Help please, cannot watch Prime

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alchemyst

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#42881 13-Oct-2009 13:49

Hi

I have a Sony Bravia 40V4000 with built in Freeview HD tuner and live in Hillcrest in Auckland. I'm using and outdoor UHF aerial.

All of the available freeview channels show up in the EPG but when I try selecting Prime, Maori TV, Chinese TV, etc, nothing happens. If i try to key in their corresponding channel number using the remote's key pad i just get the "Programme number is not available" message.

I can watch channel 1, 2, 3, C4, 6 and 7 just fine and the TV reports a high signal strength, the aerial is quite high up.

I believe the channels i cannot watch are on the Kordia network, does anyone know why I cannot receive them?

I'm wondering if it's a problem with the TV's build in tuner or just poor reception.

I have tried to rescan all of the channels several times with no luck and unfortunately i don't have an external tuner or another TV I can test it with.

Any help would be most appreciated.

cyril7

9058 posts

Uber Geek

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#263661 13-Oct-2009 13:59

Hi, do you live in a MDU/Apartment building or single dwelling (ie is the antenna shared). In the service menu of the Sony you can see the error rates etc of the mux you are watching, what error rates are reported when watching TV1 and then TV3 (to see those two seperate muxs)

How old is your antenna, is it pointing in the right direction (presumably Waiatarua), what is the cabling like and is it a single run of cable or is it split, if split what type of splitters. Is the cabling RG6 or RG59, or something worse.

Cyril

alchemyst

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#263678 13-Oct-2009 15:44

HI Thanks for your reply.

I live in a single building, the aerial is not shared and is dedicated to one tv in the house. The aerial is on a long poll so its quite high up in the air.

For the service menu, do you mean the special hidden menu which can only be accessed by pressing a certian key combination on the remote? or do you mean the part of the user menu that reports technical information on the TV, such as signal strength, software version, etc? I would rather avoid going into the hidden service menu as i dont know my way around it, don't want to screw it up.

Sorry i don't have any idea of the antenna's age as we have only recently purchased the property.

The Aeria doesn't point towards Waiatarua, it points to Pinehill, although its slightly off, the houses next to us also point towards Pinehill but more directly.

Actually now that you mention about cable, I did join two bits of cable together as the cable coming down from the antenna was too short to reach the TV so I rather crudely meshed another 5 meters to it, both cables are RG6. Anyway thats something I can check.

I'll try and get error rates, check the cable that I joined together and then we'll see.

cyril7

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#263693 13-Oct-2009 16:26

Hi, yes the menu is just the system info one that reports various details including AGC and BER levels, they are not in a protected area of the menus.

Yes Pinehill is the correct transmitter for you, when you start getting non line of sight the orientation and height of the antenna can significantly effect reception in a channel selective manner, ie some parts of the spectrum can disappear.

I recommend you join the cables correctly, poor terminations will cause both reflections and signal loss that can easily result in dropping part of the band below the digital threshold.

Cyril

Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#263843 14-Oct-2009 10:53

alchemyst: I did join two bits of cable together as the cable coming down from the antenna was too short to reach the TV so I rather crudely meshed another 5 meters to it

Here's a short how-to guide on Joining two lengths of coax cable