House Television Reception
I wonder if those of you that receive terrestrial television via an aerial have problems either all the time or now and then with HD channels 106,107,108. 107 is BBC News HD. All other programmes are fine. Looking online it seems a fairly common problem but I have yet to find a solution. We recently had a new aerial fitted which was meant to cut out interference from 4G masts which didn't exist when our last aerial was installed. We have also had a signal booster installed but the problem persists. We have a fairly recent Sony HD TV and we also have a Humax recorder and the problem exists using either. Seriously wonder if I should get Freesat!
David
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Over this side of the world I'm still running an elderly Panasonic on Freeview via an even older aerial and I'm having no problems at all David. Apart that is from the quality of the programmes of course and the BBC's inability to get the North-west { sometimes referred to as Granada-land } news on their HD channel 101
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Brian
Apart from a handful of local BBC stations none of the rest are HD, we have the same here in MK with Look East and the quality is a long way below HD. I think the BBC deem it as being too expensive to convert the local stations to HD. I can watch BBC News on 231 but again not in HD. I suspect its the different transmitters but there are no faults showing on Sandy Heath.
David
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I thought excluding 4G signals involved putting a filter on the aerial input rather than changing aerials...? I also thought new TVs came equipped with these filters fitted .. ? Its a long time since I last read up on the problem but that is what I recall. Don't think we have any problems here and I am not a million miles away from MK but I rarely watch the terrestial channels. It might be you have an interference problem? Reception here of the terrestial channels is not easy and you need some serious kit to get a good terrestial signal and it maybe the same applies in MK although you are on higher ground than where I am. It may well be better to do as I have and change to Freesat. I can compare transmission profiles and will do to see if that sheds any further light on your reception difficulties but it is a fair bet in my view you are either losing the signals or you have interference.
Have you asked what kind of experience you neighbours are having?
peedee
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David,
There isn't line of sight to the Sandy Heath transmitter which is 23 miles away so the signal will not be be great which is probably why you have a booster. If your aerial rigger wasn't n on the ball and if you haven't got a quality aerial, downleads and booster then I suspect you will struggle with reception. I have a similar problem but have a historic installation comprising a high gain broadband aerial fitted with a mashead preamp feeding a booster and distribution amplifier located in the house to provide terrestial reception from Sandy Heath. This no longer feeds are main TV but does have a very low noise factor and provides good reception
peedee
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There isn't line of sight to the Sandy Heath transmitter which is 23 miles away so the signal will not be be great which is probably why you have a booster.
A closer look shows the Sandy Heath mast is 800ft high which might just be good enough to give line of site to most areas of Milton Keynes. Some of the lower parts, e.g. the Ouzel valley may well still struggle with reception.
peedee
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David have you tried checking out the BBC web site where there is information about HD channel developments, trouble shooting etc. You might find something on there.
This is a basic link but hopefully you'll find updated information. BBC help LINK.
Where we live we find HD is only in partial operation and drops out at certain times, we have to switch back to the usual standard definition.
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TG
106 is BBC 4 HD, 107 is BBC News HD and 108 is Al Jazeera. There are more as well. Interestingly BBC 4 HD tends to show a lot of the Scadi dramas like The Bridge. That channel is a bit more stable than the other two but not reliable enough to set a recording. We can of course watch/record in non HD but the quality is no where near as good. I find Al Jazeera quite interesting as you get news from all around the world often not covered by the BBC.
David
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Peedee
I think a lot of my neighbours have satellite dishes. The other issue is that I am asking quite a narrow question so I wonder how many people regularly watch the channels I mention? When you change channels you briefly see the signal strength bar which is sometimes OK but then disappears and I am just wondering why the signal should be so intermittent? Perhaps the installer has not put a beefy enough aerial up? This problem is a constant source of discussion on the internet on AV forums. I think eventually I will have to go down the satellite route. We could do with a recorded with a larger hard drive capacity so that may as well be a Freesat one!
David
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Location is often the cause of weak terrestrial signal strength and or quality of signal. Even down to adjacent houses having differing issues. We have a Freesat box with wireless internet capacity which turns ours into a Smart TV. It's all we need and also take this in the van. There is also a recorder version available.
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We have one of these on the corner of the windowsill behind the curtain near the TV - very expensive at around £4 I think.
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I have the Sony Bravia Android TV DK, no issues with HD channels. Then again East Yorkshire is flat with nothing obstructive from the mast to my aerial. The TV regularly informs me it’s upgrading to include further channels(150 at last update) which are mainly regular channels with +1 in front, why?, the catchups are enough👍🏻😊
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North Bucks and Beds are hardly mountainous!!!! It sounds as if we have similar TV's as mine has the Android system. What I find both annoying and confusing is that for short periods I can get a perfect picture but within minutes it can disappear. No amount of retuning or factory resets changes this. We do have a bank of trees maybe three hundred metres away in the direct line of the aerial but I would be surprised they would be causing the problem, especially as they are currently de-leafed? The Freesat option looks increasing the way to go as the dish will have a clear view of the sky.
Thanks to everyone else who has contributed.
David
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Living in the north of Lincolnshire, albeit in the Wolds, not particulary mountainous, and close to the Belmont mast we, and some fellow neighbours had issues similar to those described plus several missing channels. This did improve a little over time mind but it's still not as good as other villages close to us. A local installer of aerials and dishes tells us that no amount of money thrown at new or 'better' aerials will improve the situation. It's down to topography and other issues beyond the householders control. Freesat was the answer for us.
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