freeview

[sue62]

Hi hope someone can advise. we are fortunate enough to have 3 tv sets. One an nec e have had for over 20 years, a philips small set and a new sony with built in digital.
Before we got the Sony i had been having problems with the small philips and so we bought a new aerial that said it was good for poor reception areas.
The ancient Nec gets most channels but the new Sony is missing several and I have hardly any left on the philips. I have tried reprogramming manually and automatically, we're checking connections to tv aerial etc but still no improvement in signal - and it is all the time not during bad or hot weather etc.

Any advice most welcome

 

[big-all]

if you have 3 tvs on the same ariel you may need a booster or better quality coax

is the new ariel freeveiw freindly and is it rotated correctly to the polarisation of your transmitter[90 degree rotation along the long axis]

 

[sue62]

I bought the new super dooper aerial as a replacement to our old aerial but hubby decided not to replace but to use all three aerials!

I din't think this was a good idea as he has them all on roof as same point.

what do you think, we did have something I think he called a splitter in the aerial leading off them but he said this was no good.

 

[big-all]

you need to find if your arial is freeveiw frendly
you also need to find your local transmitter and the required polarisation
as in the same way as you have it or rotated so the wings are are 90 degrees

go for a booster with 4 outlets initialy and see how that works on your main tv

what is your local transmitter[the one your arial is pointing att!!

 

[ericmark]

Freeview varies area to area. Where I live in North Wales a new repeater has been pressed into service at Storeton which for English channels needs an aerial at low end of band and for Welsh channels at upper end of band.
It will also need me to rotate the aerial to east around 15 degs.

The old Winter Hill transmitter will still have freeview as will Moel-y-parc and although my aerial will not be pointing at the transmitters I will still get some signal.

This means there are very few free frequencies which I can use for free to air, Sky, Freeview, DVD and VCR boxes and care is needed to ensure one of these boxes does not effect the freeview signals.

Some boxes are good but others bleed over to other frequencies and just looking at published frequencies for your area may not work and only sure method it to test by switching off the boxes and seeing what effect they make to the signal.

Although I had gone onto the freeview web pages I knew nothing about the Storeton transmitter until the freeview pamphlet arrived through the door.

I have no idea about Gwent but with so many valleys there are likely to be many repeaters as well as main transmitters and reception can change so much in half a mile I would not even attempt to guess on what your problem may be.

Best bet find a radio ham. They seem to know what's what as often they use the same masts as TV. And do try turning off items and see if they produce interference.

Cymru am byth

 

[maltaron]

To find out which aerial you need go to

http://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/transmitters/tv/index.shtml

locate your main transmitter site and it will list your aerial group, verticle or horizontal polarisation and map reference for the main transmitter and all the boosters.

If you have an OS map and compass you can align your aerial perfectly and then use a 4 way booster to feed your TVs.

It is possible to parrallel two aerials pointing to different transmitters but normally this is no advantage.

 

[sue62]

thanks for that - have looked at website. it says under aerial group -AV
can you explain what that actually means

 

[sue62]

have looked at website some more and see we have two options for transmitters so will try the other and have found some useful info re retuning. I was just doing it using handset but it talks about freeview set box so will give that a go too.


thanks again

 

[ericmark]

The band used for TV can use many aerials this

shows how each aerial covers a different part of the band the group A your looking for will have a red tell tail plug in end of square section to show it's group A.

The V refers to vertical here you can see what is meant by horizontal and vertical

.

See here for more info sorry to say it is no longer an easy to choose. If you are a long way from the transmitter or it is weak then using a banded aerial keeps it's size down and removes some of the problems encounter with wind and static build up. However if you are not on the top of a hill and don't have high winds and have a transmitter reasonable close then using a wide band (Black) aerial can be a simple option allowing you to re-tune where ever the transmitter is on the band.

In order to receive Welsh and English where I live either I need two aerials pointing in two completely different directions or I need a wide band aerial pointing at a repeater which covers both.

 

[sue62]

that is great - will print off and show him who (relictantly) climbs ladders.
last night he fitted an aerial amplifier - which was apparently bought weeks ago). my tv set does now have correct number of channels so happy about that.

will still use info you gave us though, especially the info re transmitters as it means we will now be able to get welsh tv if we redirect one of the aerials

 

[ericmark]

Do remember we are opposite ends of Wales. And I did once try to advise someone in the valleys before and there are so many repeaters that I quickly realised it needs local knowledge which I lack.

One easy way is satellite as the signal comes down quite sharp so dishes can be mounted quite low down so steps often enough.

Also all local stations are available something like 20 x BBC1 to cover all regions. Draw back is no FiveUS or Fiver but you do gain a load of film channels like Films for Men etc. The box costs around £40 which is more than freeview but I considered it was not worth buying a freeview box as once TV is changed I will get that anyway so may as well pay extra for a free to air box.

However I have used three free to air boxes and the electronic program guide is different with each and unlike looking for a TV where you can look at them in shop first the free to air boxes are not normally on demo.

This is outdated but will give you some idea. Channel 4 is no longer encrypted and Channel 5 has a non encrypted version. Although old Sky boxes without cards work they do not receive as many channels as a free to air box. However they do have fixed channel numbers and a better EPG.

Sorry but again no easy answer.