DishTV Freeview Decoder is affected by WiFi Router

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jimbob79

657 posts

Ultimate Geek

#148853 2-Jul-2014 22:41

For many years I have had problem with my FreeView Decoder DBTV DishTV with some channels having a scrambled picture, affecting mostly the +1 (i.e. TV3 plus one ) channels (98% Signal Strength/87% Signal Quality), others channels are OK with no problems.

Well I was thinking about this problem tonight and I thought it could have something to with TP-LINK Wifi Router, so I turned it off. Instantly I had perfect picture with absolutely no jitter or scrambling.

I re-powered the wifi router and in a few seconds the TV picture was back to it's old crappy 3 year old's mosaic picture.

So I investigated more and move the wi-fi router further away unplug all the networking cables, except the power. Same problem, picture became scrambled again within a few seconds. So I move the wifi router even further away from the TV decoder, about 9 meters away. Guess what, same problem.

Could it be possible that the single UHF aerial on my roof is somehow picking up the WiFi signal and affecting the +1 channels???

Also the strange thing is that I have el-cheapo VEON TV in the kitchen and that's not effected by the wifi router at all. Very confusing.

And another thing, I have a pair of 2.4Ghz Panasonic DECT phones, and they too are not affected by the wifi router.

Are DishTV decoders just s**t?

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622 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1078979 2-Jul-2014 23:14

well UHF is between 300 MHz and 3 GHz (3,000 MHz), and wifi is 2.4 ghz I guess it can conflict

its the same when microwave is on.. loss of router access if its between your laptop/device and router

is 2.4 is microwave band

I think my wifi router can mess up my phone reception too,. got so many blind spots in the house

as phone uses that band as well ? nope its 2g so it should be 900/1800mhz so must be
something else like poor towers and strenght out my way?

i guess its all about shielding the inverse square law.. if an antenna direction is pointing at router too.

kiwigeek1

622 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1079003 2-Jul-2014 23:39

just another thought.. have you tried changing your routers channel to higher or lower numbers to see if
it interferes less? some auto select channel

could even try a farade cage around the tv box ... wire mesh like in a microwave door.. holes are designed
for it..

old microwave door place one side of box.. be a good experiment.. plenty of old microwaves about
we have like 6 in our house lol

charsleysa

597 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1079015 2-Jul-2014 23:55

To add to this, remember that your coaxial cable is most likely unshielded so it's susceptible to close range interference such as power cabling. If your power cabling and coaxial cabling happen to run near/beside/parallel to each other than feedback from the router being plugged in could be traversing your power cabling, crossing over to your coaxial cabling and interfering with your signal.

If you want to see whether it's the WiFi or whether it's the router, turn off the WiFi signal while leaving the router on and plugged in. If you're still getting interference then it's because of the router causing feedback on the power cabling.

Regards
Stefan Andres Charsley

Apsattv

1660 posts

Uber Geek

#1079047 3-Jul-2014 05:15

Turn off the WIFI on the router see if that changes anything?

It is possible that your wifi transmits a spurious signal in the low UHF TV band that upsets one mux of channels.

Try changing the output channel to a higher or lower one.

Spyware

2495 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1079053 3-Jul-2014 06:30

kiwigeek1: well UHF is between 300 MHz and 3 GHz (3,000 MHz), and wifi is 2.4 ghz I guess it can conflict

its the same when microwave is on..

UHF TV band used in NZ is 518 to 806, E27 through E62, band used for DVB-T/T2 is chopped at channel 50 though. No DVB-T tuners would accept anything above E69, around 862 MHz.

Spark FibreMAX using Mikrotik CCR1009-8G-1S-1S+. UAP, UAP AC Pro, UAP AC Pro Mesh, Apple TV 4, Apple TV 4K, iPad Air 1, iPhone 6s, VodaTV Gen 2. If it doesn't move then it's data cabled.

jimbob79

657 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1079109 3-Jul-2014 08:55

kiwigeek1: just another thought.. have you tried changing your routers channel to higher or lower numbers to see if
it interferes less? some auto select channel

I try setting the Wi-fi frequency to a different channel tonight.

jimbob79

657 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1079110 3-Jul-2014 08:59

charsleysa: To add to this, remember that your coaxial cable is most likely unshielded so it's susceptible to close range interference such as power cabling. If your power cabling and coaxial cabling happen to run near/beside/parallel to each other than feedback from the router being plugged in could be traversing your power cabling, crossing over to your coaxial cabling and interfering with your signal.

