Very Poor TV Reception

chris301up

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Not sure if this is in the correct forum but here goes anyway. We live in Rowley Regis, West Midlands B659NJ and for some time we have been having intermittent problems receiving programmes, particularly on ITV and ITV3. I currently have a aerial in the loft which is set to our nearest transmitter - Sutton Coldfield. I have checked its positioning by using the compass with a IPhone, the only way I can do this I'm afraid, and can confirm its set correctly according to this. We thought our old TV was finally giving up on us so I have just invested in a 50inch Hitatchi 50HK25T74U K. To our dismay the same problem still exists, but worse, all channels supplied by ITV, including Channel 5 are very poor, whereas all other channels are working fine. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated?
 
have you a picture of the aerial , how old . roof covering , distance from transmitter , lots of questions , that will do for a start :thumbsup:
 
I cannot answer those questions I'm afraid. This is my Uncles previous house and I know he had a new aerial not long before he passed away, so would assume approximately 10 years old. The roof covering is slate but I have no idea whatsoever how far away we are from the transmitter. The question is, why was it working fine before? Although intermittently. I've just popped outside and notice the aerials on many roofs are pointing in different directions. Maybe I'll have to try a different transmitter if I can find how to do so?
 
you are on the correct transmitter , you are about 15 miles away , are you only feeding the the aerial to one tv ?
 
Yes. One TV. Thought the transmitter may be undergoing some work? Was going to upload a video of the picture but the site won't allow this
 
Is there a wall plate with a separate cable to the TV or just a lead straight in? If the former try another cable. If the latter unscrew the plug & check for shorts/breaks.

Does the aerial cable go directly to the TV or via a PVR or similar? PVRs often have two levels of standby, the lowest consumption may not pass the aerial signal in standby.

Easy enough to search for transmitter work/faults:

 
I've recently decorated and installed new coax cable and wall plates to mount TV on wall. All working fine until this morning. Don't know what a PVR is I'm afraid? Surely, if there is a fault within the installation / cable then it would be on all channels and not just ITV channels?
 
some time we have been having intermittent problems receiving programmes
All working fine until this morning.
Which is it? In any case the newness of cabling is irrelevant. Cables/connections can fail at any time.
Don't know what a PVR is I'm afraid?
Recorder
Surely, if there is a fault within the installation / cable the it would be on all channels and not just ITV channels?
Not necessarily.
 
Right. I'll try to clarify as I'm not too good putting it in words. We have had an intermittent problem on & off for some time where ITV1 and ITV3 used to break up and sometime go off completely. This continued until a few weeks ago and just seemed to disappear. As our TV was getting old we thought we would invest in a new one which I mounted on the wall last week. All went well without issues until this morning. The problem as reoccurred but worse. Some ITV channels come on, but break up badly, and the others are just non existent at all. All other channels from are absolutely fine! I hope this helps?
 
I suppose the only thing I can now do is replace the exterior coax cable again, and maybe the aerial itself, and go from there? Nothing to loose except several more pounds.
 
I suppose the only thing I can now do is replace the exterior coax cable again, and maybe the aerial itself, and go from there? Nothing to loose except several more pounds.

is there any reason you can't mount the aerial on the outside of the house ?
 
Not really. Its just better out of sight I believe? I may just change the aerial for a more up-to-date one and replace the exterior coaxial cable as a matter of course? I will say that all ITV channels have now come back on properly.

I don't know if I'm imagining this but what I have noticed is that this problem seems to be more prevalent during the morning period. I will see what happens tomorrow morning now. Strange!!
 
Hi all. I have been thinking about this is issue more detail and had totally forgotten that we have a TV in an upstairs bedroom which is also connected to the same aerial supply via a splitter fitted to the base of the aerial mast in the loft. This TV is rarely used but it is left in permanent 'standby by' mode so that it can be activated by the remote control. I have now disconnected the fly lead from the upstairs TV and it looks like the problem may have gone. I will check this further tomorrow.

Some time ago I remember posting a question regarding having a shock from the aerial and I was wondering whether or not there may be some voltage being generated from the upstairs TV? Not only enough to provide me with a shock, but also enough to create this problem?

The post is here: Question - Shock from aerial cable
 
I despair , that was one of the first questions asked , I'm going to give you a virtual kicking if that solves it , only kidding 🤣 , splitting a coax cable is not a good idea at all .....
 
So sorry paulyoung 666. This splitter must have been added before I moved into the property. I just happened to remember this when going over the layout last night. I'll accept my virtual kicking in the backside. :(

I don't think the splitter is causing the issue but the voltage from the other TV? I suppose I'll have to remove that TV now if I cannot keep it connected to the aerial? Another conundrum to ponder. Thanks guys!
 
