[TelstraClear] Telstra Free to Air Signal Clarity over Cable

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wgtnbloke

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#12231 6-Mar-2007 09:32

Hi

I have upgraded to Telstra digital TV.
And I have routed the RF out from the decoder to a second TV.

Using the auto tune on this second TV, it has found all the FTA channels and the decided signal.

However while the decoded signal is sharp - the FTA signals are cloudy and no amount of manual fine tuning will improve it.
FYI - the pic quality is not even as good as my aerial which in Hataitai isnt that great .

My question is - is the pic quality not that hot or is it a fault with my tuning?

Regards

A related question that just occured to me, why for digital TV does the Telstra cable split into both the Decoder and the modem given that the decoder and modem are linked via a ethernet cable. I would have thought the cable would only have to go to the modem.

cyril7

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#62932 6-Mar-2007 09:55

The telstra clear cable operates both an analog transmission, and a DVB-C digital transmission. The FTA channels that your TV has tuned to are just off air analog re broadcasts from KauKau. The Digital STB however tunes when set to TV1 or 2 are getting the signal from the FreeView service on Optus D1, presumably they are transcoded rather than de-rempeg coded thus are of superiour picture quality. I also have noted that the whole analog service on Telstras cable suxs.

The DVB-C STB requires access to the cable to see the DVB-C QAM carriers with all the TV broadcasts on it, the modem also needs the cable to see its DOCCIS carrriers for the internet service. The connection between the TV STB and the cable modem is via ethernet, this carries EPG and PPV information only, not the actual video mpeg data.

It does seem strange that Telstra Clear did not order DVB-C STB's with integral cable modems.

Cyril

sbiddle

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#62934 6-Mar-2007 10:17

What type of TV is the 2nd one? The RF output takes the TCL coax input and then just spits that out to the TV so in effect your 2nd TV is tuning the old analogue cable TV channels and bypassing the decoder. These channels are use CATV channel stepping so it's possible your TV is not tuning the picture in perfectly as it's not capable of doing so.

The picture quality of the old analogue cable TV can also vary a lot depending on your exact location from the TCL cabinet, since the picture is carried as an RF signal over the cable it can suffer from interference or degraded signal quality over distance.

michaeln

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#62939 6-Mar-2007 11:09

cyril7: It does seem strange that Telstra Clear did not order DVB-C STB's with integral cable modems.Cyril

Because the cost of a standard cable modem + standard DVB-C STB was less than the costof a custom DVB-C STB with integral DOCSIS modem. Plus, the minumum order for a newproduction run would be in the hundreds of thousands of units.

cyril7

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#62944 6-Mar-2007 11:33

Micheal, fair enough, however both in Europe and the US boxs with both in seem reasonable common, wouldnt have thought it to be that rare and therefore expensive. But hey you obviously have had somit to do with the procurement of these so I leave that to your experience.

Cyril

wgtnbloke

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#62959 6-Mar-2007 13:19

Hi

My location is in the main drag of Hataitai - Wellington but I am unsure where the Telstra nodes that the RF signal is coming from near me hence it may be a way away.

My second TV is only a cheap Dick Smith sourced "Digitor" but it has always until now had a good picture.
Out of interest I tried the tuner in the Video but also with a similar result.

Ta for answer on why the Modem and Decoder are separate. Makes sense and the modem lights are kind of cool after multiople whiskeys :-)

michaeln

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#63002 6-Mar-2007 17:59

wgtnbloke: HiMy location is in the main drag of Hataitai - Wellington but I am unsure where the Telstra nodes that the RF signal is coming from near me hence it may be a way away.

There is a fibre path to your OTN (Optical Termination Node), which is a small suitcase sized aluminium thing. From there, coax goes out down the street, and a feeder cable taps into that coax to serve your house. As power drops off quite quickly in coax, there are line powered amplifiers spaced along the coax, but not more than 3-4 max in Wellington. The network is designed to a S/N ratio. There should not be any significant degradation in the network on its way to you. If there was, the digital network would become unhappier faster than the analogue (although the digital network does have error correction).

lchiu7

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#63007 6-Mar-2007 18:38

i actually find the analogue cable (unencrypted) quite decent - well at least on TV2 and TV2. TV2 is not that good for a couple of reasons. 1) The source still isn't from D1 and 2) for some reason I have some interference on the channel (random wavy lines) which I have not been able to resolve.

Occasionally I will plug in the coax into my TV tuner card so I can watch and record a FTA channel while the family is watching something else via the cable box. PQ is okay

Larry

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sbiddle

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#63013 6-Mar-2007 20:53

Can anybody with TCL digital tell me what C4 is like these days? My terrestrial C4 feed from KauKau has lost the wavey lines it's had since day 1.

somewhat

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#63022 6-Mar-2007 21:21

On a slightly different note, does anyone know of a NZ supplier of DVB-C tuner cards?, that support (or even better come with) Irdeto CAM's, and has anyone had much luck getting this to decode the signal running in something like MCE? (with a valid TCL smartcard of course!) Getting MPEG straight to the plasma would be cool!

sbiddle

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#63026 6-Mar-2007 21:29

It's unlikely you'll get one working with MCE but you can use a DVB-C card+cam with GB-PVR to watch TCL Digital with a TCL smart card.