NTL digital box issues

GreeBo

Hey,

Ive had NTL digital for the last few weeks and other than the crappy guide Ive been happy enough with it as the signal quality is much better than I had with basic cable.

However lately I have been seeing problems, often the box will not respond or will restart by itself and also the signal will "digitise" for a second every few minutes, this is very annoying but is it normal?
Does this happen to everyone or do I need a replacement box?

Also, our second tv has a weak analogue signal, is it possible to boost this?
NTL didnt really want to know about it when I asked them as its wired through the attic and they "dont do attics" for insurance reasons.

Cheers!

mike65

Mine is wired via the attic!

Mike.

DingDong

GreeBo wrote: »

Hey,

Ive had NTL digital for the last few weeks and other than the crappy guide Ive been happy enough with it as the signal quality is much better than I had with basic cable.

However lately I have been seeing problems, often the box will not respond or will restart by itself and also the signal will "digitise" for a second every few minutes, this is very annoying but is it normal?
Does this happen to everyone or do I need a replacement box?

Also, our second tv has a weak analogue signal, is it possible to boost this?
NTL didnt really want to know about it when I asked them as its wired through the attic and they "dont do attics" for insurance reasons.

Cheers!

Really you need a service call. If its wired through the attic it doesn't really matter to the service guy. He would just check the signal at the tap, outlet box and if necessary, check it at a split in the attic.If the cable is at fault, they won't replace the cable internally running through your walls. They will run it on the exterior of your house . Its also possible its an exterior fault caused by any number of different problem.

Is the 2nd point a DIY job?. If it not ring and let them know your not happy with the service. If its a DIY check where you have split off the cable. This time of year most people do be in and out of their attics and its possible a connection was damaged if you have been in your attic.

GreeBo

DingDong wrote: »

Really you need a service call. If its wired through the attic it doesn't really matter to the service guy. He would just check the signal at the tap, outlet box and if necessary, check it at a split in the attic.If the cable is at fault, they won't replace the cable internally running through your walls. They will run it on the exterior of your house . Its also possible its an exterior fault caused by any number of different problem.

Is the 2nd point a DIY job?. If it not ring and let them know your not happy with the service. If its a DIY check where you have split off the cable. This time of year most people do be in and out of their attics and its possible a connection was damaged if you have been in your attic.

Its a DIY job but there are no connections in the attic.
I have two feeds in from outside, one for my broadband, the other goes to the main TV point but is split (by NTL) before the main socket. The other end goes to a TV in the bedroom via the attic.
Actually there is a box in the attic, directly above the tv, connected via a shop bought cable. Now that I think of it I think its one of those crappy thin, no insulation ones, I'll hook up a standard one and see what happens.
<EDIT>looks like I already tried that but to no avail.
Teletext is garbled on a few of the channels and as its an lcd you can really see the poor reception <EDIT>

Id prefer not to have cables on the exterior of the house, have had bad experiences with tradesmen drilling holes in the side of the house

That doesnt explain the "dodgy" ntl box though, or is that normal behaviour for them?

cheers

DingDong

GreeBo wrote: »

Its a DIY job but there are no connections in the attic.
I have two feeds in from outside, one for my broadband, the other goes to the main TV point but is split (by NTL) before the main socket. The other end goes to a TV in the bedroom via the attic.
Actually there is a box in the attic, directly above the tv, connected via a shop bought cable. Now that I think of it I think its one of those crappy thin, no insulation ones, I'll hook up a standard one and see what happens.

Id prefer not to have cables on the exterior of the house, have had bad experiences with tradesmen drilling holes in the side of the house

That doesnt explain the "dodgy" ntl box though, or is that normal behaviour for them?

cheers

I'm not saying they will have to replace the cables Greebo. Just letting you know the standard procedure for a drop replacement if it was needed and they will check the connection in your attic. How old are the cables running into your house.
What type of box do you have?. I take it your broadband and tv are on two independent cables not split off the one. Is your broadband working fine.

GreeBo

DingDong wrote: »

I'm not saying they will have to replace the cables Greebo. Just letting you know the standard procedure for a drop replacement if it was needed and they will check the connection in your attic. How old are the cables running into your house.
What type of box do you have?. I take it your broadband and tv are on two independent cables not split off the one. Is your broadband working fine.

The cables are only about 2 years old, provided by an NTL guy so they are good quality.
BB and TV are split at the drop, BB signal is fine.
From the drop I have 1 2way splitter, 1 for BB the other to main TV point. Main tv point has another 2way splitter to TV in bedroom. Analogue signal on both TV's is poor.

