All posts by Nicci
Below are all of Nicci's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.Thanks so much for your replies jb38 & Mazbar. Ok, I've done the manual scan again. I noted that the signal strength for ch68 is between "bad" and "normal" and the signal strength for ch51 is between "normal" and "good". Ch68 picks up nothing on manual scan most of the time and same again now when I did it. Ch51 picks up 23 tv channels and other stuff (radio?). I tried pulling out the aerial lead slowly as you suggested. This didn't do anything different. On an occasional auto tune, the tv tuning will pick up the channels (ch68) again, but they still show a black screen with "no signal" icon along with intermittent flickering of highly pixelised imagery. I have just checked again and the pixelised imagery is more frequent, with a little bit of sound (odd words). The channels are clearly there but the signal is so bad all I am getting is a constant flickering of black screen/pixelisation :/ Probably around one or two seconds of black screen, one second of imagery. Which is better than it was but still unwatchable! Mazbar - I plugged the Alba digibox into the LG tv and for some reason it didn't like it and just froze the tv frames for long periods of time, sometimes not moving off the first frame. I don't know why, but it certainly wasn't watchable so I unplugged it again. As mentioned, I spoke to Richer Sounds but apparently this has been going on since switchover started a few years back and they get regular calls on the same subject. If they send my tv away for repair it will come back as being fine. They also said that Oxford Transmitter signal had been turned down to 50% or something and was constantly being turned down and different sets of channels were running at different signal strengths and that would explain why my BBC channels were unaffected and those listed in ch68 were not available. They said that if my tv was not receiving any channels at all then it would definitely be a fault with the tv... :/ What next? Do I have to wait it out until September's switchover? I will have to watch tv in bed now! Who is responsible for this state of affairs? Is it the transmitter (is that government run - I couldn't find an official website for it). Or is it DigitalUK? Feeling slightly robbed of my TV licence fee right now! Thanks so much again for your help so far...
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ps Just knocked on my neighbours door - so same building, same floor and I assume sharing same communal aerial and she has had no problems at all...
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pps - sorry forgot to answer this question, jb38 "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?"
Struggling a bit with this one. How do I know if I am sharing one aerial down lead? I have an aerial point in the bedroom. How can I provide this answer? What should I look for? It doesn't mean much to me, I'm afraid :/ <blush> !
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Hmmmmmm. Knowing how greedy developers are, I am sure they would use the cheapest option which would be the power socket! :/ Interesting that both strong and weak signals display the same symptoms. Thank you for the set top aerial suggestion. I suppose I would be willing to try this out on the basis I could return the item for a refund if it had no effect. I will ask the question before making a purchase. My tv is the LG323000 purchased in April 2009. I've maybe had a problem once before with the signal dropping out but it was only brief - maybe an hour or two tops. I did not need to re-scan/re-tune. Richer Sounds suggested that if I re-tuned the Alba digibox the Group 2/Ch68 would probably drop out also, so that goes with what you were saying earlier about not re-scanning for channels if channels drop out. Learnt my lesson, albeit a little late! I know when I moved in (April 2009) there were some problems with the reception in the bedroom (couldn't pick up any digital channels at all with the Alba box). When the aerial guy came to look at it, he said the wiring was a bit odd and he did some different/more direct wiring and then I had a signal in the bedroom. Sorry to be vague. I have no idea what he did and what was behind that socket and that probably means nothing to anyone! I was just happy to have a signal in the bedroom. Do you think it's a possible fault with the tv? Richer Sounds are adamant it isn't... Richer Sounds also said that some parts of Oxford are notoriously bad for signal, the guy I spoke to lived in Headington (OX3) and could only get five digital channels. I just don't get how they are there one minute and then they are not, especially after being told that there was no reported maintenance on the transmitter (although I know you answered this in your earlier message). I wish they would sort it out, whoever is responsible!
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Is it the communual aerial? Well, I've knocked on a good 20+ doors over the last couple of days and left a note if no-one answered asking them to let me know if they are having any problems with their freeview reception. Apart from the person directly above me, I have not had any other replies. One person I spoke to watched TV using Skype and has been having problems/missing channels via this method. Would this be using the same aerial as digital/freeview? I'm confused! :/ I presumed that digital/freeview would have it's own aerial?
As for everyone else in the block I am guessing they either 1) are not having problems 2) do not have/use freeview (using Sky or an alternative to freeview) 3) they are not around 4) they can't be bothered to reply 5) they do not have a television (a couple of doors I knocked on and answered did not have television).
What next people? Is it just a case of waiting until switchover in September now. Which is rubbish and means no ITV1, Channel 4, Channel 5 and others on this channel grouping for basically two months! Not a happy bunny!
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Monday 25 July 2011 4:06PM
Oxford
HELP ME! I was busy half watching ITV2 on 20th July at around 4ish when the picture dropped out and a "no signal" flashing icon appeared. I turned the tv off for a while and on turning it back on around 5ish to watch ITV1, this channel was displaying the same "no signal" icon, as was Channel 4, Channel 5 and ITV1+1. Channels missing appeared to be part of the group 2 ch68 listing (as per my postcode on DigitalUK's website). I am not sure of the significance of this, if any?
I waited a while and then decided to re-tune my tv (LG LCD, about two years old) using auto tune. It removed all the channels that were displaying no signal and following the auto tune my EPG looked something like this: BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4, ITV3, Pick TV, Yesterday, Film4, QVC, 4Music, Dave, VIVA, bid tv and other small channels.
I then checked my bedroom tv where I have a cheap old Alba digital receiver plugged into a Sharp LCD tv and find that all the channels are still available on there?!
I came back to my main LG tv in the lounge and carried out another auto tune. The EPG has put all the original channels back on (ITV1, Channel 4, Channel 5 etc) but now I have an occasional intermittent flickering of highly pixelised imagery and "no signal" icon.
I emailed Digital UK who suggested I do a manual re-tune. I have done this. I have also done a factory reset followed by an auto re-tune and a factory reset followed by a manual re-tune. It is still the same. I have switched off equipment and I have swapped all cables around.
I swapped the equipment over between the bedroom and the lounge and find that the Sharp tv and Alba digibox work fine in the lounge as well as in the bedroom. I tried to tune in the LG tv in the bedroom and it did the same thing as it does in the lounge (missing channels/group 2 ch68).
I immediately came to the conclusion that my LG tv must be at fault somehow, even though it is picking up almost all other channels. I called Richer Sounds for advice as I have a 5 year warranty on my tv and they say they get about two calls a week regarding this. There is nothing wrong with my tv - it's a signal issue. That I will have to wait until the full switchover and everything will be resolved/I will get all channels back. That seems a bit lame to me. Is that really true?
I am totally baffled and in need of assistance and advice please. How can the channels be there one minute, then gone the next? And how can they be available on one piece of equipment and not the other?
My postcode is OX2 6AQ and I live on the third floor of a relatively new development of flats (four years old I think?).
Thanking anyone, in frustration and anticipation! Nicci