All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.Paul H: OK thanks, as that confirms that it was definitely Waltham that you were receiving from, me only being curious as although the Nottingham transmitter might appear to cover many areas including your own, in practice it doesn't very well hence why Waltham is used by many.
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J
Crystal Palace (Greater London, England) Full Freeview transmitSunday 22 July 2012 3:12PM
Nottingham
Michael: Your last paragraph sums the situation up perfectly, insomuch that since shortly after the start of the month work has been going on at the transmitter resulting in weak signals accompanied by all the problems that's associated with them.
And with reference to your HDD recorder, if as is very likely to have happened an automatic service update occurred (or you maybe carried out an auto-tune) at the time when the TX power was reduced then this is the most likely reason why the recorder stored the other transmitter in the prime EPG position, and on the subject of the automatic service updating on the Toshiba, unfortunately this is another example of Toshiba's occasional lack of forward thinking as it cannot be disabled, although should I get a chance to have a look in the service manual I will check if anything is mentioned about it there, although somehow I doubt that it will.
Regarding pixilation being seen on one of your TV's whereas not on the others is concerned, "if" you are feeding exactly the same level of signal to all your devices such as via a powered splitter, then the device that the pixilation is seen on simply does not have a tuner of the same sensitivity as your other equipment.
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jaz: When you say "first switched it on" are you referring to from being completely off all together or just from standby? but try pressing the "input select" button on the remote control to make sure that TV is selected, also try pressing "display", if still no joy by doing that then switch the set off from the button on the TV and disconnect the DVD player followed by switching the set back on again, should it then work put the TV into standby and reconnect the DVD.
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Keith: If your aerial is still mounted horizontally then please note that the commercials only transmit on 50Kw on that mode whereas the vertically polarised transmissions are radiating on 200Kw.
By the way Midhurst cannot cause interference to signals from Rowridge as the latter spans channels from 21 - 28 whereas in the case of Midhurst its 50 - 62, and so if you do get interference at any time it has to be from somewhere else or possibly even from continental stations, your reception of commercials being much more susceptible to being interfered with as you are predicted as only being able to receive them with the status of variable even although they are radiating on 200Kw.
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Nick g: This is nearly always caused by the signal received verging on being excessively high, as this situation will affect HD reception even although SD appears to be OK, and although you havent mentioned your location nor anything about your aerial if you are using any type of booster then try by passing it.
Another test to try is by using a set top aerial or a short piece of wire (about 18" min) connected into the aerial socket of your TV / box, but if you come back with your post code or one from nearby (a shop / pub etc) then further advice appropriate to your situation can be given.
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Tracy Gill: Well satellite reception virtually guarantees glitch free reception for 99.9% of the time 24/7 all the year round as nothing can really affect it, except that is sometimes during a really heavy thundery downpour when the signal might drop out for a minute or so, but though in cases like yours where reception is being spoiled by something out with your control i.e: trees, a satellite system is the only answer whether it be Sky or Freesat.
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david: Purely out of curiosity, when you say that your Sky cable is short exactly what cable are you referring to? the reason I ask is because you are bringing two different operating systems into the equation, Virgin and Sky.
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justin: Have a look at the signal strength and quality indications being shown as what you have mentioned suggests that they are low, or at least the quality is, should it be found that they are then the dish is slightly out of alignment and with this most likely to be in the horizontal plane, whereby a slight nudge on either the left or right side of the dish might correct the error.
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Michael: Yes, splitters of the powered variety is the only way to guarantee that signals of the same level are being fed into each of the receiving devices being used, that is as well as safeguarding against the potential problems that can sometimes occur with the commonly used practice of daisy chaining RF leads, something which I never do! as its a practice dating back to early analogue days when the signals involved weren't quite so critical as their modern day digital counterparts.
However as far as cable quality is concerned, although on an odd occasion this might well come into the equation, but in the general run of things if pixilation is observed on only one *device* then in the majority of cases its due to variations in sensitivity between the tuners fitted into the different brands of equipment, no two being of the same in sensitivity unless they are in "exactly" the same model number of equipment, even at that though variations can still occur due to production line upgrades being made, this being why on some devices a serial number is necessary when ordering spares.
(*Needless to say the device suffering from pixilation problems should be tried out on another one of the splitters outputs.)
On the subject of leaving the HDD unplugged during night time, it should be appreciated that there are no hard and fast rules as to when a box will attempt a service update, as although some might carry this out about 3.00am or so others can do it at any time day or night, and should a pre-programmed update scan be missed then some boxes will try to compensate by scanning at any time after the device has been switched back on.
A final point, as these transmitter engineering notices are always published behind the event, then I would suggest that should any odd problem be observed to have cropped up at any point in time its by far the best policy to refrain from being tempted to alter (or try) anything, as the cause of the difficulty is likely to be (for one reason or another) out with your control.
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Sunday 22 July 2012 8:29AM
Nottingham
Paul H: Log 40 aerials were made by a company called Philex / Labgear (same company) although there is another similar one made by Triax called a TL40F and another by a company called "Vision", but to be honest about it although I am not quite sure which brand is sold by ATV there is absolutely nothing to worry about when dealing with a company such as ATV.
However as far as you seeing white on the end of the aerial is concerned, white isn't an aerial group colour and what you see is likely to be a sun bleached out colour.
One small point that did cross my mind, not that it changes anything said by me, was your aerial mounted horizontally or vertically? as although Waltham is your best bet, but depending entirely on where you are located within the S.E. bottom end of Nottingham's NG2 area you might possibly have been receiving from the Nottingham transmitter. (Just asking out of curiosity)
Finally, should you have been studying these charts indicating aerial gain curves etc, I wouldn't let yourself be too influenced by what's seen on these as they represent the results obtained from aerials being tested under absolutely perfect conditions in an area the size of a football field, and with a signal source at one end that provides exactly the same level of output on Ch21 as it does on Ch68 (for accuracy of results) and with the aerial on test at the other, not exactly similar to the conditions applying in real life situations where multiplexes are mostly received at different levels from each other, so charts such as these are only handy for reference purposes.