Glitches RTE1

MBSnr

Does anyone ever notice a glitch that occurs on RTE1 once every 5 mins? Esp. noticeable tonight on the Late Late Show - approx 9.35-9.40pm. I'm not sure if it's my MVision HD300 or the feed from Maghera. I never noticed it on RTE2 and have seen it before on other days, not just this evening, but never as bad.

Cheers

The Cush

OK here from Mullaghanish.

MBSnr

hmm - I'm still getting this on RTE1 and RTE news now every now and then. Was watching RTE2 earlier for around 30mins and didn't notice so I'm wondering if it's the box, the aerial or Maghera......

Will have to do a bit more checking.

gtg60

Why not describe the glitch a bit better so we know what you're talking about?

MBSnr

Why not describe the glitch a bit better so we know what you're talking about?

OK. If you're watching RTE news now the picture will stutter for a split second - like a pause and then play again. Similar to a buffering issue on a web video and/or trying to do chase play literally a sec behind the live event on a sky box or similar. Also there is sometimes an audible noise like a screech. It tends to happen randomly and perhaps I noticed it 3 times last night. Once on RTE New Now and twice on RTE1. RTE2 was also on for around 30 mins earlier and I didn't notice it once during that period.

I mostly watch Sat channels on it and have never noticed any issues with SD or HD. I guess it uses a common 'decoder', so I doubt that would be the issue, which leads me to think about it being the aerial and/or Maghera, as I haven't ever seen it on RTE2.

watty

Local Interference is most likely. Even a fridge compressor turning off.

Or poorly "suppressed" Motorcycle ignition.

If you could simultaneously view analogue on UHF, you would see short "flash" on picture it is local interference.

What sort of coax does your aerial use?
Where is aerial mounted?
Near a Farm?
Any pre-amps, distribution amps, daisy chained VHS/Sky/DVD recorders or any such in aerial feed?

RTE2 is in HD, so may not be affected the same by short spike of interference?

All are in the same transport stream that the whole country gets (like a single serial data for entire Multiplex generated at RTE HQ and copied to each site). All share same modulator, power amplifier at transmitter. It's not like analogue, you can't have a fault just on one channel or on all channels excluding one unless the fault is in RTE prior to distribution. If there is a Transmitter site problem, that affects the Multiplex (a single modulator and power amplifier) and thus all channels affected at same time, as we only have one multiplex.

So either it's on all channels at same time due to local interference and just affects RTE2 differently because it's HD, or it's a fault in the receiver, demultiplexing or decoder on your tuner.

John mac

The kitchen light affects my parents one (mvision 200)

if its turned on the mvision stutters. (its a florescent tube)

MBSnr

Thanks for the replies. I'll look into it. Might well be something electrical affecting things.

The kitchen light affects my parents one (mvision 200)

if its turned on the mvision stutters. (its a florescent tube)

Is that when watching the terrestrial aerial channels only? Mine never has an issue with Sat channels and is on a surge protector.

fat-tony

The interference might be affecting your aerial cable only. Satellite cable is double screened (or should be!) to minimise stray signal breakthrough. Does your aerial cable take a different route than the satellite cable(s)? It could be a central heating motor pump turning on or a compressor or anything that might generate a pulse of interference as watty has said.

lucernarian

If the image is not "corrupted" but instead is skipping etc, I've wondered if this is due to the hardware used in decoding the video is not able to quite keep up with the data rate. But I would have expected this problem with RTE2...

It's probably signal quality related in that case, good quality cable is a must and using an aerial with a PCB balun makes a big difference too.

watty

You can do 3 or 4 as tight loops as won't damage coax loops near aerial as a balun.

Pickup on the coax is common. I'd only use sat grade shielded cable nowadays for TV.

MBSnr

Thanks all. It's a good bet it's the coax then as it runs across the ceilings up to the attic. I have 3 down cables from the attic and use the 'best' screened one for a remote sat box feed. I'll re-check the remaining 2 and make sure I'm using the better one if they differ. Will also try the 3 or 4 tights loops to see if that resolves.

Fredd

I have the same problem receiving from 3 Rock, it's been there since the beginning. It happens on two receivers,Clarke Tech 5000 and 5100. Originally the feed would switch to the analogue signal (which was being used as the standby) but since the standby was changed over to another digital feed it results in a momentary breakup in vision and sound (which don't happen in sync) I think the problem is incoming and not connected to your set up or system. See post on this forum about breakup a Mullaghanish.

MBSnr

Thanks Fredd for pointing that thread out. Not sure I'd class it as picture breakup - more a split second pause/jump - but interesting enough that others like yourself have noted it happening as well. Again perhaps it just coincidence that people are mostly watching RTE1 when it is noticed. I can only say I've never seen it on RTE2 but that could be due to luck and/or the fact it wouldn't be on as much as RTE1.

Fredd

A momentary picture breakup can result in a freeze frame on air so what you see looks like a jump in the picture but is in fact caused by a loss in signal. Don't know where the problem lies but like yourself I would be watching RTE1 more often than the other channels so would notice it there. Must keep an eye out for similar disturbances on the other stations.