Can't get RTE in Belfast on either Freeview or BT Vision

ManOfMystery

As per the title ........ I was hoping to pick up RTE1 and RTE2 once the digital switchover occurred last October, but I still can't get these channels.

I have BT Vision and have scanned, rescanned, reset, scanned without aerial plugged in and then rescanned with aerial in ................... all to no avail. It picks up all other channels and picture quality/reception is perfect on them all.

If I remove the BT Vision box from the equation completely and just try scanning use the built-in freeview feature on my Samsung plasma TV, I again get perfect reception on all channels but no sign of RTE anywhere.

All cabling appears to be working fine. I'm in the SE Belfast area and picking up reception from the Divis transmitter. Anyone got any ideas - am I missing something completely obvious?

ardmacha

A bog standard Freeview set will not pick up RTÉ on the NI mini MUX , it needs to have a DVB-T2 tuner. Any Freeview HD set should do the trick. So if you have the HD channels, then you should be in luck, otherwise not.

zg3409

Note the RTE channels are only broadcast from Black mountain not Divis at low power. As said you need a Freeview HD box. It seems as if the BT vision box cannot do DVB-T2 either:
http://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Vision/New-BT-Vision-Box-Why-no-Freeview-HD/td-p/12904

The ROI channels will appear at numbers 51, 52 and 53. If you have an outdoor aerial you should probably pick it up fine, but if your aerial is not optomised you may only get the UK HD channels as the ROI signal is weaker and from a different transmitter.

Try a HD box and if it does not work, then improve your aerial.

celticbreeze

I am in the same boat. Live in Belfast and have the Humax HDR Fox T2 connected to a high performance rooftop aerial. Can get a total of 125 channels including HD but can't get rte channels. Bought the HD box specifically to get RTE. Just wondering if anyone has any advice.

Peter Rhea

Enter your postcode here: http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/coveragechecker/, ticking the box labeled 'detailed view' & see what it has to say about reception of the 'NImux' (Black Mountain or Carnmoney Hill transmitters).

celticbreeze

Under the Black mountain table, it is green and indicates '100'.

zg3409

celticbreeze wrote: »

connected to a high performance rooftop aerial.

How many years old is the aerial? Is it pointed directly at Black Mountain or more likely pointed at Divis. The RTE channels are much lower power than all other channels.

If you pick them up on an approved box then they should appear as channel numbers 51, 52 and 53 on the guide.

If you can't adjust or replace your existing aerial any installer should be able to help. The signal is quite weak.

The locations are shown here:
http://www.ukfree.tv/maps.php?c=6

celticbreeze

Thank you. No the aerial is brand new and probably pointing towards Divis although I couldn't be sure. Thank you for your reply.

Peter Rhea

Well, if the aerial isn't an older group A type & if it's connected straight to the receiver & not via other devices that could add interference to the signal or block channels, then we can only assume that it needs a bit of adjustment to get some of the Black Mountain signal.

201964

i LIVE in Derry and get All the rte stuff including 3e, rte junior.... on a BT Vision box and also on a new Freeview HD Tuner TV in another room. All at 800+ channels. Recently on the BT Vision box I've lost RTE1 801 and can't get it back, why?
Also my brother in Craigavon got a new BT Vision box for RTE and cannot get any RTE, TNAG or nothing. can't figure that one at all

The Cush

201964 wrote: »

Recently on the BT Vision box I've lost RTE1 801 and can't get it back, why?

Also my brother in Craigavon got a new BT Vision box for RTE and cannot get any RTE, TNAG or nothing. can't figure that one at all

Can you test the BT Vision box at the TV point where the new FreeviewHD TV is located? Maybe the aerial has moved in the recent bad weather and the TV can handle a weaker signal better than the BT Vision box. Maybe there's a fault between aerial and BT Vision box. There's been no change to the Saorview signal in recent times.

Regarding your brother's setup, did he have the Saorview signal previously on another receiver or TV?

Digifriendly

zg3409 wrote: »

Note the RTE channels are only broadcast from Black mountain not Divis at low power. As said you need a Freeview HD box. It seems as if the BT vision box cannot do DVB-T2 either:
http://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Vision/New-BT-Vision-Box-Why-no-Freeview-HD/td-p/12904

A friend of mine has a BT Vision box and he gets both the NI mini-mux and Saorview channels.

billie1b

Your lucky then!

201964

Brothers: Yes on a Ionics or something TV receiver you can get RTE on 51,52,53, sometimes in the 800's. A new TV will pick up the signal without the Ionics receiver sometimes you can pick up RTE BUT IT DROPS THE SIGNAL. Same aerial adjoining houses. Aerial inside is this a major factor or the fact that the Ionics box picks up the signal and the BT Vision doesn't is that the key.

The Cush

201964 wrote: »

Brothers: Yes on a Ionics or something TV receiver you can get RTE on 51,52,53, sometimes in the 800's. A new TV will pick up the signal without the Ionics receiver sometimes you can pick up RTE BUT IT DROPS THE SIGNAL. Same aerial adjoining houses. Aerial inside is this a major factor or the fact that the Ionics box picks up the signal and the BT Vision doesn't is that the key.

The 51,52,53 channels are from a Freeview transmitter in Belfast.

The Saorview/RTÉ channels in the 800s are probably from Clermont Carn in Louth, they appear in the 800s because the receiver sees them as non-UK channels and stores them there.

Others have said here that the BT Vision box will receive both the Saorview and Freeview signals if available. The issue is probably that the received signal isn't good enough.

The aerial inside doesn't help the situation and probably needs to be mounted outside. The Freeview and Saorview signals are coming from different directions and so would probably require 2 separate aerials.

Maybe he should get an aerial installer in to have a look if he can't do it himself.

201964

The Cush wrote: »

The 51,52,53 channels are from a Freeview transmitter in Belfast.

The Saorview/RTÉ channels in the 800s are probably from Clermont Carn in Louth, they appear in the 800s because the receiver sees them as non-UK channels and stores them there.

Others have said here that the BT Vision box will receive both the Saorview and Freeview signals if available. The issue is probably that the received signal isn't good enough.

The aerial inside doesn't help the situation and probably needs to be mounted outside. The Freeview and Saorview signals are coming from different directions and so would probably require 2 separate aerials.

Maybe he should get an aerial installer in to have a look if he can't do it himself.

Thanks for this. The aerial is pointed to Black Mountain or maybe Divis.