I'M IN DESPAIR! I THOUGHT I'D CRACKED IT - BUT NO. THE PROBLEM IS STILL THERE. ALL CHANNELS THAT I PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED ARE STILL BREAKING UP! I'M NOW AT A COMPLETE LOSS
 
Not really. Its just better out of sight I believe? I may just change the aerial for a more up-to-date one and replace the exterior coaxial cable as a matter of course?

Generally, you'll stand a better chance of getting a decent TV reception if your aerial is mounted outside, unless you happen to live in a very strong signal area. If all your neighbours have external aerials, then that might be the way forward.

If you're only feeding one TV, then try and get one continuous coax run from aerial to the outlet because every break or join (eg. your unused splitter) will lead to signal loss. Use modern, good quality, foam-filled (not hollow) coax for the cable run and a good quality fly-lead to connect the TV to the aerial outlet. Making your own from excess coax is likely to be a better option than a cheap one from the likes of Argos or Ebay.

If you want to feed more than one TV, then it would be sensible to use a (powered) distribution amp/splitter in the loft to minimise signal loss. A masthead amplifier is another way of improving and distributing a TV signal but it sounds like you live fairly close to your transmitter, so this might not be needed.

If you put your postcode and house number in the checker on www.freeview.co.uk then click on 'Detailed view' at the bottom of the channel list, it'll give you a bearing in degrees so that you can point your aerial in the right direction. I doubt a phone will be accurate enough - could you borrow a compass ? :D

Some TVs have a built-in signal strength meter so check your TV's set-up menu - this would allow you to adjust the aerial to give the strongest signal. Get help with this or take an old, small TV with a similar feature into the loft.

The site will also give you an indication of what the signal strength will be like for the various muxes and what 'group' (eg. type of) aerial you will need. Note that this may change in the future. There have been changes to Freeview over the years (including some as recently as a few months ago) and it's possible that your current aerial is no longer the right type and/or that a different type of aerial will be more suitable.

Another site to use for this info (and more) is wolfbane.net

As your new TV will have a Freeview HD tuner and you haven't mentioned problems with BBC One HD, then you should be able to watch channels 1-5 in HD without issues as these are all broadcast on the same mux.
 
Thank you for the info. I can confirm all channels transmitted by ITV are at fault. Nothing transmitted by BBC. I think I mentioned this in an earlier post. I was just looking to find a site that would give me accurate details to align my aerial to which should be Sutton Coldfield.

Now. Finding a decent compass. That's a different story?

Looking at the compass on an IPhone it also gives a digital read-out so should suffice. I need to have a bearing of 46 degrees to locate Sutton from my location. I think I'll invest in a decent aerial first and start afresh. Nothing to loose except a few pounds!
 
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Thank you for the info. I can confirm all channels transmitted by ITV are at fault. Nothing transmitted by BBC. I think I mentioned this in an earlier post.

If you're saying that applies to the HD channels, then that can't be right. The HD versions of Channels 1-5 are all broadcast on the same 'mux' which means that if your aerial picks up that mux properly, then you'll receive all of them. Check Freeview channels 101 to 105.

It's the SD versions of those channels that are split across different muxes, which could explain why you might be able to pick up BBC 1, but not ITV 3 (for example).

My instinct is that correctly aligning your loft aerial may not be enough to solve your problem.
 
I have just tried channels 105 through to 105 and nothing at all.??
 
My instinct is that correctly aligning your loft aerial may not be enough to solve your problem.

I am thinking the same , take my case , I live ~25 miles from bilsdale and have clean line of sight , last time I used the aerial which is in the loft hung on 2 bits of string and as old as the hills I got perfect reception , despite it pointing in roughly the correct direction ......

there was a comment earlier about aerials pointing in all different directions , its the same around here , yet all will be using bilsdale , the next nearest transmitter is pontop pike , at least another 15 miles away in completely the other direction ......

to be honest , if it was me , I would be cutting my losses and getting a new aerial and coax , especially as you have no idea how old yours is ........
 
Right everyone. I got up reasonably early today, re-connected the upstairs TV again and waited to see what happened. From around 6:30am the reception for all the aforementioned channels was good but gradually worsened during the morning to a point where it is now unwatchable. This, I hasten to add, is only prevalent on the TV downstairs. The reception on the upstairs TV is absolutely fine. No break up of reception whatsoever. I will also say that the reception gradually improved yesterday from around 4:30 onwards until around 8:00pm when there was no break up of reception whatsoever.

I have no idea why the reception worsens and improves at differing times of the day but, because the fault seems to be only on the downstairs TV, I can only deduce that there is possibly a fault with the coaxial cable feeding the downstairs room? I have ordered a replacement aerial and will replace this, together with the downstairs feed, and go from there. Thank you all for your kind help and I'll let you know what happens once if fitted it
 
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Best guess with the current info is a bad connection at the splitter that’s being aggravated as the temp rises in the loft. Then recovers as the temp falls.

I’d start by trying to take the splitter out of the equation to test. Depending on the connections you may be able to plug the aerial directly into the lead for the downstairs TV. If not you may need a coupler.

 
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