Very poor reception on some channels. How to fix?

tunguska

Hi
For a while now(not sure how long exactly) the reception on BBC2 in the house has been shocking. It seemed to go from perfect to fuzzy overnight. The picture has lost its colour(has gone to B&W) and is fuzzy. And recently the sound has started to go aswell. E4 can be dodgy to. Most of the time the picture has lines going through it but sometimes theres no picture at all. Channel 4 has gone completely this past year and sky living is temperamental at best.
Anybody any ideas how to fix this problem with those channels? The TV I have isnt exactly new so I'm planning on buying a new one at christmas, would that help?

Peter Rhea

You're obviously describing problems with an analogue signal there. Presumably from a UPC feed or some other cable tv system?

tunguska

Peter Rhea wrote: »

You're obviously describing problems with an analogue signal there. Presumably from a UPC feed or some other cable tv system?

Yeah UPC. Apologies this is probably something everybody knows but Im not exactly up on the latest technology. Any help is appreciated but just assume you're talking to someone who knows nothing about digital/analogue and all that jazz.

marno21

BBC Two is transmitted on Channel J, around 224Mhz, and it shares part of it's frequency with RTE's DAB transmissions from Three Rock. Nothing you can do to fix it

Channel 4 is transmitted on Channel 30, around 543Mhz, and shares its frequency with RTE's Saorview transmissions from Three Rock. These are very powerful and they are obviously blocking Channel 4 reception competely.

E4 is on channel 21, any interference coming in here could be from a station such as Divis during a lift but I'd doubt the signal is strong enough to cause interference

Sky Living is around 408Mhz, no idea what's causing the interference there..

Frequencies are here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056825676

Buying a new TV won't help. The only way to solve those problems would be to upgrade to digital or a different provider

tunguska

marno21 wrote: »

Buying a new TV won't help. The only way to solve those problems would be to upgrade to digital or a different provider

When the digital switch over happened last october we got a message from upc saying that there was no need to take any action as it was sorted by virtue of being a upc customer. Would getting a saorview TV do the job?

pa990

did upc not provide you with a set top box ?

tunguska

pa990 wrote: »

did upc not provide you with a set top box ?

No we got nothing.

Fresh Pots

If you want better picture quality you need to upgrade to upc digital . If its only the one room you need a box for it actually will probably works out cheaper and you get more channels.

http://www.upc.ie/television/digitalvalueplus/

Peter Rhea

marno21 wrote: »

BBC Two is transmitted on Channel J, around 224Mhz, and it shares part of it's frequency with RTE's DAB transmissions from Three Rock. Nothing you can do to fix it

Channel 4 is transmitted on Channel 30, around 543Mhz, and shares its frequency with RTE's Saorview transmissions from Three Rock. These are very powerful and they are obviously blocking Channel 4 reception competely.

E4 is on channel 21, any interference coming in here could be from a station such as Divis during a lift but I'd doubt the signal is strong enough to cause interference

You seem pretty sure these terrestrial transmissions are getting into the closed cable network at sufficient level to cause such serious issues: how exactly would that work?

OP, it's more than likely not primarily an interference issue, but general poor condition of the system: cables, connections etc., either in your house or in the wider network. This will cause low levels of the wanted signal, possibly affecting some frequencies more than others. If you're paying a sub., get UPC to sort it out.

pa990

tunguska wrote: »

No we got nothing.

dont take this the wrong way.. but do you pay UPC for a TV service ?

If you do, then contact them and ask for a digital box.

If you don't.. well someone will be along here shortly to tell you about theft of service etc.
I know that some people have illegal cable hook ups, and are oblivious to it cos thats the way it was when they moved in.
Others, pick up the channels because of leaky cables / poor shielding etc

watty

Either pay for UPC digital or get Freesat.
Analogue cable has always been dreadful in a large percentage of cases.

tunguska

pa990 wrote: »

dont take this the wrong way.. but do you pay UPC for a TV service ?

If you do, then contact them and ask for a digital box.

If you don't.. well someone will be along here shortly to tell you about theft of service etc.
I know that some people have illegal cable hook ups, and are oblivious to it cos thats the way it was when they moved in.
Others, pick up the channels because of leaky cables / poor shielding etc

Yeah we do pay for it! Theres two TVs in the house, one in the living room and then one upstairs. The one upstairs is run off the one downstairs via a spliter. The tv upstairs is the one with most problems but the one downstairs also has a very bad bbc2.