All posts by Nick
Below are all of Nick's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.Thought you might be interested to know I reinstalled my box yesterday. It has logged numerous Dutch and French channels! I suppose if these are on the channels used by Sudbury, then we ARE going to have problems after upgrade.
| link to this comment |
Thanks Brian.
I am not certain it tells me which channels the foreigners are on. I will install yet again and see if I can find out.
The wideband aerials are a compromise as it is not possible to get max gain across channels which use elements and spacings almost twice the length at channel 21 from 68. The graph of their performance tails off at the extreme ends, but not so much as if you try a mid group aerial instead, eg, group B. However, the performance graph also shows that their performance, say on group B, is lower than using a group B aerial. So if you look only at the BBC and ITV channels, which hopefully will be all within the old group B, your signal for these channels is worse with wideband. Hope that makes sense.
Where can I find a full explanation of 'signal quality?'
Best wishes.
| link to this comment |
Thanks, Brian, I appreciate that.
I would like to know, though, where to find the definition of signal quality. Since you mentioned that a booster can reduce this, I have been concerned. My box does not show me signal quality. The Sky box shows both. Sometimes the quality is low yet reception good.
| link to this comment |
Um. Thank you Brian. If you could briefly tell me what affects it I would be grateful. Can I have a good signal yet poor quality? It seems I get a good signal on some channels yet poor quality and thus no picture. I do not understand why.
After plaguing you with questions, you might be interested to know I have bought a flat screen. I now get an intermittent picture from stations on c68. The box, though, still refuses to find anything there. [same aerial.]
The curious thing is that on my inferior aerial, the box finds channels on most mux, yet the flat screen finds nothing at all, although it hangs around the stronger groups trying, before telling me nothing found.
I cannot tell you more about the foreign channels. Since reinstalling they have gone.
Kind regards.
| link to this comment |
Thanks Brian, but I still do not understand what can cause quality to be poor yet signal good, and what can be done about it. Can you refer me to some document that explains?
Do you know why the Sky pic on a flat screen is less sharp than Freeview?
Also, why is the freeview sound a couple of secs behind analogue? It is not bouncing off a satellite.
Many thanks, kind regards, Nick.
| link to this comment |
Brian, as expected, the analogue picture on flat screen is worse than on crt, freeview is good where available but Sky is somewhere in between, quite blurred. I thought that it would be as good as freeview, so I could see the missing channels clearly. My local retailer says freesat is clearer and believes Sky deliberately blur the picture to encourage people to pay for their hd. Is this true? Many thanks.
| link to this comment |
It is scart, Brian. Yet another mystery it seems. I have a couple of dishes on other sats, foreign. I will manually tune my Sky box to a foreign station and see if that is the same. If you are saying that freesat is likely to be the same as Sky, via scart, then better stick with the limited chaannels on freeview.
| link to this comment |
Thanks Brian. I realize they use the same satellite, so that definitely means they have the same picture quality on standard definition?
Is hdmi better than scart, which I thought was meant to be the bees knees?
Kind regards.
| link to this comment |
Ah, thank you.
Brian, I really must admit I am struggling to feel at home with this flat tv. I just cannot get the colours right, however I play with the picture settings. The white is too stark, like looking at a naked fluorescent tube, there is no hint of any other colour in it. A bright sky is just dazzling white, however low I set the controls, which of course makes everything else wan. I can give a blue hue to things, or a red one, but there is no way to put a bit of yellow into faces, they have to be red, pink, or white!
Is this within your remit?! Toshiba 32BV700
| link to this comment |
Wednesday 25 May 2011 10:09AM
Woodbridge
You have both been most helpful. It looks as if after upgrade, all the 'proper' channels will be within group. Here we get A1 signal on analogue, with good aerial and booster, the only problem being various forms of interference at times, which it seems will diminish with the continentals now digital and the rest of the uk xmitters following.
I have got a lot of info from a site called atv aerials, confirming my view that wideband aerials may bring in out of group channels but that within group will be worse, making it debateable to change what I have.
I am still hazy on the subject of signal quality. If the booster makes C5 on 50kw A1, no noise, does that not mean signal quality is good? My digibox does not show sig quality, only strength.