Aerial cable and booster?

[Neilc]

Hi,

after much playing about with different drivers and settings, and repeated reading of these forums, I've finally got GB-PVR working!

...and it's *so* much better than Win-TV - thanks Sub

My only problem is that whilst GB-PVR finds ITV1, ITV2, Ch4 and E4 when it scans, there is no picture or sound. I know that this is down to the signal - WinTV doesn't even find them.

My PC is connected to a wall-socket by a cheap-and-cheerful 10m Maplin cable (about £4.99's worth ) I'm in a block of flats with wall-sockets, so changing the aerial itself isn't an option. So, my question is, would upgrading the aerial cable and perhaps fitting a booster help?

I've done some reading and opinion on the booster seems to be divided - some think they help, others say that they boost the noise too, and as such can actually cause more problems....

The cable upgrade seems a logical first step, but do you think it will make a real difference?

[HenkH]

Are you sure you're using the right frequencies? If you know the exact frequencies (e.g. from your cable provider) you might use FreqCopy (from the Tuning Assistant utility to punch in some exact frequency in the registry?

Is your PC the only thing connected to the wall socket or do you also have a TV connected? In that case: how is the image quality on the TV? Good cabling will always help, but also consider things like connectors and splitters.

[Neilc]

Sorry, should have said - the card is a Nova-T 90002, so its looking for Digital Freeview, not analogue signals

And no, there's no splitters or anything else plugged into the wall-socket.

I haven't got a freeview box, so I can't tell whether the signal from the socket is good or not, but a neighbour has a digital TV plugged into his and receives all the channels perfectly.

[onestar]

Sorry, should have said - the card is a Nova-T 90002, so its looking for Digital Freeview, not analogue signals

And no, there's no splitters or anything else plugged into the wall-socket.

I haven't got a freeview box, so I can't tell whether the signal from the socket is good or not, but a neighbour has a digital TV plugged into his and receives all the channels perfectly.

A few things. Are you scanning for all regions, vs picking the one transmitter.
Second I find the same thing, the TV picks up the signal fine, well close to fine, where as my card pinnacle 300i, has problems, even though the PC is closer to the distribution box than the tv. I think its noise from the PC but not got to the bottom of it

[ArtisticDifferences]

Hi there

I can only speak from my own experience regarding tv boosters / cables and that is they worked for me.

I reciently had my old TV arial replaced with a wide band high gain type by a professional. After installation all seemed fine on my SONY Digital TV. I received all of the stations 66 I think wha-who. However if you actually tried to watch any of the stations other than the BBC ones after a few mins the image would get garbled then the signal would get lost and then back on again. Totally un watchable. I invested in 2 boosters from Argos but both of them had guite low gain figures <8db. These didn`t improve things very much.
I gave it one more go with a high gain 16db low noise model and this works a treat! I can now watch any of the stations I like.

This is the link to the unit that I bought and the supply. I have only bought two things from supply but they seem first class. Next day delivery on both items even though ordered in the afternoon.

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/MXSLX2.html

Since then I have used the other output on this unit to pipe tv upstairs to my win-tv 909 card. I can also get all the stations up here no problem. The cable length is just over 15m and I made it me self out of Satelite Grade Coax from maplin 99p per metre and 2 metal connectors (99p for both) from wilkos. I think the site above also has all of this stuff.

I'm sure the cable also contributed to the excellent signal quality upstairs. The sat grade cable has a copper foil + braid outer core which gives it much lower loss and better screening from noise.

[capone]

I thought I had signal problems, so I got a Motorolla signal booster. It does work really well, but it does have the inadvertant problem of making stations w/ a strong bad signal look worse (eg, they come from catv company or off the main pipe w/ a minor defect, and not weak). Overall, it's a big improvement.

But it wasn't the problem. It was tuning, which I used the tuner app to clean up those couple of channels (mainly in the same part of the dial, oddly)

[Neilc]

Thanks for the comments

I have tried tuning all regions rather than narrowing it down to just my transmitter (Crystal Palace) but the results were no better

So, I've just ordered the booster and cable from the site recommended by ArtistDifferences. I was looking at the same booster on the Maplin site and it was selling for 15 quid more than Supply!

I shall let you know if it makes a difference.

[Paulp33]

Hi,

after much playing about with different drivers and settings, and repeated reading of these forums, I've finally got GB-PVR working!

...and it's *so* much better than Win-TV - thanks Sub

My only problem is that whilst GB-PVR finds ITV1, ITV2, Ch4 and E4 when it scans, there is no picture or sound. I know that this is down to the signal - WinTV doesn't even find them.

My PC is connected to a wall-socket by a cheap-and-cheerful 10m Maplin cable (about £4.99's worth ) I'm in a block of flats with wall-sockets, so changing the aerial itself isn't an option. So, my question is, would upgrading the aerial cable and perhaps fitting a booster help?

I've done some reading and opinion on the booster seems to be divided - some think they help, others say that they boost the noise too, and as such can actually cause more problems....

The cable upgrade seems a logical first step, but do you think it will make a real difference?

I presume digital TV obeys all the same laws of physics in England as in Australia. If the signal coming down through the distribution system to your flat is weak but interference free a booster will probably work but if the cabling quality is poor and the signal arrives at you with a load of interference you will be better able to tune the signal but the boosted signal is likely to be full of breakups in both video and audio.

Good quality quad shielded cable will protect the signal from interference within your flat, particularly near the PC. Lots of people with signals that are prone to breakup benefit from upgrading the flylead.

Unfortunately you are at the mercy of whatever is connected to the other side of your wall plate and that will determine how much benefit you get from a booster or upgraded flylead.

[Neilc]

A quick update for those who might find themselves in a similar position wondering whether the booster worked. My order from Supply (the folk recommended by ArtisticDifferences above) arrived today.

Haven't had a chance to make up the cable yet, but simply by plugging in the booster, I now get ITV1, ITV2, Channel 4, etc.

Only managed to have a quick play after work before I had to shoot out again (read that as 10 seconds watching of each channel to confirm they were being received), but the picture was perfect with no breakup's.

WELL CHUFFED

Now I know I can receive all the channels, and am confident about the configuration settings I need, I'll be doing a completely clean install of GBP-VR in the next couple of days.

Thanks for all the help in both this and other threads guys - much appreciated