Ping Bill

[Tim Lamb]

My current digital TV learning curve has extended to temporary aerial feed glitches!

The Manhattan box is up and running as said elsewhere but unreliably probably due to some intermittent aerial glitch.

Watching a film directly (TV from aerial) there might be one or more incidents of picture blurring lasting a few seconds. Hitherto, I put this down to transmission issues but the new digi box shuts down in a huff and needs power cycling to restore use.

Aerial repair costs are not dissimilar to dish installation costs here!

Current set up is mast head amplifier feeding splitter with 4 outlets (current use 2 TVs).

Can you tune more than one channel at a time from a dish set up? Or do you need a box for each TV?

Any other gotchas?

[Brian]

If you have a poor antenna ( not pointing at the transmitter, corroded, poor feeder, ….) an amplifier isn’t really going to help, it will amplify any noise etc introduced before it’s input.

Also, an amplifier with a built in distribution system is better than one followed by a splitter.

I have a decent antenna followed by a 8 way distribution amplifier feeding several TVs, using high quality coax. Even with long runs, we get high quality reception ( well pictures - the content isn’t that good 😀)

[Andy Burns]

Unsurprising, since both involve bolting bits of metal to a building and pointing at the correct bit of sky :-/

[Tim Lamb]

I think the antenna should be ok. Professionally installed 2019. CP or Anglia are always a stretch from here but not previously a problem. I did the amplifier/splitter later. Not strictly *masthead* as the aerial is attached to a chimney mount pole! The amplifier box didn't look hugely weatherproof so I tucked it under a tile near the ridge.

Ok.

I can get to the aerial coax and check for abrasion damage from the roof tiles. Longish ladder!

[Tim Lamb]

Ha ha!

I was hoping for a disposition on the merits of satellite aerials:-)

[Andy Burns]

Since the bracketry of my aerial rotted away (Blake, why did you mix steel and aluminium?) I've used only satellite, the differences in which channels are available only on one system or the other seems minimal now.

[jim.gm4dhj]

good for you Brian ....

[The Natural Philosopher]

Satellite aerials don't need to be so high. Putting up a basic quad LNB astra pointing dish is easily DIY.

Biggest issue is finding a line of sight path for the dish and aligning it to it Big problem with dishes is there are more Muxes than DVB so you need at leaat a quad LNB to listen/record more than one channel at a time And an STB that can handle multiple inputs

I was running off a computer ISA card and one LNB for a while.

[Tim Lamb]

I was thinking it would get me away from unreachable things on poles:-) Does one receiver box allow simultaneous choice of channels? I don't want to have to watch antiques road show!

[Tim Lamb]

Apart from a portable tv I don't have access to a signal strength meter.

Our South facing gable end is clear SSE.

Ah! That sounds like a problem. My LG tv has provision for satellite input but not found on the bosses Panasonic.

I think sorting the existing aerial is going to be easiest.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yes. The way it works is that one LNB - a low noise amplifier right up in the dish - can be instructed to tune to any frequency MUX on the satellite. That MUX generally carries half a dozen channels.

Your STB will understand how to control the MUX - I think they scan all MUXES and set up a database of channels to mux relationships - and you can watch any unscrambled free to air channel including some Sky ones that exist on the satellite. You need extra inputs and LNBS if you want to watch (or record) more than one channel AT THE SAME TIME.

Most installations go for a quad LNB setup That is 4 coax cables going to various aerial sockets in various rooms. Two doubles being typical. But you could feed all to the same room. If the STB can record more than one channel at a time

[The Natural Philosopher]

Then add an STB to that. Its no big deal.

£26 will do what you want and feed HDMI signals to the telly.

is your dish for £42

And you will need some house faceplates. A pair for each telly is nice.

You can I think connect the dish up to the signal meter and test where you get an acceptable cable run and free path to the satellite before committing to an install

There is no need to have the dish up high,what counts is a free line of sight to the satellite.

[Dave W]

An LNB works on one of the four combinations of H or V polarisation, high or low band. If you have a suitable recorder you can record two channels at the same time if they both require the same combination.

This does not apply to two separate recorders at once, because they will both be sending a control frequency or voltage to the LNB, fighting each other. In this case you would need an LNB for each recorder.

[Brian Gaff]

So the term blurred seems odd to me. Digital signal issueless seem to be blockyness vanishing altogether weird triangle patterns and frozen frames I understand, but you also hear the effect on the sound, like little screeches and drop outs. If this is what you get, its far more likely to be interference being picked up from out of band strong signals or indeed adjacent channels during a lift condition. As for the old Sat problems. People still seem to suffer when a heavy cloud forms depending on what else might be line of sight like trees etc. Brian

[Tim Lamb]

Ok. I think I am beginning to grasp the way it works.

Unfortunately, my TV is at the North end of the house. This is a chalet bungalow which has a vestigial loft area. End to end cable runs just involve crawling around on rockwool covered joists:-)

Thanks kindly.

>

[Tim Lamb]

Cheap enough!

Also inexpensive.

Lily gilding:-)

I don't mind working off a ladder and a direct cable route into the loft would help with routing.

I need to be above next door's garage anyway.

Thanks again. Links saved. Job for tomorrow is to go round the current cable/outlet boxes and have a few tiles off for the amplifier.

>

[Tim Lamb]

In message <tvfbfl$mvnm$ [e-mail], Brian Gaff [e-mail] writes

It is the only symptom I can relate to the box switching itself off. Adequate signal is clearly necessary. Perhaps my model has a built in timer. Roughly 3-5 hours. I propped it up this afternoon to allow more air circulation. Still running so perhaps that is the problem!

[The Natural Philosopher]

In the end that tends to be the limiting factor - neigbours

I ought to put one up here on the second storey and use the prexisting satellite card in my server.

[Andrew]

Use a fishing catapult to fire some lightweight cotton string along the length of the loft then just tug the coax through. It can sit on top of the rockwool quite happily.

[alan_m]

Most boxes and Tv these days have some form of eco turn off more probably related to the the time when you last used the remote control. Switch off after x hours if the remote control hasn't been used for that time.