Five - UK Channel Five

[djtaylor]

The other thing, is your aerial of a suitable group to pick up the MUX on the frequency that it's on?

I was setting up some freeview stuff at my parents the other week and initially was missing a MUX or two but with some jigging around with a masthead amp in the loft (it was very windy, cold and wet and the loft was easier at the time than the mast!), changing the position of a couple of splitters, I was able to pick up the missing MUX6 which is just out of the aerial band for my parents original aerial.

Having said that, I could pick it up on the TV freeview receiver just about, a couple of channels would have some break up but on their freeview PVR (standalone thing), it just wouldn't pick it up.

So i'd go along with the other suggestions, check the signal level, make sure all the signal hardware (aerial, downleads etc.) are good before frigging around in software.

You may find some of this useful:-

http://www.ukfree.tv/mapsofsignal.php

http://www.aerialsandtv.com/digitalnationwide.html which shows info on the aerial groups and MUX's

David.

[martint123]

There's that listing utility for scanning channels and showing signal strength somewhere around - CMD based..... just a mo.... A UK version adopted from an Oz original.

Might give an indication as to the area of the problem.

http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=8417

Martin

UPDATE:
I've just run it myself for my transmitter - Belmont.

It's way up at 850Mhz so right at the top end of the band and the only mux with anything other thna 100% signal quality..

Frequency (Actual) = 850000kHz

Transmitter Name = Belmont
Multiplex = Mux A

Channel Name LCN SID Vid Aud PMT
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Five , 5, 12866, 6017, 6018, 257 #
Five , , 12866, 6017, 6019, 257 #
Five Life , 36, 12928, 6673, 6674, 275 #
Five US , 35, 12992, 6689, 6690, 279 #
QVC , 16, 13120, 6049, 6050, 259 #
bid tv , 23, 14272, 6273, 6274, 261 #
BBC Radio 1 , 188, 14336, 0, 6210, 262 #
BBC Radio 2 , 190, 14400, 0, 6226, 263 #
BBC Radio 3 , 191, 14464, 0, 6242, 264 #
BBC Radio 4 , 192, 14528, 0, 6258, 265 #
heat , 202, 14592, 0, 6306, 266 #
MOJO , 209, 14656, 0, 6322, 267 #
Ttext Holidays , 101, 14784, 0, 6354, 268 #
TCM , 25, 14848, 6369, 6370, 269 #
Discovery , 27, 15168, 6449, 6450, 273 #
UKTV Gold , 17, 15552, 6497, 6498, 276 #
price-drop tv , 24, 15616, 6513, 6514, 277 #
Teletext Games , 103, 16128, 0, 6754, 283 #


# Signal Statistics...

# locked = Y, present = Y, strength = 15, quality = 20%
# locked = Y, present = Y, strength = 15, quality = 20%
# locked = Y, present = Y, strength = 15, quality = 20%
# locked = Y, present = Y, strength = 15, quality = 20%
# locked = Y, present = Y, strength = 15, quality = 20%
# locked = Y, present = Y, strength = 15, quality = 20%
# locked = Y, present = Y, strength = 15, quality = 20%
# locked = Y, present = Y, strength = 15, quality = 20%
# locked = Y, present = Y, strength = 15, quality = 20%
# locked = Y, present = Y, strength = 15, quality = 20%

# Average quality on 850000kHz = 20%

[bgowland]

Just to add to what everybody else has said - there are a lot of variables when it comes to DVB.

I came across a new one the other day when setting up a Freeview box for my mother-in-law. The channel scan was missing three of the mux's so I went into the setup menu and looked at signal strength - when I wiggled the aerial cable on the back of the STB, the strength went from 'Poor' to 'Good' to 'Very Good'. I changed the cable and everything was fine.

It just goes to show - a dodgy cable might be OK for some frequencies but not for others. I did RF theory at Tech. college many years ago - something to do with 'standing waves' and 'reflections' come to mind but it was never a strong point of mine.

Cheers,
Brian

[fuzzweed]

This is another good site to check your reception / ariel / transmitter setup
http://www.megalithia.com/elect/terrain.html
you put in your location and nearest transmitter locations and it checks the terrain inbetween to see if you have line of sight. In some areas you'll find your neighbours aerials pointing in a different direction to yours and this site can help decide which is 'best'. For instance in brighton the closest transmitter is actually blocked by a hill and I can get better signals from the isle of whight - further away but across open sea.....