As above the digital signal has issues sometimes but I dont know if thats the box or not. If I bypass the digital signal the TV reception in the main room is pretty poor also.

Cheers for replies.

Jumpy

GreeBo wrote: »

Hey,

Ive had NTL digital for the last few weeks and other than the crappy guide Ive been happy enough with it as the signal quality is much better than I had with basic cable.

However lately I have been seeing problems, often the box will not respond or will restart by itself and also the signal will "digitise" for a second every few minutes, this is very annoying but is it normal?
Does this happen to everyone or do I need a replacement box?

Also, our second tv has a weak analogue signal, is it possible to boost this?
NTL didnt really want to know about it when I asked them as its wired through the attic and they "dont do attics" for insurance reasons.

Cheers!

By 'digitise' do you mean 'tiling' ie, do loads of tiny squares come up in place of the picture?

GreeBo

Jumpy wrote: »

By 'digitise' do you mean 'tiling' ie, do loads of tiny squares come up in place of the picture?

Yep exactly, cheers for clearing the name up!

DingDong

Does it break up only when someone is using the broadband. Sometimes when your tv and broadband are on the one drop it causes interference with the dtv and a reverse path filter is needed. Also you could have a problem with your input signal coming in low, which is probably more than likely the case taking your analogue pictures are bad.
You can get an very rough idea of what the signal is like by logging into your cable modem and reading the recieved power levels (192.168.100.1)

GreeBo

Nope, the breakup doesnt coincide with the BB (is literally always on)
BB signals info is:
SNR 33.9
Power Level -1.8

Is this "normal" for digital TV?
How about the box rebooting itself (or ust not responding)?

What can be done about a weak signal?

Also, how can I confirm that I only have 1 drop, cable comes in under the house, its split in the access box via an NTL splitter, I assume 2 drops is 2 incoming cables, but starting where?

cheers

DingDong

What type of box do you have? It is possible that its at fault too . Its not normal to be having these problems. If its an underground system it always one cable brought in from the tap to your etu(little box at the side of the house) and split from there. You will need a service call to get the signal sorted out.

ianhobo

Jumpy wrote: »

By 'digitise' do you mean 'tiling' ie, do loads of tiny squares come up in place of the picture?

They are called "Artifacts", happens when the decoder can't decode the signal due to signal loss or bad original encoding, or a transmission error

Any NTL box that I have seen (the small silver ones with PACE writeen on the top) regularly reboot due to many things - change channel too quickly, mess with reminders, repeated direct channel hopping,

Unfortunately I think the symptoms you describe are quite typical

The quality of your signal is location dependent also, it would also help asking a neighbour what their quality is like as they will have a more similar setup

watty

Or if the head end Compression is too high.

GreeBo

ianhobo wrote: »

They are called "Artifacts", happens when the decoder can't decode the signal due to signal loss or bad original encoding, or a transmission error

Any NTL box that I have seen (the small silver ones with PACE writeen on the top) regularly reboot due to many things - change channel too quickly, mess with reminders, repeated direct channel hopping,

Unfortunately I think the symptoms you describe are quite typical

The quality of your signal is location dependent also, it would also help asking a neighbour what their quality is like as they will have a more similar setup

Yeah its one of those PACE boxes...
Man this is annoying...

maxg

Simply connect the box to the original installation without your second splitter.
Every aditional splitter and every additional meter of cable decrease the signal strength.

GreeBo

maxg wrote: »

Simply connect the box to the original installation without your second splitter.
Every aditional splitter and every additional meter of cable decrease the signal strength.

Sorry but I dont see that as a solution.
What do NTL do when I pay an extra €5 for additional points?

DingDong

The small Pace box is know for doing some random stuff. There is a newer model available. Which seem to be alot more stable. Also the dvr is a fiver extra now and no install charge might be worth looking into.

If you pay the extra for an additional point, it up to them to make sure the quality of the signal is good and if anything goes wrong they have to fix it.

maxg

Every receiver get problems if the signal is too weak.
A cable engineer can use a tap with a higher signal strength in the street box if necessary for a multiroom install.

GreeBo

The street box is actually on my outside wall...hmmm
When they were "installing" the digital receiver they had no interest in checking the analogue signal (I asked them), do I have any right to a better analogue signal? Can I pay for the extra basic point and then cancel it?

PMC999

Greebo,
Did you get any resolution to this? I'm having the same problem.
Thanks