Page 1 of freeview problem

my next door neighbour has an annoying issue with 1 tv and freeviw :(

he has an aerial, (not sure if roof or loft!) the cable goes to a splitter upstairs, goes tv a freeview box, into a vcr via scart, into an old crt tv via rf. all channels fine.

downstairs the lead goes into a panasonic freeview dvd recorder/vcr, connected via scart to an old crt tv. until recently all channels fine, but a little while ago some channels vanished (yesterday, itv 4 i think sand something else), and today, BBC1 and BBC2 picture is excellent, other channels can't be found, ch4 keeps breaking up.

we've retuned several times, have tried a freeview box connected to that tv, same make and model as upstairs one, but not the same physical box, and has same problem as going through the panasonic. tried the freeview straight into back of tv with no improvement.

so I'm a bit confused, that it doesn't seem to be the cabling through the house, as the BBC channels have good quality picture, but ITV ch4 etc don't. But at same time it's odd the upstairs tv is fine.

He is 100% sure that both TVs will definitely be running from same aeriel.

I'm going to dig out an old internal aerial I have to see if that makes any difference.

any ideas? thanks in advance

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This item was edited on Saturday, 5th August 2017, 12:57

Two freeview boxes connected via the one outside aerial is your neighbour's problem.

I have had the same problem, but sorted using a co-ax switch spilter that switches the aerial to only one at a time. I do it this way as the extra TV with freeview box is in the spare bedroom, and switch over if it is used.

What is happening is that by sharing the same aerial you change the resistance of cable route, and this can reduce the signal strength to each freeview box, and can start losing channels, or channel sounds, or get a picture with lines in it on one or both TV's.

Best to have freeview boxes with their own aerial, even if it means having one with an internal aerial (get a free standing digital one).

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Sorry bandi, but that's nonsense. I have one freeview aerial running three TVs, no problem with loss of signal to any of them, using a simple 4-way aerial splitter. Granted the aerial should be strong enough to support it, but if it works it works. And as admars says, it's a recent problem.

Try swapping the cables at the splitter, so the downstairs TV works off the upstairs output and then retune, and if the downstairs TV gets all the channels and the upstairs loses channels, you might need a new splitter.

Take out the upstairs TV, connect the downstairs set directly to the aerial, via some kind of pass through, and if you're still losing channels, it might be the cabling.

EDIT: It also might be worth asking how old the aerial is... They do have a lifespan.
===========================
Jitendar Canth

Quote:
"I thought what I`d do was, I`d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes."

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This item was edited on Saturday, 5th August 2017, 14:34

thanks guys, hopefully we can get to the splitter easily, then we can try taking one box out of the equation, either just by unplugging it, or removing the splitter, and as you suggest try and change which goes downstairs and which upstairs.

https://admars32.wordpress.com/

@Jitendar, sorry, but not nonsense, it depends on your cable layout and distance and most likely freeview box type. Mine are cheapos, £18 out of Argos.

It might not effect or it might effect, as it does mine.
The splitter is the answer for above Admars problem. 

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The splitter does attenuate the incoming signal when it splits it, but that attenuation is equal to all outputs, the cable length shouldn't make that much of a difference. So the signal degradation will be equal to all sets as well. Now some boxes or TVs will deal better with an input than another, but it would be a constant issue, not one that develops suddenly.


I think we're agreeing but in different ways :p

===========================
Jitendar Canth

Quote:
"I thought what I`d do was, I`d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes."

Site Reviewer at DVD Reviewer & MyReviewer

Carving out a niche with a pneumatic drill at Anime @ MyReviewer.com

d'oh working in IT support, I should know to take everything the customer tells me with a pinch of salt, and not believe them until I've started from the beginning myself :(

so, I go into the loft, there 2 cables, one brown, one white coming from the aerial.

Me: Where do those leads go?
neighbour: the white one down through a hole in the ceiling through the airing cupboard for the spare room tv, the brown down through to ground floor, where there's a splitter for the front room, and back room.
me: err, you said the splitter was by the upstairs tv to go to the downstairs one.

Behind the bookcase in the living room, is an aerial wall socket, lead from that goes to a mains powered booster box, with a splitter in one output. the living room tv he just uses the Virgin box, the lead from the splitter goes through the wall to dining room.

so, he moved the bookcase and found that the lead going into wall was a bit loose, so he pushed it in, I retuned living room tv, and dining room VCR/DVDR and got signal rating 10 and a good picture :)

So, glad we fixed it with something easy, just a shame he hadn't explained/didn't know his setup properly



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