an automated feed.
That said however, there's one point I mentioned to you in Oxford (Oxfordshire, England) Full Freeview transmitter | free and easy for 21 years
This IS important because interference from new/upgraded phone masts can make your reception worse which may not have the same severe effects when there is no engineering.
Have you been in touch with Restore TV?
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DAVID LITTLE:
Hmm, despite your distance from Crystal Palace, 61 km, you are predicted to get the Local multiplex which carries London Live albeit with a variable signal. It's always possible that signal strength at the time you tuned was poor. Have you ever got London Live at any time previously on all TVs and if so, how reliable was the signal?
You mention that the aerial lead comes into the lounge. Is that straight from the aerial or is there any pre-amp/masthead amp between the aerial and lounge?
Where is the aerial (roof/loft etc) and do you know what type it is and roughly how old it is?
The situation with splitters is not 100% clear Are these splitters with amps in them or are they passive?
I assume the way you've mentioned it, the lead going to the loft then goes to the bedroom where it goes into another filter then another splitter before one output goes to the bedroom TV and the other to the kitchen TV. Does this 2nd splitter have any amp built in?
It's possible that the attenuation of the signal in the cable runs to the loft and then onto the bedroom and kitchen is high enough to reduce the signal for the Local multiplex.
We may get a better feel for this if you do the following -
Look in your Lounge TV Tuning section for Signal Strength and Quality figures for each multiplexes UHF channel and post the figures for each one.
Repeat this for the Bedroom TV and for the Kitchen TV.
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david little:
With the trailer propped against the wall, was there a chance that it was leaning on the cable?
In any event, the fact that you have 100% signal & (importantly) 100% Quality on the lounge TV suggests the possibility of some amplification. Does the splitter in the lounge have a mains supply?
The loss of signal to the bedroom TV down to 30% certainly suggests a problem with the cable going up or the splitter. Try swapping the outputs on the lounge splitter and see what happens to the Signal and Quality figures in the Lounge and Bedroom.
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Paul Maidens:
First, I should point out that Brian Hudson's post was back in 2014 !! Things will have changed a bit and StevensOnln1 had given you some detail. It depends on where you are as to whether you'll get signals from other transmitters as well. If you provide a full postcode we may be able to advise on that.
If you are going to retune, you need to be in a location where your wanted signals are received. You cannot tune to signals that aren't there and the retune will just clear them from the list.
Once you wanted stations are tuned, you may just have to accept that you may not get them all at all times.
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Carol:
Thanks for that update. I'm getting the impression that RestoreTV admin aren't doing as good a job as they might! Let us know how it goes, especially like to see the updated SQ and SL figures :)
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StevensOnln1:
Well it looks like Jill Fenemore isn't going to return (yet again) and let us know if she ever contacted RestoreTV when advised many weeks ago, never mind provide the additional information requested at that time so that we could give her some more free help.
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Sunday 2 June 2024 11:10PM
Sarah:
I would strongly advise against a factory reset. There is the possibility you might lose recordings and you'd certainlyt lose any series recording you've already set and have to repeat set it up again.
Retuning was not a good idea either I'm afraid. You were already correctly tuned. You haven't given a full postcode so we don't know which transmitter you might be receiving, many have Planned Engineering and signals can get interupted albeit for short periods, or may have reduced power and if you are in a weaker signal area you may have no signal for longer.
You cannot tune to signals that aren't there or are badly pixellated they cannot be decoded.
The usual result is to clear your correct tuning, or sometimes tune to weak signals from a more distant transmitter that will be unreliable and often disappear.
It doesn't matter what the cause of no signal, be it engineering, transmitter faults, your own aerial faults, weather conditions etc. if you were correctly tuned to start, leave it alone, you just have to be patient until signals return to normal;
Manual tuning is always the best option to try and restore multiplexes that may be missing if you've inadvertently cleared the correct tuning.
In your case if you are missing just BBC channels, you need the UHF channel for the BBCA/PSB1 multiplex. If it's the HD versions the it's the UHF channel for PSB3/BBCB HD.