UK Digital Terrestrial Signal

[pondlife]

Hi All,

My GBPVR is now up and running - not permanently wired in yet as I've got to buy a SCART hub (not enough decent connectors on my TV) - but it's sadly let down by my poor 'freeview' signal.

I don't know much about the aerial (RF) side of this but I do know that I've got a decent aerial on a decent height pole and a masthead amp - there's only one TV being fed from this too...

I'm also in a geographical area that's covered by 'freeview' - according to their website.

(the HVR1300 does as good a job as my separate freeview box BTW).

Anyone know of any tweeks or tips that might improve things? Anyone having the same problem?

If not it looks like I might have to wait until 2012 until we go digital!

Also, I've run the EPG Update a few times and it's not displaying anything for BBC1 - is this because of my weak signal?

Cheers,

pondlife.

[bgowland]

Not really very much to suggest. Digital terrestrial TV is a bit like being Hip - you either got it or you ain't.

The main thing is to make sure you start with good receiving components, i.e., good aerial, quality low-loss co-ax cable, perfect connections/joints for the cable (e.g., weatherproof at the aerial and quality UHF connectors properley made throughout).

After that, you need to make sure the aerial is pointing as directly as possible at your chosen transmitter - dvb-t is more directionally sensitive than analogue UHF. From experience, I know I can swing my aerial side-to-side by a few inches each way and still get good analogue reception but as little as an inch each way is enough to mess up the signal strength for Freeview.

The postcode thing can be misleading - effectively all it tells you is that you are 'in range of' a transmitter that is broadcasting Freeview. Geography (terrain etc.) and surrounding buildings etc. can have a part to play. My parents and my sister live in the same town in Hampshire about a mile apart. The town is on a long sweeping hill - dvb-t reception at the top of the hill where my parents are is good for everyone but my sister and her neighbours at the bottom of the hill can't get a good enough signal to make it worth bothering.

One other option to investigate (hopefully coming earlier than 2012 ) is the joint BBC/ITV satellite venture. Supposedly being investigated this year although news on the project seems to have dried up recently. Basically they've realised they're having difficulty covering the whole of the UK for Freeview with DVB-T transmitters and it's supposed to provide total coverage when (if) it gets off the ground (pun not intended ).

[EDIT] The EPG problem could be as a result of poor signal. You can tell GB-PVR to spend more time gathering the EPG for each MUX by editing the following in config.xml (use Notepad NOT Wordpad)...

<DvbEpgHarvestDuration>120</DvbEpgHarvestDuration>

Time is in seconds - try 180 or 240 to see if it picks up what it's currently missing.

Cheers,
Brian

[gEd]

you may need to upgrade your aerial to a wideband model.

[dunni]

You should make up your own aerial leads. I recently discovered that the normal cables you buy are rubbish. Buy some coaxial cable and some aerial plugs and make your own up. It's not difficult, the plugs should tell you how to do it on the packet.

[neilraymond]

you might want to have a look at this website: http://www.satcure.co.uk/

they've got a lot of useful information on there, as well as selling everything you need to try and get decent digital reception (p.s. i don't work for them or anything, i've just bought stuff from them in the past and found them helpful)

[Chris.Day]

You should make up your own aerial leads. I recently discovered that the normal cables you buy are rubbish. Buy some coaxial cable and some aerial plugs and make your own up. It's not difficult, the plugs should tell you how to do it on the packet.

I agree.

I recently bought a 2m "enhanced for digital" cable out of curiosity. It looks no different to the regular cables except for the colour of the connectors on the end. The cable is the same thickness. It has the same level of flexibility. I'm not going to cut it open but I suspect that it's got very little difference.

Anyway. This 2m cable loses more signal than my home-made ones (which are CT100 cable with simple screw-on coax plugs on the ends - not even soldered either). For the price of one shop-bought cable, you can make up several of your own. It is very, very quick once you've made one of them.

The only issue is to be careful what type of cable you use. I was in a well-known UK retailer on Sunday and took a look at their TV coax cable (the sort that you cut off the roll), and there was very little in them except for the core and the plastic spacer. Braiding was virtually non-existant. Do yourself a favour and get "satellite coax" rather than "TV coax".

[pondlife]

Hi All,

Great stuff thank-you! Going by what you've told me there is more that I can try which is excellent news.

I have a feeling that the cable I'm using is good stuff but I think the connectors aren't soldered in. I shall buy some decent connectors and borrow a soldering iron - It's probably been 20 years since I've used one so I'll try not to burn the house down!

Not sure whether my aerial is wideband either so I'll get that checked out...

I know that the aerial view is partially obscured by some town-houses on my estate and by the sound of it digital is more sensitive than analogue so that's probably having a detrimental effect. I'd need another 20 feet at least on the pole to get round this so I don't think that's going to happen...

Thanks again - plenty to work on :-)

Cheers,

pondlife.

[pondlife]

I've just had a look at the site recommended by Neil in an earlier post and found the following - it's paraphrasing a lot of what you guys have already said but there's more good stuff here too:

http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/freeview_problems.htm

Cheers,

[Muttley]

Can you give a litle more detail on what you mean by weak signal. Is the picture pixelated, hanging? What Channels are you picking up? If your getting EPG from the broadcast give up it's pants (imho), switch to xmltv or similar.

[spitfire]

Hi

Try to rent a DVB-T finder. It´s a similar to a sat finder. Here in Sweden it can be rented for £15 for a week. And I agree with others in this post, use good cables all the way. I made new cables using low loss cable and some "professional" connectors and the analog picture was much better. My tv-card feeds directly from the antenna amplifier.