Improving digital freeview tv signal quality

adox

Sorry for the late reply guys. I forgot that I had posted in this thread.:o

I`m receiving Freeview Lite with the HD channels also and also receiving Saorview with the same aerial with 100% strength and 100% quality.

Heres a pic of my aerial(the one on the left) pointing Northwards.

whitebriar

Bog standard grid that ,pointing to Kilkeel,and it's working well you say?

adox

whitebriar wrote: »

Bog standard grid that ,pointing to Kilkeel,and it's working well you say?

Yeah, as stated previously 100% Strength and 90% quality on Freeview Lite and 100% strength and quality on Saorview. Same aerial and cables that were installed 13 years ago.

whitebriar

Cool,that's a grid at sea level working perfect for you in Rush.It augers well for the op's friends as a service call with little outlay is probably all they need.
The fact it's a grid is the new information,from the pic you posted,thanks.

SPAWKER

Reg'stoy wrote: »

Ok according to google maps find altitude they are at 10.5 meters or 36 feet in old money. They are the beach side of the Skerries road in Thornleigh.

From that position they have no hope of getting Divis as there are two big hills Curkeen and Cairn hill in the line of sight of Divis.

Reg'stoy

Thank you once again folks, will give our friends in Rush a buzz this evening and tell them to give Dowlings of Skerries a call and ask them to

A/ Check signal strength & quality from Divis and Kilkeel
B/ Realign or replace their aerial (along with cabling?)
C/ Add extra TV points if cabling needs replacement

Will post back and let everyone know how they get on.

Capt'n Midnight

Mr. Rabbit wrote: »

I know this is a terrestrial thread, but if reception from Divis is impossible, would Freesat not be a far better option than Kilkeel ?

There's really not that much difference between it and Freeview these days.

Advantages are one box / one remote that does most of the channels you really want.

Freesat at this stage would mean buying a full setup to run in parallel with what's there.

whitebriar

SPAWKER wrote: »

From that position they have no hope of getting Divis as there are two big hills Curkeen and Cairn hill in the line of sight of Divis.

You could be right but its worth checking for the crack to see what's there.
Sometimes if you are far enough away from the lee of hills like those,signals do get through,especially with a very high power tx thats much higher than hills in the way.
Line of sight helps a lot but its not the be all and end all.
Preseli gets into Tinahely and Rathdrum despite hills.
Thats the black art of reception for you.

SPAWKER

whitebriar wrote: »

You could be right but its worth checking for the crack to see what's there.
Sometimes if you are far enough away from the lee of hills like those,signals do get through,especially with a very high power tx thats much higher than hills in the way.
Line of sight helps a lot but its not the be all and end all.
Preseli gets into Tinahely and Rathdrum despite hills.
Thats the black art of reception for you.

First hill is only about a mile from house second one which is higher again two miles away.

whitebriar

SPAWKER wrote: »

First hill is only about a mile from house second one which is higher again two miles away.

Hmmm that wouldn't be good.Worth testing on the grid all the same,to see if there's anything there.

Mr. Rabbit

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Advantages are one box / one remote that does most of the channels you really want.

Freesat at this stage would mean buying a full setup to run in parallel with what's there.

If all else fails it might be the only option.

You could spend an awful lot of money on terrestrial aerials and in the end Freesat could be the cheeper and more reliable option.

I know if I was in a Freeview Lite area I'd go for Freesat, two boxes or otherwise.

Skull Murphy

whitebriar wrote: »

Sometimes if you are far enough away from the lee of hills like those,signals do get through .... Preseli gets into Tinahely and Rathdrum despite hills.
Thats the black art of reception for you.

It's called diffraction. It's a well known property of radio waves, nothing "black" about it.

whitebriar

I think,I'll take the above as mischieviously suggesting,I don't know what radio waves do,or an attempt to be smart...me having dx'ed for more years than I want to remember...Sigh.

Anyhow,I wouldn't be the only one to refer to aerial placement as a black art.
Even more so now,given,with digital,you either have it or you don't,meaning an aerial that previously got unwatchable shadows on analogue could have perfect pictures now from the same tx or nothing at all as the case may be.

Skull Murphy

Just thought some might like to be made aware of the proper term, might like to look it up, rather than fobbing them off with talk of "black magic".

whitebriar

Skull Murphy wrote: »

Just thought some might like to be made aware of the proper term, might like to look it up, rather than fobbing them off with talk of "black magic".

I didn't use the term black magic.

I said black art,meaning what may seem obvious isn't.
Receiving Divis near Rathnew for example,which happens.

If you want a confrontational argey bargey by the way,you can forget it,I'm not biting,no matter how hard you try for whatever reason you may have.
All I'll contribute here is a helpfull opinion where possible thank you and will continue to do so.

meolwan

I come to this thread late I live in Rush at the harbour and my ariel is the same as posted by the OP . My question is how do I get the commerical muxes (Dave, Pick TV, Sky News etc) they do show in the menu but when I switch to them I get message no programme available. I do get PSB muxes (BBC's, UTV, CH4, E4 etc) but not in HD and before anyone asks I am using a Philips smart HD tv and I do have Sky. But if there is a way of getting the above without costing an arm or a leg Sky could take a jump.
I do get all the soarview stations including RTE 2 HD.
Now please the idiots guide and be gentle with me.

