Pixelated Freeview Picture

jbloggs

jbloggs

jbloggs

Soldato
Joined
4 Sep 2005
Posts
6,803
Location
UK
Have a separate freeview box attached to an ordinary CRT widescreen TV, with the freeview (plus analogue) aerial up in the roofspace (due to house being in an exposed area with frequent high winds), I also have a feed from the same aerial coming to my Terratec Cingery 2400i DT (freeview) tuner, on a computer.

When the weather is wet or humid, the picture on both the CRT + Terratec (the CRT is usually a bit worse) units suffer from interference, ie some pixelation, but mostly the picture looks as if it misses a few frames. The analogue picture of same channel are fine. At other times the digital picture is fine.

What is the cause of this problem and how do I remedy it?

Thanks. :)
 
We had the same problems when the weather was bad. We added an aerial booster and the picture is a lot better now. Now and then the picture goes pixely but nowhere near as much as it used to.
 
Daniel said:
We had the same problems when the weather was bad. We added an aerial booster and the picture is a lot better now. Now and then the picture goes pixely but nowhere near as much as it used to.
Click to expand...

Just out of interest what aerial booster do you use?
 
I did read the following:

Important Fact:
Despite it being a popular misconception, you won't improve a bad Freeview signal with a signal booster mounted next to the TV. It will just amplify the noise!
Click to expand...

Which is just really common sense, the Signal Quality on ALL the channels (from my present aerial setup) is 100%, and Signal Strength ranges from 74-83%....

Will look into the issue of an aerial booster decreasing SNR...
 
I too have had problems with my freeview picture ( due to living on the slope of a hill)

I got my ant replaced with a higher diopole count to get a stronger signal , but after a few weeks it was clear I was still having problems ,
got another ant fitter out to look at it and when he tested the signal strength coming out of my 4 way RF amp / splitter it was WAY too strong ( causing problem with my Nova-T 500 card )

I got the ant changed for a lower diopole count and changed to amp/splitter for one with a variable gain knob , I set the gain to about 20% and its fine if I up it higher pic starts the break up on me.

ScanChannelsBDA_UK.exe and tsreaderlite are 2 good utils for checking out the freeview signal with PC's.
 
I also used "ScanChannelsBDA_UK.exe" to check Signal Quality, and it (like the signal quality device on my Terratec card) reports that all freeview channels have a Signal Quality of 100%, there was also a note on one of the webpages, that if the Signal Quality was 100% that the cause of the pixelation/picture breakup was not due to a problem with the aerial, but was from elsewhere, so it seems I need to look somewhere else for the cause of the interference....

I also read that if there are trees near/next to the house (which I have) and they are in the line between transmitter and aerial, that when it rains and the leaves become wet, that this can cause problems with the picture....
 
Main problem I had with using digital TV decoding on my PC was interference from other sources. Not sure if it was my graphics cards or the power wiring.
 
jbloggs said:
What is the cause of this problem and how do I remedy it?

Thanks. :)
Click to expand...

thesubstitute said:
I've not seen anyone who hasn't experienced this problem with digital tv, it's just something you live with I think :(
Click to expand...

At present Freview transmissions are at a lower power than analogue transmissions. After changeover, the Freeview power will be increased.
For example, Winter hill is currently broadcasting Freeview at 10KW. After switchover in November 2009, Freeview will be broadcast at 100KW. As a comparison Winter Hill is broadcasting analogue at 500KW.

www.wolfbane.com has the information with a little digging.
 
Tomsk said:
At present Freview transmissions are at a lower power than analogue transmissions. After changeover, the Freeview power will be increased.
For example, Winter hill is currently broadcasting Freeview at 10KW. After switchover in November 2009, Freeview will be broadcast at 100KW. As a comparison Winter Hill is broadcasting analogue at 500KW.

www.wolfbane.com has the information with a little digging.
Click to expand...

Right, so are you saying then that the bottom line is that the reason why so many people experience interference with Freeview picture is simply because of the very low output of their local transmitter at the present time, until the analogue (for that local transmitter) is switched off completely and digital takes over fully, at which time that local transmitter will then broadcast at its full recommended (digital) power?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom