[TelstraClear] Telstraclear Digital TV Performance still sub-par

Forums › One NZ (including Farmside) › [TelstraClear] Telstraclear Digital TV Performance still sub-par

Brambleman

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#22799 8-Jun-2008 20:57

My father-in-law was a TCL analogue TV subscriber and recently purchased a 40" flat screen TV. Telstracelar came round and upgraded his service to digital which included a new decoder and replacing the cable from the pole to the house. However, he remains disappointed at the quality of some of the channels such as TV1, CNN and many others. The picture is fuzzy and at times 'ghosts'. I have been following the CoreHead project progress reports by TCL but dont believe there has been any noticable improvement in clarity of picture.

Is anyone else experiencing this on their flat screen TV? I have checked all the settings and cannot improvement quality any further. I heard a story that as TCL transmitts so many channels, plus supports internet over the same cable, that they 'throttle back' bandwith one some channels for the benefit of others thereby creating poor quality issues. Dont know if that is true though.

Would be great if some can advise me what to do. Perhaps a TCL expert can advise?

Nety

2584 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 5

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#136581 9-Jun-2008 06:29

That does not seem to ring true. There must be something else going on as at least with TV1 the quality is very good now.

How is the STB connected to the TV? A friend of mine got a 50" TV a few weeks ago and when we looked at it for the first time it looked horrible. Turned out it was connected via the AV connection and the STB he had did not have the svideo connector. Telstra came out (no charge) and replaced the STB with one with svideo and it now looks fine.

Still wish they would add component but that is fantasy land me thinks..

Media centre PC - Case Silverstone LC16M with 2 X 80mm AcoustiFan DustPROOF, MOBO Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H, CPU AMD X2 240 under volted, RAM 4 Gig DDR3 1033, HDD 120Gig System/512Gig data, Tuners 2 X Hauppauge HVR-3000, 1 X HVR-2200, Video Palit GT 220, Sound Realtek 886A HD (onboard), Optical LiteOn DH-401S Blue-ray using TotalMedia Theatre Power Corsair VX Series, 450W ATX PSU OS Windows 7 x64

gehenna

8667 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3883

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#136599 9-Jun-2008 08:40

I've had terrible performance with FTA channels on Saturn. TV3 was virtually unwatchable on Friday/Saturday. So much so that the screen regularly goes completely blank - if i change the channel the channel number appears on my blank screen, it goes to the next channel whis is usually fine. When I change back my picture returns on TV3 but 5-10 minutes later it degrades again and then will disappear. sigh.

Nety

2584 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 5

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#136600 9-Jun-2008 08:46

That sounds like you have a signal problem. I would be calling in Telstra and getting them to sort it out.

Brambleman

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#136613 9-Jun-2008 09:19

What is STB? What is the correct way to connect TCL digital TV all the way from the incoming cable (from the street) through the decoder, to the TV. Also, should the VCR be connected via the decoder?

Nety

2584 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 5

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#136620 9-Jun-2008 09:38

Brambleman: What is STB? What is the correct way to connect TCL digital TV all the way from the incoming cable (from the street) through the decoder, to the TV. Also, should the VCR be connected via the decoder?

Sorry STB= Set Top Box, this is the decoder.

Yes you should be connecting the STB to the vcr but on the second output on the STB. So you will have two connections from the STB to the TV. One from the STB direct to the TV and one via the VCR. The one direct from the STB to the TV should use the svideo connector.

As stated if the STB does not have a svideo connector then get Telstra to replace it with one that does. Explain that you have a new wide screen TV.

Also keep in mind that the VCR will not record in widescreen.

gehenna

8667 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3883

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#136626 9-Jun-2008 10:23

Nety: That sounds like you have a signal problem. I would be calling in Telstra and getting them to sort it out.

I dunno, they seem to keep saying there is ongoing degredation of service in the western suburbs. Anyone know if this is the case?

There we go:

Currently, Cable TV and internet customers in Wilton, Wellington will be experiencing loss of or degraded service... Resolved 1600 hours Temporary Fix in place due to Windy conditions. Permenant fix will be implemented on Monday 9th June, 2008

AliExpress

Shop now on AliExpress (affiliate link).

Nety

2584 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 5

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#136631 9-Jun-2008 10:51

OK that sounds like they had an issue in the weekend. Be careful assuming that it is a general problem though. If you have been having issues since before the weekend then I would still be putting a call in.

Brambleman

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#136740 9-Jun-2008 18:37

Cheers for the advice. I will pop round to my father-in-law's and check his setup against the advice provided.

BarTender

3629 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2572

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#136792 9-Jun-2008 21:26

Nety: Still wish they would add component but that is fantasy land me thinks..

You can get Component out, just not using a TCL supplied box :). And it looks great, well, as good as it can on a 29" CRT TV, but I have seen it in comparison to Freeviews Satellite offering and I couldn't notice a difference in quality. Terrestrial is another story though.

At the very lease they should be using Composite not RF, and yes there is a S-Video version of a TCL supplied decoder, you just need to ask them for it.

I doubt TCL will be box-swaping any time soon for anything that would support component, most likely they are holding out for a High Def box with HDMI or DVI when Sky release their HD offering this year, then next year (my bet is on May-June) TCL will come out with a similar offering on Cable. Lets see if they offer a PVR and Non PVR version.... now that would be interesting.