Crap NTL Signal

BenEadir

Hi all,

I've recently moved into a house in south Dublin which is served by NTL cable and I can't believe how crap the signal is. I am currently only running one TV and ran a new cable from the TV to where the NTL cable comes into the house. (and checked it several times to ensure good connections etc)

I have the basic NTL digital package but the picture is constantly freezing/staggering/breaking up into frozen blocks and frequently just gives up the ghost all together and delivers a blank screen. When this happens I can still access the basic 18 analogue channels but even their quality ranges from just about ok to they pretty hazy.

I've been onto NTL who did the usual "restart" and when that didn't work have organised for an engineer to come out but that's going to be at least a week.

At the moment the readings under "technical information" when you press "Help" on the digital remote are as follows:-

1. 1.197 - 22
2. 339500 - 6887
3. 67 - 67 (varies from 63 to 68)
4. 3.489E-6 - 1.679E-6 (changes all the time though)
5. 24.8
6. 03 0939 4368 74
7. 06 1244 6675 78
8 13 - 186

Can anyone shed any light?

Also, if I ever get a decent signal I'd like to (legally) run 3 more cables to TV's in other rooms. Is there a splitter/signal booster that anyone can recommend which actually works and will give me a decent signal on all 4 TV's?

All help much appreciated.

Regards,

Frustrated Southsider

BenEadir

Anyone out there?

ethernet

You're digital signal seems to be quite weak. Splitting the incoming cable any more will add more attenuation and signal loss. Amplifiers won't help in this case -- you'll really only notice any improvement on analogue channels where you've used long cable runs, i.e. amplifiers can't add what isn't there, especially when it comes to digital.

Hate to suggest it but it might be best to get an NTL engineer to have a look. Perhaps the cable to your tap is crappy quality and could be replaced.

dak

Used to have a similar problem in Portmarnock until I changed to sky! If memory serves me correctly your technical info point 5 showing a reading of 24.8 is the problem. I think this has to be 30+ for a digital signal. I gave up after a few months paying for digital with a figure below 30+. NTL will only act on this quickly if all your area have a similar problem!

BenEadir

Hi Dak/Ethernet,

Thanks for the info.

Got a very helpful NTL engineer out yesterday. He confirmed that the signal to the TAP was +10db (if that means anything to you) and he immediately identified three problems:-

1. I have one cable coming in off the TAP and it's feeding a 6 way splitter which is seriously degrading the signal.
2. The connections put together by my electrician were pretty poor leading to leakage and further degradation.
3. The connection boxes at each TV point were not good quality.

He couldn't get into the space where the wire coming in from the TAP originates because it is a storage area and would have taken him an hour to move all the stuff and crawl in which in fairness I couldn't expect him to do. Instead of bringing in 2 or more cables from the 4 point TAP he replaced the 6 way splitter with a 4 way splitter, replaced the boxes at the TV points and re did the cale connections thus improving the quality of the signal all round.

I now have a reading of 29.6 on info point 5 which is just about giving me an acceptable signal for digital although it does spike/screech/freeze from time to time for a moment.

If I can get my electrician to run 2 or 3 more cables out to the TAP the NTL guy said he'll connect them which will remove the need to use a splitter and should ensure strong signals all round.

Does all the above sound correct to you guys? Is running 2-3 more cables from the TAP the only way to get really good signals around the house? It's going to be expensive to get the electrician back not to mention the hassle of unloading the crawl space of all the crap we keep in there. Also, do you think NTL will charge a lot to connect these cables or will the €5 a month per extra point in the house do the trick?

Any and all input much appreciated.

Ben

ethernet

A direct connection to the tap is better, as far as I know (no cable here ).

No harm getting the electrician to run the cables as long as he/she is not terminating them -- just as well based on the engineer's findings.

Can't tell you about the price -- I suppose each run is an extra point but maybe the engineer will be nice. I found the price of €8.50 a month per room on the UPC site (link).