DTT reception - from perfect to unwatchable
 

My parents have been spending my inheritance on updating their TV
setup recently. They still haven't got their heads around the whole
digital / analogue / DVD recorder set up, but that's another story.

They have bought a 37" Panasonic plasma TV. They have been
complaining that some stations get unwatchably pixellated at times.
However, I went round on Saturday and the quality and strength
readouts for most muxes was at 10 / 10. So clearly a good strong
signal (when I went round).

Apparently the performance drops off significantly in the rain. They
have had a new aerial fitted (looks like an Antiference XG10EW) with
new downleads (appears to be CT100 or equivalent). To try to improve
things they have even had a masthead amp fitted.

The location is about 8 miles east of Winter Hill. Line of sight has
a large tree about 100m away which is in full leaf, but is clearly not
affecting the dry weather reception.

Any ideas as to where to start? Freesat may be an option, but they
want a non-subscription PVR, so that's not a freesat option at the
moment.

Analogue reception does look ghosty.

Matt

DTT reception - from perfect to unwatchable
 

"larkim" wrote in message
...
My parents have been spending my inheritance on updating their TV
setup recently. They still haven't got their heads around the whole
digital / analogue / DVD recorder set up, but that's another story.

They have bought a 37" Panasonic plasma TV. They have been
complaining that some stations get unwatchably pixellated at times.
However, I went round on Saturday and the quality and strength
readouts for most muxes was at 10 / 10. So clearly a good strong
signal (when I went round).

Apparently the performance drops off significantly in the rain. They
have had a new aerial fitted (looks like an Antiference XG10EW) with
new downleads (appears to be CT100 or equivalent). To try to improve
things they have even had a masthead amp fitted.

The location is about 8 miles east of Winter Hill. Line of sight has
a large tree about 100m away which is in full leaf, but is clearly not
affecting the dry weather reception.

Any ideas as to where to start? Freesat may be an option, but they
want a non-subscription PVR, so that's not a freesat option at the
moment.

Analogue reception does look ghosty.

Yes it will with an XG10EW.

Longshot: These aerials have a bad habit. The cap on the junction box lifts
up (sometimes only a bit) and lets water in. The fault is really due to the
installer not knowing that he needs to make double sure the cap is in place.

Bill

DTT reception - from perfect to unwatchable
 

uk.tech.digital-tv
larkim
Mon, 28 Jul 2008 02:14:04 -0700 (PDT)


Any ideas as to where to start? Freesat may be an option, but they
want a non-subscription PVR, so that's not a freesat option at the
moment.


Get freesat fitted now to solve the pixellation problem - then when the
freesat pvr's do come out in 6 months time - its just a matter of
plugging it in .

But no - people like you/them never seem to want to do that and would
much rather put up with a bad tv picture for 6 months .


--
www.skyepg.co.uk
(sky freesat channel listing)

DTT reception - from perfect to unwatchable
 

"larkim" wrote in message
...
My parents have been spending my inheritance on updating their TV
setup recently. They still haven't got their heads around the whole
digital / analogue / DVD recorder set up, but that's another story.

They have bought a 37" Panasonic plasma TV. They have been
complaining that some stations get unwatchably pixellated at times.
However, I went round on Saturday and the quality and strength
readouts for most muxes was at 10 / 10. So clearly a good strong
signal (when I went round).

Apparently the performance drops off significantly in the rain. They
have had a new aerial fitted (looks like an Antiference XG10EW) with
new downleads (appears to be CT100 or equivalent). To try to improve
things they have even had a masthead amp fitted.

The location is about 8 miles east of Winter Hill. Line of sight has
a large tree about 100m away which is in full leaf, but is clearly not
affecting the dry weather reception.

Any ideas as to where to start? Freesat may be an option, but they
want a non-subscription PVR, so that's not a freesat option at the
moment.

Make sure you have a very large dish installed. Last night there was
torrential rain and HellasSat2 went completely on my 90cm dish for half an
hour and Freesat on Astra dropped from 80% strength, 70-80% quality to
60-70% strength and 50% quality (any lower than 40 and it would have gone
too) on the same dish using a FortecStar Beta receiver.


