All posts by Kay Coleman
Below are all of Kay Coleman's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.MikeP: Thankyou for your response & assistance. The reset you suggested was one the first possible fixes I tried, a few times, when this first began, but it did not help. I even "dismantled" the setup, as in shutting everything down, & disconnecting all the cables, making sure all the connections were clean & undamaged, before putting it back together, but still did no good. I researched it in depth, & tried everything I came across, all to no avail. In the end, it seems to have fixed itself, up to a point. Some days are better than others, it can be fine, with just the occasional flutter, & the "no or bad signal" box popping up, along with strange "snaps", for want of a better word, while other days it is not so good, but nowhere near as bad as it was when the problem first began. The time of day seems to make a difference, too. Like CBS Drama, that is now unwatchable for the most part, but in the early morning, it is ok. I thought the STB was at fault, but as, after a week of constant breakups, with nothing to watch clearly, other than ITV, it suddenly improved, & now the problem is intermittent, I just wondered if something connected to the transmitter had been changed. Now, after having perfect reception on all channels until recently, each time I turn the TV on, it is a gamble as to how good or bad it might be.
| link to this comment |
This is my second post here. Back in September, I abruptly began getting terrible reception on Freeview, when it had worked perfectly up to then. I tried everything, to no avail, but, after almost a week, it resolved itself, & had been ok since then. I still got the occasional "flutter", but I could live with that. However, now it has happened again, & seems even worse this time. Everything was working well, until, 4 days ago, when the picture suddenly began to break up, & got progressively worse, until it was rendered unwatchable. As before, only ITV has remained stable, but this time, even that is bad sometimes. On all other channels, the picture is heavily pixelated, constantly freezes, makes loud buzz-pop sounds, & the "No or bad signal" thing appears repeatedly. Once again, I have tried everything, all the recommended fixes, & even done a factory reset, but nothing helps. What does not make sense is that the reception improves late at night, & in the early morning hours, when it can be quite good, but come around 6:00am, the gradual degradation begins again. I have checked, & there are no transmitter problems reported here. According to the tracker, the mast I receive from is Emley Moor, although I am in Derbyshire, & a short distance from the Nottingham border. (my postcode is DE75 7EX). When I first rescanned my STB, it said there were region conflicts, & I found was a better signal from Yorkshire. When I scan now, it just runs through, & goes straight to Yorkshire, & not given the choice between that & Central, as it did before. I am at my wits' end here, nothing I have tried works, & I am fresh out of options now. I cannot understand why it suddenly deteriorated. I live with relatives who have Sky in the living room, & 4 other HD TVs with built-in Freeview, while my TV is the old style, (with the big back), & I do not think it is HD compatible. My STB is a standard digital. All the other TVs in the house are working well, with perfect reception, so there is no problem with the aerial.This makes no sense. Up until 4 days ago, I just took it for granted that I could turn my TV on, & watch my favorite shows, but now I have to attempt following in snippets, between break-ups & freezing. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
| link to this comment |
MikeB: Thankyou for your response & assistance. As far as I know, I am tuned to Emley Moor, as all the local news channels & weather reports are for the Yorkshire region. I have no other way of knowing. When I moved here from the US 5 years ago, my brother set up the Freeview box, with the TV. For a few months, all was well, but then I started getting serious reception problems. I performed a scan, & at the end, it stated that there were regional conflicts, & gave the choice of Central or Yorkshire. I had been on Central, so I tried Yorkshire, & that immediately fixed the problem. Now, when I have done further scans, I think it goes straight to Yorkshire. When it completes the scan, it just says "Flash saved successfully", & goes back to the channel it was previously tuned into. I feel I have tried everything, but it just seems to be getting worse, & my reception is now so bad & corrupted, it is virtually unwatchable. Now, along with the "No or bad signal" box constantly appearing, sometimes it says "HD TV is not available", when neither my TV or STB are HD. Strangely, though, for a few hours in the early mornings, from around 1:00am, I can get really good reception, until around 6:00am, when the degradation begins again. Initially, the problem abruptly occurred while I was actually watching TV, the picture began to suddenly break up, & has not recovered, & it has been almost 2 weeks now. I am sure the TV & the STB are ok, or it would be bad all the time, with no early hours respite, when everything can be perfect. My aerial cable leads through a hole in the wall, into the master bedroom, where it shares a splitter with the TV in there, which has perfect reception. We tried swapping the connections, & that did not help. Yesterday, I tried another aerial cable we know is good, in my STB & TV, from a good connection in another room, but that was still to no avail, the reception was as bad as ever, so it cannot be my cable at fault. I have checked my signal strength on the channels, & they are all very low. I cannot understand why only my TV is affected. All the other TVs in the house have perfect reception, while mine is totally messed up. I just want to be able to watch TV again, something everyone else I know takes for granted, & I can't. This is so frustrating, there must be a reason, & some way of fixing it.