We had major renovations about 4 years ago and had new shielded coaxial cable installed. If it was a close range interference thing I would imagined it would effect all the digital channel and not just the +1 channels.

jimbob79

657 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1079112 3-Jul-2014 09:00

kiwigeek1: just another thought.. have you tried changing your routers channel to higher or lower numbers to see if
it interferes less? some auto select channel

could even try a farade cage around the tv box ... wire mesh like in a microwave door.. holes are designed
for it..

old microwave door place one side of box.. be a good experiment.. plenty of old microwaves about
we have like 6 in our house lol

I've got some chicken wire down in the garage.

B1GGLZ

1959 posts

Uber Geek

#1079119 3-Jul-2014 09:06

jimbob79:

Are DishTV decoders just s**t?

Given many other problems DishTV products currently seem to have - probably?
You always get what you pay for.
Two options come to mind.
A. Dump the Dish TV and get a Freeview TV or recorder.
B. Try another brand of WiFi Modem/Router.

P.S. Another thing to look at is your antenna cable from wall socket to the DishTV box. Some of those are pretty poor quality coax with dubious connectors. Try another good quality one.

B1GGLZ

1959 posts

Uber Geek

#1079125 3-Jul-2014 09:10

charsleysa: To add to this, remember that your coaxial cable is most likely unshielded

Coaxial cable is always shielded (inner conductor contained in an outer shield). That's why it's called coaxial. It's just the quality of the shielding that varies and why quad shield rg6 is so good.

timmmay

15954 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#1079131 3-Jul-2014 09:16

If all your devices support 5GHz perhaps you could turn off the 2.4GHz access point?

jimbob79

657 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1079174 3-Jul-2014 10:03

B1GGLZ:
jimbob79:

Are DishTV decoders just s**t?

Given many other problems DishTV products currently seem to have - probably?
You always get what you pay for.
Two options come to mind.
A. Dump the Dish TV and get a Freeview TV or recorder.
B. Try another brand of WiFi Modem/Router.

P.S. Another thing to look at is your antenna cable from wall socket to the DishTV box. Some of those are pretty poor quality coax with dubious connectors. Try another good quality one.

Ideally I would like to upgrade to a whole new TV.
The TV wall Sockets are PCL. For the extra cost, I thought PCL was a good brand. Tonight I'm borrowing a somebody else FREEVIEW decoder (not sure what brand) and try and do a side-by-side comparison.

My gut feeling it's the decoder that is at fault.

B1GGLZ

1959 posts

Uber Geek

#1079177 3-Jul-2014 10:14

jimbob79:

The TV wall Sockets are PCL. For the extra cost, I thought PCL was a good brand. Tonight I'm borrowing a somebody else FREEVIEW decoder (not sure what brand) and try and do a side-by-side comparison.

I meant the antenna cable that runs from the STB to the wall socket. The socket itself will be OK. Try swapping with the cable from your other TV. That should eliminate the cable (or not).

jimbob79

657 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1079209 3-Jul-2014 10:36

B1GGLZ:
jimbob79:

The TV wall Sockets are PCL. For the extra cost, I thought PCL was a good brand. Tonight I'm borrowing a somebody else FREEVIEW decoder (not sure what brand) and try and do a side-by-side comparison.

I meant the antenna cable that runs from the STB to the wall socket. The socket itself will be OK. Try swapping with the cable from your other TV. That should eliminate the cable (or not).

It's another experiment to try tonight. Might even have to try and make a custom TV cable with some leftover RG6 cable.

jimbob79

657 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1079216 3-Jul-2014 10:44

timmmay: If all your devices support 5GHz perhaps you could turn off the 2.4GHz access point?

The WiFi router is quite a few years old now but it's so fricking reliable, unfortunately it does not have the 5GHz capabilities.

In the words of Dave Jones; "For all of you who are playing along at home." it's a TP-Link TL-WR642G, Wireless Access Point, 108Mbps, 802.11b/g (September 2006)

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