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All posts by jb38

Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.


Briantist: Sorry Briantist, I didn't realise you were in process of answering.

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Nicci: The difficulties you are experiencing can be caused by a few separate things, the first being that when the signal disappeared it was more likely to have been caused through external reasons rather than your equipment, as although nothing was officially listed as affecting digital transmissions there was work going on at the transmitter affecting analogue, and so its not beyond possibility that something connected with the work also affected the digital service, albeit this not being "officially" reported by the engineers involved if only a short term interruption.

What compounded the problem was you having rescanned your TV, as all you achieved by doing that was to lose everything you had stored in its memory, although I fully appreciate that immediately carrying out a rescan is something that most people have the tendency to do, which of course is bad policy as it necessitates constant further rescans to recover what has been lost, whereas if nothing was touched the channels would have returned themselves, as was the case with the bedroom TV/box.

As far as one device receiving something the other doesn't is concerned, this isn't really that uncommon when the signal being received is on the low side, as no two devices have the same sensitivity and its obvious that the most sensitive one will respond to the signal better than the less sensitive device, which appears to be your LG TV.

What I suggest you do is to carry out a manual scan on Ch68 to see what's picked up, and if ITV1 etc does come in then select "store" and it should add them to your EPG list, however if still nothing, then whilst still on the channel check to see what the signal strength / quality is showing as, note it then cross check it with the indications shown using the same test but on Ch51. (ITV3 etc)

Finally, In low signal areas its not advisable for TV's to share the one aerial down lead, so does the bedroom have its own separate aerial feed from a powered splitter?

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Nicci: Just been having a check at the distance you are from the transmitter, which is only 4 miles, so just in case its the opposite to what has been assumed as being the cause of the problem, meaning the signal being a little too strong on Mux Ch68, if you find that there is no picture again on ITV1 (Ch68) "very slowly" pull the aerial plug out whilst observing the screen to see if the picture suddenly flashes on at the point the plug leaves the aerial socket.

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Nicci: Thanks for your various updates, the reason I added the extra comment to my main posting was that great as digital television might be as far as its ability to provide many more additional channels is concerned, however this plus point is somewhat offset by it bringing a complete new range of reception problems into the equation.

One potentially misleading one being, that although a signal cutting out (or not received at all!) is generally associated with a weak signal which is hovering around the reception threshold level of the receiving device, however it can on the other hand also be caused by a signal that too strong, as both problems show "exactly" the same symptoms on the receiving device, with even the signal test indications not always giving a true picture of what's happening as an overly powerful signal can completely upset this part of the circuitry.

About the only thing that can give a reasonably accurate indication of the situation being the trying out a set top aerial on the TV or box, (set top aerial of the non-boosted type) as a signal that is too powerful will generally always show a picture, albeit this maybe slightly pixelated, but if nothing is seen then the chances are that the signal isn't too strong.

Of course that said, your problem seems to centre around your LG television, and so it would be of assistance to know its model number.

On the issue of the aerial down lead, bedroom sockets etc, I appreciate that you probably wont have any way of knowing this, its just that "if" the sockets have been installed by the electrician that wired the flats up, he (or she to be PC) "may" have just adopted a power socket procedure of looping one to the other, not always a good policy when dealing with digital TV signals unless in a strong signal area.






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Jess: A 10m extension is rather long for any type of cable that is not carrying RF signals, and if an HDMI type is used then it has to be of top quality (and usually pricey!) as this type of cable can have a more degrading affect on a signal over long distances if it isn't of high quality, scart cables not having so much of an effect so long as they are not of the super cheap variety. (e.g: thin types)

It totally depends on whether or not HD TV is essential in the second room, because if it is then you cannot use a scart cable no matter what the distance might be, although what you mentioned about the sound being quieter isn't really likely to be connected with the cable you were using but more the actual HDMI circuitry on the devices you are using.

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Jess: If I could just add, no cable, no matter of what type, being installed running parallel with mains cabling.

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Anne Low: As this is a Freesat (dish) and Freeview (normal aerial) TV, have you tuned the TV in selecting either of the two modes mentioned? that is taking it that you have both a normal aerial as well as a dish installed, or at least one of them with the "auto tune" selected to scan whatever mode is applicable.

Leave the Virgin box out of the equation for the time being.

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Anne Low: Thinking further about what you have said, if you have a satellite dish connected to the Virgin box then its the latter you want to carry out the scan on and not the TV, as the TV's tuning menu is not operable when the Virgin box is coupled up and switched on.

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Anne Low: Scrub what I mentioned regarding satellite, I think that I must have suffered a brainstorm in saying that, however when you were looking at the menu greyed out on the screen are you positive it was the Virgin boxes menu and not the TV's?

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Anne Low: With reference to the issue of the menu, go into the TV's input selector menu and make sure that you have selected the correct HDMI input number that you have used for connection to the Virgin box, auto switching usually being on No1 on many devices, although its not known whether or not this also applies with your set.

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