I have been receiving my freeview signals from the Midhurst Transmitter (Sussex) for a few years now without any issues. A few weeks ago we lost a group of channels (dave, pick tv etc) due to low or no signal. This week another group of channels (Film 4, itv4 etc) has gone to low signal, so sometimes they're watchable an other times they have no signal.

I have tred a full re tune on one pvr box, but this has made no difference. The digital switchover is due at the beginning of March, so I'm wondering if this is problem is part of the build up to the changeover.

Anyone else having similar issues?

Is your aerial still lined up correctly? What signal and error values are being reported by your equipment?

Is your aerial still lined up correctly? What signal and error values are being reported by your equipment?

Well the aerial is still on the roof and looks OK, without getting a meter and checking the alignment I would say it's OK.

We use Humax pvr boxes and the signal detection menu shows 85% strength and quality 100% on BBC1, 2, itv1 etc.

Today on the bad reception channels it's showing 69% strength and the quality between 40 - 50%. when the quality drops below 40% the picture & sound start to break up.

When freeview first started I had a local installer set up the aerial and we have never had a problem until recently.

Looking on the freeview website it shows the Group c for the channels that went first and group D for the channels that are now giving a poor reception.

The BBC have a number you can ring to complain about reception problems. Why not do that?

Try using a wideband aerial, you can get them from Amazon for under £25, you will need to use an f-plug connector or two. The number of them that I've seen around & about must be testament to their quality.

The one to look for is the: Mux Magician digital wideband aerial with full installation kit

I've got one ready for the full switchover in a few weeks at Guildford, I've also got a 6' monster for locking onto Hannington transmitter as well, which gives us Meridian Broadcasting & BBC South Today, which is far better than the crap from BBC London.

Try using a wideband aerial, you can get them from Amazon for under £25, you will need to use an f-plug connector or two. The number of them that I've seen around & about must be testament to their quality.The one to look for is the: Mux Magician digital wideband aerial with full installation kitI've got one ready for the full switchover in a few weeks at Guildford, I've also got a 6' monster for locking onto Hannington transmitter as well, which gives us Meridian Broadcasting & BBC South Today, which is far better than the crap from BBC London.

We have a high gain aerial and as I said it's only in the last few weeks that we've had any issues. I'm just down the road from you in Godalming, but we use the Midhurst transmitter as it's a better signal than Hogs Back / Crystal Palace. Fortunately I live on the top of a hill so we normally get a good signal. I also have a high gain aerial set up for Crystal palace, but Midhurst is still a stronger signal.

Hoping all is resolved when the switchover takes place and they wind up the power.

So why are you aiming your aerial at CP when you should be aiming it at the Hogs Back? :wonder:

Aerial .... What the hell is an aerial

Most of the ITV channels coming off Crystal Palace have been down on power for the last two months. . totally pixellated. Some days they've actually moved stations into temporary locations up in the 300 end.

Its all work associated with the April close down of analogue in the London area (last to do it).

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/219597-whats-happened-to-freeview-in-north-west-london/page__p__2635913__fromsearch__1#entry2635913

Despite re-tuning a couple of times since that early post, nothing has changed. I think the providers are intending that we will have to put up with it till April.

Nick

Not all of us are connected to cable & nor do I want to be connected to the bearded ers network either.

My sky box is going too @ £50+ pcm its too expensive.

So why are you aiming your aerial at CP when you should be aiming it at the Hogs Back? :wonder:

The 'other' aerial is set up for the hogs back or Crystal palace, whichever had the strongest signal, the hogs back is on a relay transmitter and not very powerful, so I left it to the installers discretion.

The Hogs back transmitter aka Guildford is the second most powerful transmitter in the CP relay network @ 10.5kw.

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/reception_advice/index.asp.html

I'm tuned into the Whitehawk transmitter in the office, but have Virgin Media in the lounge.

The changeover dates in the Brighton area are 7th and 21st march.

Try moving your areal to a different transmitter. This needs to be done by a qualified areal engineer, I do not want anyone climbing onto their own roofs, its unsafe.

The reception has been much better today on the poorer signal channels.

I received this response from the ukfree.tv site.

I cant really see anything that can be done to help the situation, as you have said that an amplifier is already being used and no other station is indicated as being possible to receive, and that includes Guildford (except for BBC) at only 4 miles away, which to me suggests you reside in a problem area for reception.

Not all of us are connected to cable & nor do I want to be connected to the bearded ers network either.

My sky box is going too @ £50+ pcm its too expensive.

Is that with all the movies? I pay that for HD, phone and broadband.

Is that with all the movies? I pay that for HD, phone and broadband.

No. Don't have movies, they're a waste of time, I don't have the time to watch them either. It's the full sports package.

If you can live without sports you can knock £20 off that.

Just an update, I re-tuned the one pvr box this morning and the channels in the group with Dave etc all came back with a signal strength of around 50% and quality of around 40%. Now I wondering how much the recent weather has affected the signal.