Analogue reception does look ghosty.

Matt

DTT reception - from perfect to unwatchable
 

On Jul 28, 10:58*am, "Bill Wright"
wrote:
"larkim" wrote in message

...

Analogue reception does look ghosty.

Yes it will with an XG10EW.


That's interesting - and given that it gives (according to the TV)
10/10 reception, does that mean that there *is* such a thing as a
digital aerial after all? i.e. if it gets perfect digital reception,
and inherently is likely to ghost on analogue?

Longshot: These aerials have a bad habit. The cap on the junction box lifts
up (sometimes only a bit) and lets water in. The fault is really due to the
installer not knowing that he needs to make double sure the cap is in place.

Bill

Thank's for the pointer - certainly something to investigate.

I wrote that there was a tree in line of sight about 100m away. Is
that likely to cause any problems which are exacerbated by the rain?

Matt

DTT reception - from perfect to unwatchable
 

On 28/07/2008 13:36, larkim wrote:

does that mean that there *is* such a thing as a
digital aerial after all?

No, it's an aerial /for/ digital

DTT reception - from perfect to unwatchable
 

"Krustov" wrote in message
m...
uk.tech.digital-tv
larkim
Mon, 28 Jul 2008 02:14:04 -0700 (PDT)


Any ideas as to where to start? Freesat may be an option, but they
want a non-subscription PVR, so that's not a freesat option at the
moment.


Get freesat fitted now to solve the pixellation problem - then when the
freesat pvr's do come out in 6 months time - its just a matter of
plugging it in .

But no - people like you/them never seem to want to do that and would
much rather put up with a bad tv picture for 6 months .





maybe 'people like them'don't have as much money to spend as you -
personally i wouldn't pay for a freesat box i planned to replace in 6
months - i'd sooner get a second hand sky box.



--
Gareth.

that fly...... is your magic wand....

DTT reception - from perfect to unwatchable
 

On Jul 28, 2:17*pm, Andy Burns
wrote:
On 28/07/2008 13:36, larkim wrote:

does that mean that there *is* such a thing as a
digital aerial after all? *

No, it's an aerial /for/ digital

Ah, I see - now, can you tell me how many angels are dancing on this
pin? (I hope my comment above was read with the irony I intended!)

Curious, why is the XG10EW likely to suffer from ghosting?

Matt

DTT reception - from perfect to unwatchable
 

Close in signals are prone to ghosts you know. Maybe a log periodic to try
to help with the multipath.

You really need to go around in a storm to measure the signal then!

Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
in the display name may be lost.
Blind user, so no pictures please!
"larkim" wrote in message
...
My parents have been spending my inheritance on updating their TV
setup recently. They still haven't got their heads around the whole
digital / analogue / DVD recorder set up, but that's another story.

They have bought a 37" Panasonic plasma TV. They have been
complaining that some stations get unwatchably pixellated at times.
However, I went round on Saturday and the quality and strength
readouts for most muxes was at 10 / 10. So clearly a good strong
signal (when I went round).

Apparently the performance drops off significantly in the rain. They
have had a new aerial fitted (looks like an Antiference XG10EW) with
new downleads (appears to be CT100 or equivalent). To try to improve
things they have even had a masthead amp fitted.

The location is about 8 miles east of Winter Hill. Line of sight has
a large tree about 100m away which is in full leaf, but is clearly not
affecting the dry weather reception.

Any ideas as to where to start? Freesat may be an option, but they
want a non-subscription PVR, so that's not a freesat option at the
moment.

Analogue reception does look ghosty.

Matt

DTT reception - from perfect to unwatchable
 

Is this the silly retainer bit of plastic that is too stiff and over time
pushes the lid off?. It may not look nice but tape is often needed on some
of the stiffer boxes. I've no idea who tests these things, but even in the
old days Antiference lids that kind of clicked on came off after some
temperature cycling.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
in the display name may be lost.
Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Bill Wright" wrote in message
...

