BS: BBC 1 & 2 reception awful on Boxing Day

Subject: BS: BBC 1 & 2 reception awful on Boxing Day
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 27 Dec 10 - 05:32 AM

The one programme we sat down to watch over Christmas - Upstairs Downstairs suffered from picture break up on digital and yet all the other Freeview channels (except BBC 2) were perfect. Any other experience of this?

Subject: RE: BS: BBC 1 & 2 reception awful on Boxing Day
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 27 Dec 10 - 06:24 AM

Still the same this morning, why just BBC 1 & BBC 2?

Subject: RE: BS: BBC 1 & 2 reception awful on Boxing Day
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 27 Dec 10 - 06:30 AM

We had similar problems just before Christmas. I think it is weather related - ours varied between the BBC and channel 4 & 5. We have a signal booster and found if we changed the frequency on that it improved but had to be careful as improving one channel sometimes made another worse so had to fiddle until all ok. Upstairs downstairs is on i player and the first episode shown on Sunday was good and we will be watching the second today (Boxing Day!).

Subject: RE: BS: BBC 1 & 2 reception awful on Boxing Day
From: GUEST,Jim Martin
Date: 27 Dec 10 - 07:09 AM

I have the same probs with Channel 4, E4 etc on my Sky box. I've been told that if I alter my LNB slightly to get them properly, it would throw out all the other channels, why is this, are they cheapskating with their satellite transmitting power?

Subject: RE: BS: BBC 1 & 2 reception awful on Boxing Day
From: Will Fly
Date: 27 Dec 10 - 08:01 AM

Digital broadcasting in this country is currently crap. The transmitter signal output is subject to all sorts of vagaries - weather being a major one - and we frequently get massive picture breakup on commercial channels (ITV particularly) in the afternoon and evening. We have to resort to terrestrial for ITV 1 - what shall we do when terrestrial is switched off in 2012? I assume that bandwidth for digital will improve once terrestrial has gone - but that's just a guess. If it doesn't improve in 2012 then I'm ditching TV for good and will catch what I want by other means.

Since getting Freeview a year or two ago, my choice of channels has widened - and the choice of decent programmes diminished, to my mind. Thank heavens for BBC4 - the rest just seems to be soaps, food programmes and talent shows. Utter crap.

Always good to have a rant now and then... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: BBC 1 & 2 reception awful on Boxing Day
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 27 Dec 10 - 08:05 AM

Not that. Just that unlike analogue TV signals, which can be so riddled by interference that all one can see is a snowy picture (but you CAN see a show!), Digital TV either has good signal strength or too little (or too much) - it's called the 'Cliff face' effect - that too much interference just kills the signal entirely.

At my house, when some cars drive by, they kill the signal almost entirely - and that is when they drive past the REAR pf the (highly directional) Yagi .... sometimes I can notice interference for several days, then it just stops.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC 1 & 2 reception awful on Boxing Day
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 27 Dec 10 - 02:03 PM

It isn't output that gets knocked down by the weather. It's signal strength (and corruption of the incoming signal) at your antenna.

Leaving aside the problems of reflected signals, your first line of defence is an F-ing great Yagi as Foulestroupe says.

However, there is a loop of gain directly behind a Yagi - just like a unidirectional microphone. This can be reduced by a second reflector behind the main one. Book on aerial technology will help (ham radio ones are good). If your next door neighbour is a CB enthusiast running huge boots and leaving his swr meter in circuit, you will need to talk to him. If I wanted to be nasty I could wipe out TV for about 100 yards, but I was running a 1kw Bremi burner up a 5/8wave Starduster - audible from Kent to Wales. I don't do it any more of course.

Next step - masthead amplifier. Next best - loft amplifier - not much use - room amplifier. The further the amplifier is from the masthead the more shit there is in the signal it amplifies.

There is some difference in digiboxes. Some have better discrimination. Generally I have found the old ondigital ones that used discrete components best.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC 1 & 2 reception awful on Boxing Day
From: MikeL2
Date: 27 Dec 10 - 03:35 PM

hi

We didn't watch much TV over Christmas day but both before and now todasy we have had no such problems. We don't have any special aerials etc. Like Will we watch through Freeveiw and we don't get anything but an occasional microsecond blip or two.

