Quality post-switchover

Haven't posted in this group before so excuse any ignorance which
emerges below:

We're in the North East, Tyne Valley, and so have only had our Switch
Over in September.

Pre switchover, we (in our village) had excellent digital reception. We
have clear "sight" of Pontop Pike (can't actually see it, but there are
no obstacles between us and it; moreover, there are no trees etc
around). Although our own aerial is in the loft, as I said, reception
was very good indeed pre-switchover.

Post-switchover, we are finding that our PVR, which is a five-year-old
Wharfedale, is having trouble making perfect recordings: there are
frequent tiny skips in recorded programmes. Tiny skips, but enough to
ruin the recording.

I've noticed that most of the trouble is on the commercial channels.
However today I found that last night's MOTD (BBC1) was also affected.

Any suggestions, folks? Ought I to replace our PVR with a newer model?
Or are there more technical, but more certain, ways of dealing with the
problem?

Thanks a lot
John

On Sun, 18 Nov 2012 21:51:41 +0000, Another John
wrote:

Haven't posted in this group before so excuse any ignorance which
emerges below:

We're in the North East, Tyne Valley, and so have only had our Switch
Over in September.

Pre switchover, we (in our village) had excellent digital reception. We
have clear "sight" of Pontop Pike (can't actually see it, but there are
no obstacles between us and it; moreover, there are no trees etc
around). Although our own aerial is in the loft, as I said, reception
was very good indeed pre-switchover.

Post-switchover, we are finding that our PVR, which is a five-year-old
Wharfedale, is having trouble making perfect recordings: there are
frequent tiny skips in recorded programmes. Tiny skips, but enough to
ruin the recording.

I've noticed that most of the trouble is on the commercial channels.
However today I found that last night's MOTD (BBC1) was also affected.

Any suggestions, folks? Ought I to replace our PVR with a newer model?
Or are there more technical, but more certain, ways of dealing with the
problem?

My guess is that you are locked on to a transmitter other than your
nearest one. I had this problem also. The automatic scan did not
automatically pick the strongest signal.

Find out the actual channel numbers for your intended transmitter:
http://www.ukfree.tv/transmitters.php should help. Then carry out
manual scans for each of the multiplexes.

"Scott" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 18 Nov 2012 21:51:41 +0000, Another John
wrote:

Haven't posted in this group before so excuse any ignorance which
emerges below:

We're in the North East, Tyne Valley, and so have only had our Switch
Over in September.

Pre switchover, we (in our village) had excellent digital reception. We
have clear "sight" of Pontop Pike (can't actually see it, but there are
no obstacles between us and it; moreover, there are no trees etc
around). Although our own aerial is in the loft, as I said, reception
was very good indeed pre-switchover.

Post-switchover, we are finding that our PVR, which is a five-year-old
Wharfedale, is having trouble making perfect recordings: there are
frequent tiny skips in recorded programmes. Tiny skips, but enough to
ruin the recording.

I've noticed that most of the trouble is on the commercial channels.
However today I found that last night's MOTD (BBC1) was also affected.

Any suggestions, folks? Ought I to replace our PVR with a newer model?
Or are there more technical, but more certain, ways of dealing with the
problem?

My guess is that you are locked on to a transmitter other than your
nearest one. I had this problem also. The automatic scan did not
automatically pick the strongest signal.

Find out the actual channel numbers for your intended transmitter:
http://www.ukfree.tv/transmitters.php should help. Then carry out
manual scans for each of the multiplexes.

Also do a factory settings reset if not done before.

V

"Another John" wrote in message
...
Haven't posted in this group before so excuse any ignorance which
emerges below:

We're in the North East, Tyne Valley, and so have only had our Switch
Over in September.

Pre switchover, we (in our village) had excellent digital reception. We
have clear "sight" of Pontop Pike (can't actually see it, but there are
no obstacles between us and it; moreover, there are no trees etc
around). Although our own aerial is in the loft, as I said, reception
was very good indeed pre-switchover.

Post-switchover, we are finding that our PVR, which is a five-year-old
Wharfedale, is having trouble making perfect recordings: there are
frequent tiny skips in recorded programmes. Tiny skips, but enough to
ruin the recording.

I've noticed that most of the trouble is on the commercial channels.
However today I found that last night's MOTD (BBC1) was also affected.

Any suggestions, folks? Ought I to replace our PVR with a newer model?
Or are there more technical, but more certain, ways of dealing with the
problem?

