Likely cause of missing TV3/4 FreeviewHD?

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garethw

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#27064 12-Oct-2008 19:04

Hi all,New Bravia, built in FreeviewHD. It's only picking up 5 Digital channels - TVNZ ones on Channel 29. Quality there is High. We do get Prime just fine on Analogue so presuming there is a UHF aerial (in an apartment block).
Is it likely a signal quality thing? Tried to manually tune to 32/33 for Canwest channels but it picked up nothing.
Will call aerial install company for the building but thought I'd check for anything else first.
Thanks,Gareth.

sbiddle

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#170762 12-Oct-2008 19:21

If you're in an apartment block with it's own distribution system and in Auckland then odds are the distribution system is the cause. You're probably about the 5th or 6th person on here from Auckland who has had the same issue. Wouldn't surprise me if all these systens were installed by the same company.

The channels for the Mediaworks MUX are being blocked or being used for something else (? cctv camera channels) so can't be picked up by your TV. The only solution is to maybe try an internal aerial if you're somewhere that could have good coverage if you can't convince the body corp or building owner to get their system fixed.

garethw

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#170781 12-Oct-2008 20:49

Thanks very much sbiddle (I won't type what I said about our building's installer!). We do have a single distribution system (feeds not only aerial reception but satelitte feed for Sky as well etc through the single point) but no CCTV that I know of. So much on there it wouldn't surprise me if there's noise along those lines. I briefly got Maori/Parliament/HD-Test etc but that went too...
Any of those people that have gone through similar would be great - comments on DSE-type internal UHF aerials would be good too. I'm pretty confident we have good UHF reception - there's a building to the west of us but beyond that is straight line visibility out to the Waitaks.
I'll wander down to DSE tomorrow and get one - the TVNZ channels looked fantastic (compared to normal SD on LCDs) so itching to get it all up and running. Sky SD doing fine for now...

sbiddle

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#170785 12-Oct-2008 21:16

It's not a case of noise - there will be a signal such as one of the Sky channels being modulated onto the channel used by the MediaWorks MUX.

There was a DSE internal aerial that a few ppl on here have had success with, if you do a search you'll find all the other posts on this topic.

It's really up to these people to fix their dodgy installs - somehow I doubt they will and will blame Kordia.

cyril7

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#170809 13-Oct-2008 06:56

It's really up to these people to fix their dodgy installs - somehow I doubt they will and will blame Kordia.

In Aus at the moment the guvment is sorting a stategy to fix all these MDU systems that dont support DTT, over there MDUs are a much larger issue as so many people live in apartments, but they are estimating several $100m to sort it all out, something no one ever budgeted on, but its just dawned on them they cannot turn off the analog network till its fixed, well Duh.

Cyril

1gkar

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#170944 13-Oct-2008 20:31

cyril7:
It's really up to these people to fix their dodgy installs - somehow I doubt they will and will blame Kordia.

In Aus at the moment the guvment is sorting a stategy to fix all these MDU systems that dont support DTT, over there MDUs are a much larger issue as so many people live in apartments, but they are estimating several $100m to sort it all out, something no one ever budgeted on, but its just dawned on them they cannot turn off the analog network till its fixed, well Duh.

Cyril

It should never have had to have been budgeted for.

Why do you think the building industry -in most countries- have major issues. Because all projects are tendered for...via quotations. & the quoting methodology has an inherent flaw: it is usually based off the lowest price. Given that any installer has a minimum hourly rate -for break-even, & materials are set at a fixed minimum procurement cost, there are only two areas for improving profit gains: installing cheap, crappy materials & taking installation shortcuts, often illegal. As an honest tradesman, I see this all too often.

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cyril7

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#171008 14-Oct-2008 06:58

Ahhh, dont actually agree, the reason why MDUs have issues is the way they are designed. In a single dwelling the whole spectrum is recived, split and maybe some small level of amplification applied, and it all should work.

In a large MDU situation due to the large cable and splitter losses if you were to apply the needed amplification without filtering out only the channels you need before amplification then things go wrong. Also some MDU systems use transmodulators from satellite services to once again control what signals are within the system.

The issue is that the above technique is good if nothing changes, but each time a new channels is added, or complete new service then a truck must roll. Its not poor workmanship, its good techniques applied to a solution that has some negatives, ie low flexibility.

Cyril

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garethw

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#171023 14-Oct-2008 09:33

Well a DSE amplified indoor aerial has solved it (although it needed quite specific placement) so thanks for the help. Interestingly I'm not getting great Analog UHF reception through it, but fortunately still have the Sky Digital box so getting to Prime that way.

After years of refusing to come off my Loewe CRT because SD transmissions just looked so average on LCD/Plasma I'm pretty impressed by both this TV and specifically FreeviewHD into it. Now if RapalloAV just get me that HDMI cable I'll be giving Blu-Ray/1080p gaming business a full go!

Cheers for the help...

sbiddle

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#171024 14-Oct-2008 09:39

garethw:Interestingly I'm not getting great Analog UHF reception through it, but fortunately still have the Sky Digital box so getting to Prime that way.

Digital signals are far more robust and aren't directional like analogue transmissions. The SFN network also creates an even stronger signal due to it's multipath transmission.

As a rough guideline if you can get Prime you will get Freeview|HD. You will be able to get a rock solid Freeview|HD picture however with signal levels so low that Prime would be completely unwatchable and snowy.

garethw

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#171026 14-Oct-2008 09:43

Right, well another plus for Freeview then!
Suggests you were bang on with the distribution system issue as well - rock solid analogue Prime signal from that but blocked Mediaworks MUX.

1gkar

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#171097 14-Oct-2008 16:20

cyril7: Ahhh, dont actually agree, the reason why MDUs have issues is the way they are designed. In a single dwelling the whole spectrum is recived, split and maybe some small level of amplification applied, and it all should work.

In a large MDU situation due to the large cable and splitter losses if you were to apply the needed amplification without filtering out only the channels you need before amplification then things go wrong. Also some MDU systems use transmodulators from satellite services to once again control what signals are within the system.

The issue is that the above technique is good if nothing changes, but each time a new channels is added, or complete new service then a truck must roll. Its not poor workmanship, its good techniques applied to a solution that has some negatives, ie low flexibility.

Cyril

OK. Thanks for the insight, Cyril. Much appreciated.