Aerial Signal Strength

[Dave]

How does this work?

I was under the impression that it was a single signal receiver.

Dave

[tony sayer]

In article , john writes

You might be better off getting a second hand sky box and a 20 quid viewing card. Yes good riggers do exist but are few and far between and they are on a roll charging the earth for a "Digital" aerial.

Around here Cambridge they asking £199-99 and getting the bu**er!.

A new Freeview from Sky no further subs costs £150 all installed!....

[Andy Hall]

Which should be money for old rope considering that the relatively flat terrain should be providing quite good conditions and the only reflections being from the poles on the punts.

[mike ring]

Dave wrote in news:docjog$cld$ [e-mail]:

The usual configuration is

one scart lead from Set Top Box to TV - watch prog one scart lead from Set Top Box to Recorder - record freeview one scart lead from Recorder to TV - watch replay.

If you have/will get a hard disc recorder that can record something, and play back something else at the same time, or let you catch up on a prog while it's still being recorded, you need the extra output.

It's also easier operationally - freeview is AV1, recorder is AV2

mike

[tony sayer]

In article , Andy Hall writes

Yes quite.. except that there some areas which are quite built up...

[Phil Hughes]

In article , mike ring writes

But doesn't the Freeview box output the same signal to both scart sockets, so you can't watch and record different Freeview channels at the same time?

[jkn]

[...]

Is there supposed to be much difference between STBs/tuners in this area? I thought that sensitivity to imulse interference was a characteristic of the DAB modulation scheme (COFDM). I also have a GDB4 and the effect of the cooker igniter is very obvious. Mind you, the last run of cable (from the loft to the socket) is old cable, not the nice new stuff (FR100?) the guy fitted with the new aerial. A asked to coil up an extra few meters in the loft and 'one day soon' I plan to complete the run to the socket.

I worked on developing DAB Set Top boxes in the early (OnDigital) days and have noticed that the modern tuners are a hell of a lot better (as in: more sensitive) than they used to be. No idea if rejection of impulse interference is better though...

Jon N

[Christian McArdle]

Just make sure your hard disc recorder has a built in tuner. Much better that way, as the timed recording doesn't depend on you remembering to set the channel before going out/to bed.

Christian.

[Andy Hall]

Oh yes. Ely Cathedral. I forgot ;-)

The price point probably has more to do with perception in comparison with a complete Sky package and what the market will stand.

A local installer who I used some time ago (does commercial work and fully equipped with test gear), does a basic supply and install (contract grade antenna, TV coax, job done fastest way) for around £70 or a higher quality job with decent antenna, CT100 routed carefully and as much as possible invisibly for about £120-130.

[Chris Bacon]

Buy a thing called a Thomson DHD4000 which does the job very well, this machine was pointed out to me on uk.tech.digital-tv, which is

[Mark]

Don't buy from them if they won't refund if they don't work. Around where I live a few people can get freeview. We bought a IDTV which kept crashing so we took it back for a refund. I'm not going to bother with freeview until they sort out the signal here.

Mark.

[Peter Crosland]

Complete and utter twaddle! A low signal level is nothing whatsoever to do with the box.

Peter Crosland

[tony sayer]

In article , Andy Hall writes

Ah yes!, now as it 'appens I could tell you quite a bit about the absorptive effects of olithic limestone on VHF/FM signals:)

There are parts of central Cambridge where reception is rather difficult!..

Who's that, Mike Lane?, regency aerials were the ones quoting silly money FWIW...

[Dave]

Thanks for wrapping that up, before you sent it Peter :-)

Dave

[mike ring]

"jkn" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I don't know - I've asked around on alt.tech.digital-tv and not get much in the line of an answer; If I thought for sure it would not droput sound and occasionally pixelate (interference is far worse on sound), I'd buy a Sony tomorrow, but I just can't find out

I've got all good cable to my box. It's not clear if the interference is aerial or mains-borne, so I put an aerial filter in and a ferrite on the power lead - no improvement.

They certainly are, my philips O/D was pretty useless No idea if rejection of

Could never watch a prog long enough to find out...

mike

[mike ring]

Phil Hughes wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I was sort of thinking that when I wrote it, but it _is_ the standard configuration.

It's certainly easier to work; we're also near the end of analogue, when you won't be able to flick over to your tuner to watch something different.

I actually useter use a one scart setup on my spare set (mainly used to record) and found it confusing to know what was going on, partly because my philips DVD recorder is such a POS it says "BBC" for BBC1 _and_ 2

HTH - it's certainly cofused me!

mike

[Owain]

However, when I bought a freeview box from Argos, they asked for my postcide and did a postcode check by phone before selling me the box.

So, they're supplying the box for the purpose of using it at the stated postcode.

Owain

[mike ring]

mike ring wrote in news:Xns9734C87EE31C5mikeringbtinternetco@130.133.1.4:

Coincidentally, this reference came up today:-

"Many thanks to

Using the files and instructions there I was able to regress my version 4.2 back to 3.12 (via 0.6). Now no more annoying sound dropouts and "no information"s in the menu, as reported by others. True, I don't have

7-day EPG any more but I was quite happy without it when I bought the unit."

A GDB4 needs a scart made up as per instructions on the site - I would happily backflight my GDB4 if it improved the sound. I just might have a go.

I've already butchered the box to improve ventilation, it was running hotter than hells hinges, but it did no good, well I never thought it would.Right said Fred...... clearly I need a can of lager.

mike

[Peter Crosland]

The postcode list is based on the projected signal strength at that location. It also assumes the use of a properly installed good quality aerial of the correct group connected by reasonable quality coax.Without that you cannot expect proper performance. Expecting an old aerial, probably of the wrong group, connected to an aging, poor quality, downlead to provide an adequate signal is a bit like rutting paraffin in a Porsche and expecting it to work properly!

Peter Crosland

[Stuart Noble]

Some people in our postcode get good freeview reception, and others don't, so it has to be down to the quality of the aerial