Channel Reception on TV

LFC5Times

The main TV is in the living room(front of the house), there used to be an old cablelink/ntl box on the windowsill but sometime in the last year or so they came out to the house(parents house) and got rid of the box and put a cable through the wall of the house and now that TV works off that cable and a little UPC dv3 box. We also have Sky Digital in the front room but not NTL digital just basic terrestrial (rte,bbc,c4 etc).


In the kitchen is where another cablinlink/ntlbox was/is.When the house was being extended 10 years ago the builders moved it to the other side of the room(and possibly put a new cover on it) and my mum at present and for the last 10 years watches the tv off that in the kitchen and has her basic channels (rte,bbc.c4,,utv). She just has a aerial cable coming out of the box and into the back of the tv.

However I got a new TV for her there the other day and as it's bigger and better than what she used before I am noticing that the quality isn't great on some channels and possibly overall. Is it possible that because its an old box on the wall and things have moved on a lot that thats the reason for th quality not being great? Is there any way of improving it? Like if I took that small NTL box from the front room etc.

The TV I got her is below:

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/2668944/art/lg/22lh2000-lcd-television.html#tech-specs


Thanks in advance

PyeContinental

Sounds like you have analogue cable in the kitchen, so you're watching analogue pictures on an LCD screen which always looks bad.

To try to improve reception though, you could replace the cable from the point in the kitchen to the source point or if that's not possible, re-cut and reconnect the cable ends at the junctions so you have fresh connections there - assuming you've got slack. Eliminate any unneeded wiring or takeoffs/splits to anywhere else that's not needed.

Otherwise, get a digital signal to the tv, probably a separate digital (cable) box is your most realistic (simplest) option. If you are able to do some cabling then you might have some more options as regards sources of digital pictures. The specs didn't say what tuners are in the tv, but realistically they're probably only analogue uhf and mpeg2 dvb-t so any option for digital is going to include a set top box of some kind, which may not be ideal in a kitchen.

LFC5Times

PyeContinental wrote: »

Sounds like you have analogue cable in the kitchen, so you're watching analogue pictures on an LCD screen which always looks bad.

To try to improve reception though, you could replace the cable from the point in the kitchen to the source point or if that's not possible, re-cut and reconnect the cable ends at the junctions so you have fresh connections there - assuming you've got slack. Eliminate any unneeded wiring or takeoffs/splits to anywhere else that's not needed.

Otherwise, get a digital signal to the tv, probably a separate digital (cable) box is your most realistic (simplest) option. If you are able to do some cabling then you might have some more options as regards sources of digital pictures. The specs didn't say what tuners are in the tv, but realistically they're probably only analogue uhf and mpeg2 dvb-t so any option for digital is going to include a set top box of some kind, which may not be ideal in a kitchen.

Cheers PC for your detailed reply.

Yes I think you are right in saying I have an analogue cable in the kitchen.

Unfortunately it wouldnt be possible to replace the cable from the kitchen to the source point. There is also no slack cable as it is only a small cable coming out of the box to the tv.

If I was to get a separate digital (cable) box to for the TV, would it have to be from NTL\UPC ? Would it automatically improve even though the box would be working off the analogue cable box?

Is there any other digital boxes available?

Cheers

10000maniacs

I had the same problem when I got my 1080p lcd. What I did was to put the cable sighal through my HDMI DVD Recorder, and was automatically upscaled to HD thus considerably improving the picture on both analogue and digital.
It does make a huge difference.

PyeContinental

Sorry I didn't get a chance to reply before now, LFC.

Even though there's no slack, you might be able to improve the picture quality by unscrewing the connections at the wall plate in the kitchen and at the cablelink box where the other end of the cable is and making sure it is as neat as it can be. Use some fine sandpaper to clean the contacts and the inner core wire. Make sure when you redo the connections that there are no stray strands of wire from the shielding which could touch the contact for the inner core wire.

If you think of the cable between the kitchen and the main cablelink point as just a connecting wire within the house, you could disconnect it from the cablelink point and put a coaxial plug on it, and use a female to female connector (coupler) to extend the wire so you could connect it to the output of something else - like the DVD recorder output as 10000maniacs mentioned. Or if this sky box is in the same room as the other end of the cable to the kitchen, you could connect it to the output of that and she could watch whatever is on that in the kitchen.