FREETV

meolwan wrote: »

I come to this thread late I live in Rush at the harbour and my ariel is the same as posted by the OP . My question is how do I get the commerical muxes (Dave, Pick TV, Sky News etc) they do show in the menu but when I switch to them I get message no programme available. I do get PSB muxes (BBC's, UTV, CH4, E4 etc) but not in HD and before anyone asks I am using a Philips smart HD tv and I do have Sky. But if there is a way of getting the above without costing an arm or a leg Sky could take a jump.
I do get all the soarview stations including RTE 2 HD.
Now please the idiots guide and be gentle with me.

You will need a much bigger and better Group A television aerial like a Triax Unix 100 or Unix 52 or the equivalent that will cover the 21-37 channel frequencies, I can receive every station with no problems yet. Webro WF100 satellite cable is the minimum standard of cable which should be used. A Group A medium variable gain masthead amp which will allow you to turn the gain amounts up or down may be needed also. A wideband one will probably pick up interference from 4G if used. You may need a taller mast also. Divis may be receiveable in your area and if it is you may then be able to receive all of the stations.

Peter Rhea

meolwan wrote: »

. . . I live in Rush at the harbour and my ariel is the same as posted by the OP . My question is how do I get the commerical muxes (Dave, Pick TV, Sky News etc) they do show in the menu but when I switch to them I get message no programme available. I do get PSB muxes (BBC's, UTV, CH4, E4 etc)

You'll only get the Freeview com. muxes from one of the transmitters that actually broadcasts them: as far as Ireland is concerned, that means main UK transmission sites. Kilkeel (your current source) is not one of these.

Where you are, Divis (Belfast) would be the only chance of reception. I think the changes required to the aerial system have already been outlined in this thread (use of a grouped aerial, high gain, horizontally polarised), but it's all subject to trial & may not work at all, or only unreliably.

Ronnie Raygun

meolwan wrote: »

My question is how do I get the commerical muxes (Dave, Pick TV, Sky News etc) they do show in the menu but when I switch to them I get message no programme available.

Would seem to suggest you picked up a signal of some kind (even with the "Kilkeel" aerial)? Maybe Divis, or maybe just freak propagation from another site.

Can you see what UHF channel they came in on?

Newryrep

Newryrep wrote: »

Installed a splitter 5 weeks ago and when retuned main TV (via a Humax Fox HDR) and bedroom TV got the full range of channels although didnt get the HD through the bedroom room for some reason (it is a HD tv)but not the end of the world. - happy days



however recently reception has been particully bad, have lost Film 4 despite several retunes n the Humax which I assume has the strongest signal. The bedroom UTV and CH4 are unwatchable at times due to breakup. Bedroom TV was tuned by selecting ROI as when I tuned using UK the Saorview channels werent picked up



Poor/now not available



Main TV - Film4, Yesterday, ITV4 , 4seven



Humax - Film4, 4 music, Yesterday, ITV4.



Bedroom TV - All channels now available i cluding Film 4 and ITV 4 Yesterday ??????????????????????????????????



I am more perplexed than before. ITV and CH4 were unwatchable during the week on the bedroom



Do I need to boost the signal, due to atsmopheric condiions.



always had Saorview even throught the analogue



Cabel is split with the through feed to the Humax , the scondary to the bedroom and the main TV linked to the Humax



Any idea's, located in Newry

just an update on this, got a guy to come round and checked this out. Removed the outlet socket at the wall and cabled straight to the TV. Changed the splitter and put proper joints in the cable. The channels that were previously missing or had poor reception returned. I still get the odd bit of interfence but if its a problem the alternative BBC's are fine

meolwan

Ronnie Raygun wrote: »

Would seem to suggest you picked up a signal of some kind (even with the "Kilkeel" aerial)? Maybe Divis, or maybe just freak propagation from another site.

Can you see what UHF channel they came in on?

Thanks for all the replies as I stated in my post "The Idiots Guide"
Ronnie I cant tell you what UHF channel they come in on that's the beauty of new TV's just press the button and let it at it LOL. I am lucky that I have teenagers in the house they know how to work everything.
Looks like my best bet is to contact Dowlings or another installer.

FREETV

meolwan wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies as I stated in my post "The Idiots Guide"
Ronnie I cant tell you what UHF channel they come in on that's the beauty of new TV's just press the button and let it at it LOL. I am lucky that I have teenagers in the house they know how to work everything.
Looks like my best bet is to contact Dowlings or another installer.

Maybe your teenagers and yourself could figure out how to do an install after you get some new equipment? I reckon that your equipment just isn't sufficient enough to pick up the lower powered commercial channels from Divis and is polarised and pointed in the wrong direction for Divis and it performs very poorly when trying to receive a Group A transmitter.

Reg'stoy

Just an update on my original post.

They had an engineer call out, no problem with the aerial but he did replace the splitter/box? in the hotpress and the junction box? (? here as I don't know the technical terms) at the back of the TV. Signal quality is now in the high 80's. They were only charged €45 including parts and call out, in fairness he said there was not much point in replacing the aerial as they were happy enough with the channels they were getting (not getting Dave, sky news different mux??).

The chap did tell them that quite often a simple fix of loose connections or poor quality cable and wiring rather than replacement aerials is required.

Peter Rhea

Dave, Sky News, Film 4, 5 USA & the likes, are on commercial muxes. In NI, these are only broadcast from the 3 main transmitters (Divis, Brougher Mountain & Limavady).

ardmacha

The chap did tell them that quite often a simple fix of loose connections or poor quality cable

From some experiments at a border location with a marginal setup, a better aerial lead from an setback amplifier to the Freeview HD box did make a material difference in getting these commercial MUXes, as it improved the signal/noise ratio. Not always the solution, but much much easier to implement than some of the alternatives.