Thanks a lot
John

They moved from QAM16 to QAM64 on switch over and if your reception is
marginal that might have been enough to dip below successful reception (it's
digital so it either works or it doesn't)

Scott wrote:

Another John wrote:

Post-switchover, we are finding that our PVR, which is a five-year-old
Wharfedale, is having trouble making perfect recordings: there are
frequent tiny skips in recorded programmes. Tiny skips, but enough to
ruin the recording.

My guess is that you are locked on to a transmitter other than your
nearest one.

Could be, or the signal strength is now too high, if you have an
amplifier, try removing it, if you don't have one then try an attenuator
(Tool Satan have one that's cheap enough to suck it and see)

http://toolstation.com/shop/p86843

I had to use one after they put up the power to stop locking up on Crystal
Palace, so overload is a possibility if the transmitter is close.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email:
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________


"Andy Burns" wrote in message
...
Scott wrote:

Another John wrote:

Post-switchover, we are finding that our PVR, which is a five-year-old
Wharfedale, is having trouble making perfect recordings: there are
frequent tiny skips in recorded programmes. Tiny skips, but enough to
ruin the recording.

My guess is that you are locked on to a transmitter other than your
nearest one.

Could be, or the signal strength is now too high, if you have an
amplifier, try removing it, if you don't have one then try an attenuator
(Tool Satan have one that's cheap enough to suck it and see)

http://toolstation.com/shop/p86843

In article ,
Andy Burns wrote:

Could be... that the signal strength is now too high, if you have an
amplifier, try removing it, if you don't have one then try an attenuator
(Tool Satan have one that's cheap enough to suck it and see)

http://toolstation.com/shop/p86843


Ooohh! Now that's an interesting thought! When we first had freeview
installed (god knows when that was ... years and years and years -- was
the service called Top-up TV or summat?) ... we had a special aerial
engineer come out (there was a special fixed rate, such was the desire
of the providers to get people hooked up).

The engineer fitted an attenuator because he said "the signal's too
strong". Some years later, during one of the many equipment shuffles
that go on in this corner of the household, I removed it (for some
reason). We never noticed any difference at all.

So *perhaps*, after Switch-over, the signal is again "too strong". I
will seek out the attenuator (I never threw it away of course!) and see
if it makes a difference.

Meanwhile, all other suggestions welcome, and thanks very much for the
help so far, chaps.

John

"Another John" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Andy Burns wrote:

Could be... that the signal strength is now too high, if you have an
amplifier, try removing it, if you don't have one then try an attenuator
(Tool Satan have one that's cheap enough to suck it and see)

http://toolstation.com/shop/p86843


Ooohh! Now that's an interesting thought! When we first had freeview
installed (god knows when that was ... years and years and years -- was
the service called Top-up TV or summat?) ... we had a special aerial
engineer come out (there was a special fixed rate, such was the desire
of the providers to get people hooked up).

The engineer fitted an attenuator because he said "the signal's too
strong". Some years later, during one of the many equipment shuffles
that go on in this corner of the household, I removed it (for some
reason). We never noticed any difference at all.

So *perhaps*, after Switch-over, the signal is again "too strong". I
will seek out the attenuator (I never threw it away of course!) and see
if it makes a difference.

Meanwhile, all other suggestions welcome, and thanks very much for the
help so far, chaps.

It would be nice if set top boxes and other DVB tuners would indicate if the
signal strength is *too* strong. Most seem to just full-scale strength but
it doesn't run red (for example) if you might need an attenuator.

In article , NY
wrote:

It would be nice if set top boxes and other DVB tuners would indicate if
the signal strength is *too* strong. Most seem to just full-scale
strength but it doesn't run red (for example) if you might need an
attenuator.

I suspect this is driven by the marketing dept, just as it was in the days
of serious FM tuners. Back then many tuners had signal strength meters that
were half-way to the end-stop before you could hear music in mono without
background noise, and at the end-stop long before the signal was big enough
to maximise the output SNR. Bit like the old cars with speedo dials showing
up to 140 mph...

"That tuner is more sensitive. Look, you can see its meter reads a much
better signal than the other one!"

Slainte,

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
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Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

They moved from QAM16 to QAM64 on switch over and if your reception is
marginal that might have been enough to dip below successful reception (it's
digital so it either works or it doesn't)

My money is on this as the problem !
At my girlfiend's house, she had perfect reception before DSO, but
intermittent drop -outs post DSO on BBC channels.
So even though power increased a lot at DSO, reception got worse
because the BBC change from 16QAM to 64QAM (to squeeze more programs
into the multiplex) is a less rugged signal.
The problem was fixed with a slight reorientation of the aerial (which
is in the loft). Loft erials are far more likely to have multipath
effects which affects 64QAM much more than 16QAM.

HTH