"larkim" wrote in message
...
My parents have been spending my inheritance on updating their TV
setup recently. They still haven't got their heads around the whole
digital / analogue / DVD recorder set up, but that's another story.

They have bought a 37" Panasonic plasma TV. They have been
complaining that some stations get unwatchably pixellated at times.
However, I went round on Saturday and the quality and strength
readouts for most muxes was at 10 / 10. So clearly a good strong
signal (when I went round).

Apparently the performance drops off significantly in the rain. They
have had a new aerial fitted (looks like an Antiference XG10EW) with
new downleads (appears to be CT100 or equivalent). To try to improve
things they have even had a masthead amp fitted.

The location is about 8 miles east of Winter Hill. Line of sight has
a large tree about 100m away which is in full leaf, but is clearly not
affecting the dry weather reception.

Any ideas as to where to start? Freesat may be an option, but they
want a non-subscription PVR, so that's not a freesat option at the
moment.

Analogue reception does look ghosty.

Yes it will with an XG10EW.

Longshot: These aerials have a bad habit. The cap on the junction box
lifts up (sometimes only a bit) and lets water in. The fault is really due
to the installer not knowing that he needs to make double sure the cap is
in place.

Bill

DTT reception - from perfect to unwatchable
 

The aerial has a grotty polar response and so close in will pick up all the
reflections from buildings and pylons and goodness knows what else. add in a
reduced direct signal, and maybe an overloaded mast head amp to really screw
up the cross mod performance and I'd imagine all sorts of things might be
going on.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
in the display name may be lost.
Blind user, so no pictures please!
"larkim" wrote in message
...
On Jul 28, 10:58 am, "Bill Wright"
wrote:
"larkim" wrote in message

...

Analogue reception does look ghosty.

Yes it will with an XG10EW.


That's interesting - and given that it gives (according to the TV)
10/10 reception, does that mean that there *is* such a thing as a
digital aerial after all? i.e. if it gets perfect digital reception,
and inherently is likely to ghost on analogue?

Longshot: These aerials have a bad habit. The cap on the junction box
lifts
up (sometimes only a bit) and lets water in. The fault is really due to
the
installer not knowing that he needs to make double sure the cap is in
place.

Bill

Thank's for the pointer - certainly something to investigate.

I wrote that there was a tree in line of sight about 100m away. Is
that likely to cause any problems which are exacerbated by the rain?

Matt

DTT reception - from perfect to unwatchable
 

"larkim" wrote in message
...
On Jul 28, 10:58 am, "Bill Wright"
wrote:
"larkim" wrote in message

...

Analogue reception does look ghosty.

Yes it will with an XG10EW.


That's interesting - and given that it gives (according to the TV)
10/10 reception, does that mean that there *is* such a thing as a
digital aerial after all? i.e. if it gets perfect digital reception,
and inherently is likely to ghost on analogue?

No, I just mean that short wideband yagis are inherently not very
directional, especially near the lower end. However, since multipath is much
less of an issue for DTT than for analogue, it does occur to me that a great
aerial of yesteryear, the Jaybeam MBM46 (or 48, 70, or 88) might come into
its own nowadays. These aerials had really good gain but were hopeless for
ghosting.

Longshot: These aerials have a bad habit. The cap on the junction box
lifts
up (sometimes only a bit) and lets water in. The fault is really due to
the
installer not knowing that he needs to make double sure the cap is in
place.

Bill

Thank's for the pointer - certainly something to investigate.

I wrote that there was a tree in line of sight about 100m away. Is
that likely to cause any problems which are exacerbated by the rain?

If the signal really is obstructed by the tree (impossible to tell from the
ground and sometimes impossible to tell from the roof), then yes,
definitely.

Bill

DTT reception - from perfect to unwatchable
 

"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
om...
Is this the silly retainer bit of plastic that is too stiff and over time
pushes the lid off?. It may not look nice but tape is often needed on some
of the stiffer boxes. I've no idea who tests these things, but even in
the old days Antiference lids that kind of clicked on came off after some
temperature cycling.

I always used to put tape around these lids.

Bill