Is this TV capable of RTE DTT?

marathont

Hi

I just bought this tv:
http://www.dabs.com/products/samsung-le46b650-46--full-hd--crystal-lcd-tv--5GLS.html

It is a samsung, and says it has mpeg4 and TNTHD compatible. I was hoping I could pick up the RTE DTT from mount leinster. i have fairly good analogue reception.

I tried scanning a few times. And changed the country to France. And it found rte1 tv3 etc eventually, But all it said was weak or no signal.

Does anyone know if I should be able to get RTE DTT on this TV?

HappyHarry

Yes, you should be able to get DTT on that set.

What kind of aerial do you have?

You shouldn't need to set it to France to get get DTT channels, try Ireland or UK.
You may need to set it to France to get the EPG (at least I did on my Panasonic)

BTW, when my Panasonic G10 is set to France it will not Auto tune analogue stations.
I guess this is something to do with expectations of SECAM signal or something?
Anyway I got around it by manualy entering the Channel and changing the audio from "F" to "SC2"

DTT from Mt Leinster is on channel 45 BTW.

marathont

I have a uhf and a vhf aerial for tv3 and rte combined with a multiplexer (i think ?) I presume I only need a uhf aerial. maybe the other aerial is interfering with it?

I tried Ireland, UK and France. It managed to find the channels at one stage, but now It cant find any.

marathont

I scanned again using UK as the country. It found 9 channels on ch45. The names come up. But the radio channels either say 'data service' or 'service not available'. The TV channels come on but with just blotchy pixelated screen (cant make out any pictures). Could this be something to do with the aerial I am using?

HappyHarry

marathont wrote: »

I scanned again using UK as the country. It found 9 channels on ch45. The names come up. But the radio channels either say 'data service' or 'service not available'. The TV channels come on but with just blotchy pixelated screen (cant make out any pictures). Could this be something to do with the aerial I am using?

Sounds like you found them alright. the 9 channels are the 4 normal irish TV, 1 test TV and 4 radio.

If the pictures are mostly not there or very badly pixelated you have fallen off the digital cliff! (do a search for it).

TV3 and TG4 should be on UHF from MT Leinster and RTE1 & RTE2 on VHF.
There shouldn't be a problem with the VHF interfering. I would guess your signal is either very weak or too strong.

Is the UHF Aerial in good condition and pointed in the right direction? Is there a clear line of sight?

There are different Bands of UHF Aerial, A,B,C/D.
TV3 (CH26) and TG4(CH23) are in Band A but the DTT signal(CH45) is Band B. So what you need is a Wide Band UHF Aerial.

Hope this helps.

bk

Try selecting "Other" as your country and it will do a full search of the entire spectrum and it should find the channels.

That is what I had to do on my parents Samsung.

I think if you select UK, it tries to decrypt them as MPEG2 rather then MPEG4.

marathont

I managed to get a good signal eventually. I took my aerial out of the attic and connected it straight to the tv so I could move it around and see the results.

I eventually got a signal by holding the aerial out the window at an angle.

I dont think it should be this hard to get a signal, as I can actually see the mast on mount leinster if I look out my window. And I get a fairly good analogue signal.

Here is the aerial I am using. Can anyone recommend a better aerial, or should this one be ok?

Thanks


http://twitpic.com/gjy03

fat-tony

That's a Group A aerial (the end cap is red yes?), for reception of the analogue transmissions. The DTT transmissions are in Group B, so this aerial is not ideal, but it should be ok if you can see the mast from where you live, unless the signal level is way down. A wideband aerial would cover all of the UHF channels, but are not so good for Group A as a dedicated aerial. How far away from the transmitter are you? Maybe someone else who receives DTT from this transmitter could comment on current signal strength?

marathont

Thanks for the help. I bought a cheap set of cats ears, and put them in the attic, Its working fine now - but very delicate a slight movement and the signal will be lost. I will try to get a group B UHF aerial next week.

What colour should a group B be?

By the way I am located near wexford town, and have clear line of sight to mount leinster, about 20 miles away I suppose.

HappyHarry

marathont wrote: »

I will try to get a group B UHF aerial next week.

What colour should a group B be?

By the way I am located near wexford town, and have clear line of sight to mount leinster, about 20 miles away I suppose.

The colour code for Group B is Yellow. BUT If you get a group B it won't be ideal for TV3 and TG4 on Group A.

TV3 seems to be the most frequent to dissapear on DTT tests so I suggest keeping Analogue as a backup.

You would be better off with a windeband UHF Aerial, colour code is Black.

Mounting in the loft degrades the signal significantly, but being so close you may decide its ok and not worth the hassle of external mounting.

marathont

HappyHarry wrote: »

The colour code for Group B is Yellow. BUT If you get a group B it won't be ideal for TV3 and TG4 on Group A.

TV3 seems to be the most frequent to dissapear on DTT tests so I suggest keeping Analogue as a backup.

You would be better off with a windeband UHF Aerial, colour code is Black.

Mounting in the loft degrades the signal significantly, but being so close you may decide its ok and not worth the hassle of external mounting.

Thanks for the advice. I never about group a/b etc. I have other TVs in the house so I will keep the old aerial for those and get a new aerial for my new TV, altough the cats ears seem to be doing the job for now so might see how it goes. There seems to be a very fine line between no signal and perfect reception, I suppose thats digital for you. Its a pity there is no signal strength/quality statistics on the tv.

HappyHarry

marathont wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. I never about group a/b etc. I have other TVs in the house so I will keep the old aerial for those and get a new aerial for my new TV, altough the cats ears seem to be doing the job for now so might see how it goes. There seems to be a very fine line between no signal and perfect reception, I suppose thats digital for you. Its a pity there is no signal strength/quality statistics on the tv.

WIDEBAND .... WIDEBAND it will recieve Group A and Group B.
No need to have multiple UHF Aerials point at the same place... just get a WIDEBAND one.

This will save you mucking around with combiners or running extra cables.