UPC Reception

suitseir

I am having problems quite a lot lately, with picture freezing on some of the channels like BBC 3 and 4 especially, BBC 24 News. It seems to happen when the weather takes a dip for the worst? Living in Co. Galway.

Anybody else experiencing similar problems?

califano

I'm having a slight flicker through mainly HD channels especially BBC1 HD, ESPN HD and Setanta HD.

AeroKid

Are either or both of ye connected through cable or mmds? MMDS can be more inclined to have issues when weather is severe.

lucernarian

The AeroKid poster has ordinary cable, the HD channels aren't available on MMDS.

Suitseir, reporting the problem to UPC and getting someone out might be an idea. If there are trees in the direction the MMDS aerial is pointing in, they could be causing problems too (wet leaves are worse than dry leaves and moving trees can also cause brief signal weakness). In any case, a fella coming out to look at the setup is the best bet.

suitseir

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

The AeroKid poster has ordinary cable, the HD channels aren't available on MMDS.

Suitseir, reporting the problem to UPC and getting someone out might be an idea. If there are trees in the direction the MMDS aerial is pointing in, they could be causing problems too (wet leaves are worse than dry leaves and moving trees can also cause brief signal weakness). In any case, a fella coming out to look at the setup is the best bet.

Yip, my neighbour mentioned that to me. They are with UPC and while their bungalow is lower than mine, many years ago, they had the same problem. There are a lot of trees in the area...and I guess the trees keep growing and you could be right. I presume it would be a case of raising the aerial higher which is what UPC did with the neighbours!

AeroKid

There is only so high you can go with an aerial..trees will keep growing! A saw might be the answer if trees are your problem!

snappieT

A friend had a more exaggerated version of this problem. Turned out there was UPC cable running on the inside of their gutter without full insulation. Water in gutter grounded the signal a bit, meant he lost certain channels (Dave in particular).

Kintarō Hattori

I'm having a problem with this as well. About 95% of stations are fine but I notice it on BBC. There are rectangular boxes which appear as interference. It would appear to be weather related. This is on standard definition.

How do I know if we have an MMDS signal?

lucernarian

Not a foolproof way but if you have a mesh or grid-like aerial on the roof pointing e.g. northwards for those who live between Swords and Bray then you'll be using MMDS. Some housing estates do have cable as such but the headend may be supplied via MMDS so the cable just pipes the MMDS signal around the estate. There are estates like this in Balbriggan for example (even though they have DOCSIS broadband). And in Dublin, Galway and Waterford, the STBs can be used with either ordinary cable or MMDS. In that case you can't tell by looking up the technical details of the box.

Calling up UPC and asking them what system supplies your account may work. A better bet would be to just report the fault to UPC. Hopefully they'll send someone out without too much persuasion needed and you can get an answer from the horse's mouth and get the problem fixed too!