We are in the Northwest - don't know if this makes any difference.


cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: BS: BBC 1 & 2 reception awful on Boxing Day
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 27 Dec 10 - 05:20 PM

Oddly enough when my wife fired up the TV this evening BBC 1 was picture perfect, very odd but quite a relief.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC 1 & 2 reception awful on Boxing Day
From: Richie Black (misused acct, bad email)
Date: 27 Dec 10 - 05:34 PM

Same here in Cheshire Bonzo. It is fine now.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC 1 & 2 reception awful on Boxing Day
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 27 Dec 10 - 06:53 PM

It was obviously terrorists conspiring to disrupt our rightful rulers and readers of the Daily Mail. Didn't some of them get remanded today on charges something like that?

Subject: RE: BS: BBC 1 & 2 reception awful on Boxing Day
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 28 Dec 10 - 03:59 PM

Here in West Norfolk, BBC 1&2 break up all the time on digital. We change to analogue to watch them. But I found most of the progs over Christmas to be very disappointing, mind-numbing rubbish. They say they're "turning off the Tacleston transmitter" in 2011, when they go digital. I wonder what effect this will have? Like you, Will Fly, I think we might abandon TV altogether. I spend more time reading and listening to music than viewing, and you can always view things online.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC 1 & 2 reception awful on Boxing Day
From: MikeL2
Date: 29 Dec 10 - 11:09 AM

hi Eliza

We went through the concerns about the analogue channels being removed but we have had no problems. For us there is no longer the option of going to analogue. We haven't missed that.

However I do support your view regarding the quality of the content of the programs. The choice and interest is very limited.

It seems that the vast majority of the stuff is repeats of previous c..p or repeats of repeats of films. Crikey they even have had Zulu on again today !!!

Regards

MikeL2

Subject: RE: BS: BBC 1 & 2 reception awful on Boxing Day
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 29 Dec 10 - 11:28 AM

Hi MikeL2!

Have to admit, I groaned when I saw Zulu starting today, but got engrossed and actually quite enjoyed it! But nearly all the films on offer are, as you say, repeats of repeats. And as I don't like soaps or reality TV, or X Factor etc., I'm left with Victorian Farm (I'm word perfect in that) and Pride and Prejudice. (and by the way, Mr Darcy never DID go bathing and emerge dripping wet in front of Eliza Bennett!) A chap who erected a new aerial last summer on our roof said we may need something additional after 2011, (not sure WHAT exactly, I'm not very technically-minded) I bet a lot of aerial men are ripping off people who don't know much about it. But as I said before, I can do without TV, especially in the summer. I like to be outdoors until nearly bedtime.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC 1 & 2 reception awful on Boxing Day
From: GUEST,Irish Guest
Date: 29 Dec 10 - 12:27 PM

Fain as I am to criticise the programmes on British TV which I get from the Astra Satellite Free to Air (28.2) I must agree that the standards have slipped alarmingly over the past while. Now, to my dismay I have lost BBC 3 & 4 from this source. Can anyone tell me why ? BBC 4 especially was a favourite channel in our house.

As far as RTE and the other Irish Channels are concerned I recently purchased a Digital Set Top Box in order to receive these. It worked fine for about a fortnight then, since the very cold weather (could it have been a factor?) the picture "freezes" very often (pardon the pun), otherwise it breaks up into small " squares" and now, from most recently, I have sound only on RTE 2 and no picture whatsoever.
What the "blankety blank" is going on ?
Could a slight shakiness in the aerial mast that I have fixed to my house be a factor.I am pretty well exposed to westerly wind. Finally I wonder if my Digital Box could be damaged by these happenings ?
Can anyone advise me please?

Subject: RE: BS: BBC 1 & 2 reception awful on Boxing Day
From: Paul Burke
Date: 29 Dec 10 - 06:28 PM

A wobbly mast certainly would cause variation in FreeSat reception - the satellite is rather a long way away (about 36000 kilometres, a tenth of the way to the Moon). As would any imperfections in the original alignment.

BBC4 changed channel on Astra about 8 weeks ago- have you tried rescanning for it?

The box is unlikely to be damaged by misalignment, but its original quality may be suspect.

I don't know why RTE demand subscription for FreeSat channels when the BBC don't.