Poor TV Signal - The Bear and Badger

Elmlea

Hello,

I've just moved house. New place has a pretty poor TV signal (last owners just used Virgin/Sky etc), and as we have a BT Youview/Humax box, we get our TV via a regular aerial.

It's very flaky. The cables have been fitted fine but if you so much as breathe on the aerial cable going to the box, you get distortion and artefacts, and every so often it drops the signal almost entirely. The Humax box tells me we're frequently dealing with a signal strength of 10% and quality of 10%.

Any options to improve it? Don't want Virgin or Sky, and would prefer to just fix this considering we pay a token £5 a month to BT for TV. A Freesat box is the logical solution if it can't be fixed.

Buy a better aerial cable? Buy a signal booster (do they even work?)? Any suggestions?

[Deleted User]

Move house. You're welcome.

djchump

When you say "regular aerial", is it one of the newer, larger digital style aerials, or an old school analogue-era aerial?
When things were going digital we had to upgrade our aerial as our reception was shit, much better now. Probably set you back £150 or something.
You could try a signal booster first I suppose - I got one and it'll give you a bump from something like 60% signal strength to 70%, but I doubt it'll help much if the strength is that low to start with.

Elmlea

SpaceGazelle wrote:

Move house. You're welcome.

But I just did that!

Elmlea

djchump wrote:

When you say "regular aerial", is it one of the newer, larger digital style aerials, or an old school analogue-era aerial? When things were going digital we had to upgrade our aerial as our reception was shit, much better now. Probably set you back £150 or something. You could try a signal booster first I suppose - I got one and it'll give you a bump from something like 60% signal strength to 70%, but I doubt it'll help much if the strength is that low to start with.

No idea; I've never looked at the roof! Across the street they have larger, digital-style ones. Here I have no idea and no idea if it's even shared across other homes in the block or if it's individual.

Do indoor aerials ever work? Signal strength is literally 10%, so I'm not sure if a booster will achieve anything with that?

[Deleted User]

Elmlea wrote:

SpaceGazelle wrote:

Move house. You're welcome.

But I just did that!

I know. I meant move house. Ten inches left.

Elmlea

I'll need a spare pair of hands.

M0stly harm13ss

It does sound a little like the cable is knackered if you can affect the signal by just moving it.

My advice in this case would be to get on of those tv/arial/satellite guys/girls around to check everything out.

[Deleted User]

Do you have a lead running from the arieal out of the wall or is there a wall socket?
Either way a little bit of TLC to these could help and is a quick, free check.

djchump

Elmlea wrote:

No idea; I've never looked at the roof! Across the street they have larger, digital-style ones. Here I have no idea and no idea if it's even shared across other homes in the block or if it's individual.

You need to get eyes-on and see what your actual aerial is up there.

Elmlea wrote:

Do indoor aerials ever work? Signal strength is literally 10%, so I'm not sure if a booster will achieve anything with that?

From prior experience many years ago, indoor aerials have always been pony, and presumably have only got shitter with the digital transition.
If there's no signal to boost, booster will only boost the noise - you'll looking for weakest link in the signal chain. If aerial is fine, like M says the cable might be knackered.

M0stly harm13ss

A 'Take a Break' style top tip from Live there...

Also an old sock can make a great and free tea strainer.

M0stly harm13ss

Don't use the sock you keep under the bed though

GooberTheHat

Check the interior co-ax cable first. I probably have a spare one knocking about if you want me to send you one. How long do you need?
if that doesn't work you could replace the exterior cable, if that still doesn't help you might need to look at replacing the aerial.

Or you could just buy a decent, powered, internal aerial. That might work.

[Deleted User]

M0stly harm13ss wrote:

A 'Take a Break' style top tip from Live there... Also an old sock can make a great and free tea strainer.

Don't throw away that used toothbrush, it can be used to clean those hard to reach bits when washing your car wheels.

FranticPea

Don't throw away the used toothbrush you use to clean those hard to reach bits on your car wheels, it can be used to remove those hard to reach bits of food lodged in your teeth.

Elmlea

It's a cable sticking out of the wall, that we stuck a new head on, and connect to our aerial lead via a female-female connector thing.

Live, what's the quick, free check I could have done on that?

[Deleted User]

Ah OK you already put a new head on it. Maybe try cutting back to good but that was all I was gonna suggest.

Elmlea

That's what we did. In fact I got my brother to do it because he knows about these things, so I'm relatively happy with that side of it.

Signal strength 10%, signal quality fluctuates between 10% and 20% right now, and it's pretty much unwatchable.

AJ

Don't suppose it tells you the SNR? That's what'd let you know if a booster would be any use.

Funkstain

1. Check co-ax cable if not new / replaced recently

2. Go here for some hints: http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/help_and_advice/engineering_works. Check the FAQ box to the right, for things like retuning to another transmitter, 4G interference, and so on.

3. Get expert to check / replace roof aerial

4. Switch to Freesat - you won't be losing much from the BT Vision crap channels, and (disclaimer: I work for Freesat currently) Freetime Humax box is better than YouView Humax box

AJ

Does Freesat have on demand now then?

Funkstain

It's a product called Freetime, available on a PVR, non-PVR and some panasonic tellies built-in.

Basically the same as YouView, but it only shows you actually available OD content in the "backwards" programme guide. YouView always frustrated me: it shows everything that has been broadcast, but when you click on it, of course only a small sub-set is actually available on demand.

YouView does have UKTV on demand, which Freetime doesn't. It also has a few apps on it which Freetime doesn't yet have.

Brooks

What is TV

Elmlea

Freesat was my next port of call, but I need to see what the situation is with BT. I'm not sure exactly what we're paying for tbh; I think the token £5 a month charge for a year is to cover the cost of the box.

Freesat's just an initial outlay for the box, then nothing else? Might be worthwhile cancelling BT Vision and going with that.

Funkstain

Yep clue's in the name

You will of course need an actual satellite dish to receive the signal.

davyK

Check if your aerial is modern and suitable for Digital signal before doing anything else. Will need to find someone you can trust to avoid teeth sucking and unnecessary replacement of course.

adkm1979

Elm, I've used signal boosters in the past. They're not great. Actually, I used to daisy-chain them to get a watchable picture. Fine when you live with mum and dad, but daft when you have your own place. Indoor aerials are, similarly, a temporary relief at best.

adored

Cost us £90 for a new digital aerial, fitted.

If it's an old aerial then you'll probably need a 4G
filter if you're not replacing it.

pantyfire

When I moved into a new build flat about 8 yrs ago the signal was terrible, about what you say yours is.
I asked the building site managers to send someone to come look at it and it turned out that the aerial cable from the antenna wasn't actually connected to the outlet in the wall. The signal I was managing to get was the cable itself naturally picking up the signal.

davyK

adored wrote:

Cost us £90 for a new digital aerial, fitted. If it's an old aerial then you'll probably need a 4G filter if you're not replacing it.

Sounds about right - mine cost a bit more but I got 3 connections installed.

Elmlea

I have no idea where our aerial is and I don't fancy trying to get onto the roof. I've been told that as the flat's wired for cable, if I get an F-type to coax cable I can just plug the Virgin feed into the YouView box and magically get free view.

I've also acquired a probably-working old Sky HD box. Funk, can I stick a card in that and get Freesat?

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