| link to this comment |
MikeB: I think my problem is beyond help, for the last couple of days, it has been bad on all channels, even ITV is messed up, with no early hours respite now, anywhere. Has progressively worsened, & nothing seems to work towards fixing. Must be gremlins at work :(
| link to this comment |
MikeB: Thankyou for your suggestion. However, I do not have a PVR connected to the TV, I just have an old - style, deep-back TV, with a digital STB. Neither are HD, & the TV does not have Freeview built in. We tried it with another aerial lead, tested as good with another TV, from a secure connection in another room, but the problem was not resolved, my reception was as bad as ever. The part I cannot understand is sometimes, as well as the "No or bad signal" notification, sometimes it says "HD TV is not available", which makes no sense. Now my reception has gone from pretty bad, to totally unwatchable since the weekend, it has just gotten progressively worse. Occasionally I will get a watchable reception on ITV & CH 4, at around 3:00am, but otherwise, nothing. A week or so ago, I could still watch some channels, but now they are all messed up. This problem started out- of- the- blue one day while I was watching, 2 weeks ago, up to which time it had worked perfectly, so I do not know what to think, or what else I can do. I have just looked on the setup menu, but there is no part about telling the box to continue passing through the signal when it is on standby.
| link to this comment |
MikeP: I apologize for being such a dunce with these things, I am just lost. I have checked, rechecked & checked again my coaxial cables & connections, plugs, AC outlets, & the splitter box the cable shares with the TV set in the master bedroom, & they are all completely secure & in good condition. We have tried another, good coaxial cable, tested successfully on another TV, from a good, secure connection in another room, with my TV & set top box, but that did not solve the problem. I found the channel list for Emley Moor, there are 9 listed, channels 47, 44, 41, 51, 52, 48, [32], 34, 56. It states that channel 32 is used by 11 digital transmitters. However, this is where I draw a blank. The TV set in my room is not HD, & does not have built-in Freeview, it was already here when I moved in, is several years old, & any user manual it may have had is long-lost. I have just checked out the manual tuning section on my STB, which has a list from 21 to 69, & the signal strength on all of them is very low. It gives the frequency, (KHz), for each. Is this what you need to know? The bandwidth given for each is 8 throughout. The quality gauge fluctuates rapidly between 0% & 100% on most. Am I looking in the right place here? If not, I do not know where else I can find anything. I really do not know how to check if I am correctly tuned to Emley Moor. I am sorry for putting you to so much trouble. I just want to watch my favorite shows again, & this is very frustrating
| link to this comment |
I hope you can help. I have a fairly new TV with built-in Freeview. Up until 3 weeks ago, I lived in location DE75 7EX, & received Yorkshire tv through the Emley Moor transmitter. I always received good reception, & the full list of channels. When I moved, just 3 miles, to DE5 3FT, which I have learned is on the Sutton Coldfield transmitter, my tv asked for a rescan, where it changed to East Midlands. When the scan was completed, at least 9 channels were missing, including Pick, Sony Crime, Really, & Quest Red. I tried several rescans, to no avail. I called Freeview support, & they tried a few things, & talked me the through trying a few things, but nothing worked. After almost an hour, they said they were "stumped", & could not help. This is very frustrating. Otherwise, the reception is perfect on the channels I can still get. I do hope someone here can help. I am beginning to think I might have to relent & get Sky, which I can ill afford.
| link to this comment |
Wednesday 18 October 2017 10:59AM
Heanor
I have one of the old style TVs, & use a Freeview set top box. Until a couple of weeks ago, it worked perfectly, but then one day the picture began to break up, pixelate, along with making strange electronic squeaking sounds. It gradually became worse, until it was unwatchable. Strangely, ITV & Channel 4 were perfectly clear. Researched it, & tried, looked into everything, to no avail. However, after a week, it settled down by itself, & it is much better, with just the occasional breakup & flickering. Still, though, some channels have remained bad, particularly CBS Drama & CBS Action. In the evening they are unwatchable, but are randomly better, though then the reception is not particularly good. I live with relatives who have Sky in the living room, but all the other TVs in the house have built in Freeview, mine is the only one with a set top box. No-one else has any problems, so the aerial is OK. Could this be due to changes made to the transmitter? The postcode I am at is DE75 7EX