Frustrated with new TV

[kay4]

We have just upgraded our 1997 2b to a 2007 4b fb, we had a 15" tv, seperate dvd & free view box which took up alot of space and had lots of wires despite working perfectly well and picking up a v.good signal while in Wales where our van is sited. We were very excited to set up our new shiny 22" 'all in one' tv thinking it would be a straight forward swap and we would be able to pick up same channels, how wrong we were! my oh spent practically all sat twiddling with the ariel but to no avail we couldnt get any BBC channels and only managed to pick about 7 or 8 channels. Just cant understand why it doesnt work when our other older tv and fv box picked up most channels. Does anyone have an ideas what we may be doing wrong? I cant see that its the arieal cos we can pick up channels with our other tv, im just afraid when I ring the tech support team they will just say its not the tv and we will have to upgrade our arieal!
Thank you

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

hi Kay.
Its to do with signel strength on the site, your not doing anything wrong. your new shiny TV will have I presume freeview built in most of the sets do not have a signel booster built into the freeview card (inside the set) however because of the way free view boxes work most have a signel booster built in as they are designed to work on domestic ariels that may be just out of phase, old, or pointing in the wrong direction, freeview tv's need a good strong signel in most cases a standard airel is adequate but in weak areas may not work or lose channels,
to test this theory try plugging your old freeview box into your new TV
colin

 

[joeby]

i am guessing your new van has a directional aerial ,some transmitters transmit a horizontal signal and others a vertical signal , try the aerial on both , if its a directional aerial

 

[Dustydog]

Hi Kay
I had the same problem with a new tv a year ago. It's taken me until this month to resolve the problem. We always run the tv via a sky + box using a Maxview dish. However the built in Freeview just wouldn't work nor pick up any digital TV. I was unable to set up the dish on the first day and as usual the freeview wouldn't work either.
I decided to abandon the sky box and for the first time ever I plugged the caravan directions aerial directly into the tv rather than the sky box.
Hey presto up came all the digital tv progs. I'd also noted how others had set their aerials.
Plus just check if your new tv uses an HDML lead connection to the box rather than a scart.

Good luck.

 

[kay4]

Yes we have a directional aerial and we tried it in every direction/position (

 

[kay4]

hi Dustydog (good name by the way). We dont need to use a scart lead as we just plug tv into mains and the outside areial cable. Our TV does have facility for HDML lead connection but what would I connect it to?

 

[kay4]

Hi Colin

Can I use a digibox with a freeview tv? wouldnt it effect the TV?

 

[Dustydog]

Kay
I suspect you may need to refer to the tv makers handbook and ensure you are selecting the correct "on screen" source. You usually gat at least six, eg TV, HDML, Scart, EXT1, 2 etc, DTV Analogue and so on. In my case I need to select DTV to run off the caravan aerial. Have you checked this and also that your aerial booster is turned on and correctly set?
Have you thought of speaking to the TV manufacturers customer helpline people?

 

[SirRogerFFS]

Why do my posts disappear ionto cyber space

 

[Dustydog]

Sir Rog
Maybe your aerial is not pointing in the right direction?

 

[SirRogerFFS]

Dust youve spent too much time with Lord B.
Sir Rog

 

[SirRogerFFS]

Kay . got to menu on tv find add channels press ok
you may find you can do an uninstall if press ok it should give you the option to delete stored channels and do a complete reinstall
Sir Rog

 

[TheotherDave]

It seems that many people are still confused by the 3 different types of TV signal, each of which must be approached in a different way. There are still 2 terrestrial signals available in some parts of the country, plus the satellite signal. Terrestrial & satellite are totally different & require different equipment.
I think everyone appreciates that you need either a ‘freeview box’ or a tv with a built in digital receiver to receive digital tv, the problem comes with the setting up the aerial & tuning the receiver.
With the old analogue system it was relatively easy. You simply pointed the aerial in roughly the right direction, tuned the tv to get a picture & then adjusted the aerial direction to get the best picture. With digital you’ve either got a signal or you haven’t, which creates a problem as it means that the aerial must be pointing accurately in the right direction & the tv tuned correctly to get a signal. Unless you’re lucky you can’t just point the aerial roughly in the direction others are pointing.
I have found 2 ways around this. The easiest is to use the old ‘flying saucer’ type aerial & then just tune the tv, but for this to work you need a reasonably strong signal. Just to complicate the situation it is possible to have too strong a signal & swamp the receiver. Try switching the amplifier to ‘low gain’.
With a weaker signal a directional aerial is required, which brings us back to the problem of accurately pointing the aerial before tuning the receiver. Initially I tied a DVB-T Finder, as sold by many caravan dealers. This has 4 led’s which are meant to show signal strength. I say ‘meant to’ because it often gave the same indication whatever direction the aerial was pointing. As useful as the proverbial chocolate fire guard! Finally I found a ‘PRO TV & SAT SIGNAL FINDER’ made by Fringe Electronics. This has 12 led’s to show signal strength & I find it very easy to accurately align the aerial with this. Then it’s simply a case of tuning the tv, all done & dusted in a few minutes.
Sorry that this is rather long winded, but hope it helps.

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

Hi Colin

Can I use a digibox with a freeview tv? wouldnt it effect the TV?

hi Kay.
yes you can (no it won't/yes it will) confused. ??? read on.
first, forget about analoge signels and consentrate on digital.
2nd, when you plug the aerial into your new TV and turn on it will (or should) look for a digital signal through the freeview source ie, DVB, TV as someone said earlier check this.it is possible however that it is looking for a signal in TV(analoge) it which case it may or may not find all the channels.(or any at all if the transmitter has been turned off) the problems associated with the DVB. TV I outlined earlier,
to test if it is the signal strength connect your old freeview box to your new tv via the lead supplied, question what type of connector has the box to the TV "aerial socket or scart" if it is a TV aerial socket select TV not DVB TV on the source button and it should work if it's a scart connect this first then turn on TV it should detect "scart by default" and also work if it doesnot check the source in in fact scart, if not select manually.
either of the two options above will in effect over ride the internal freeview card.as the signal will be decoded by the seperate box.
also check the vertical and horizontal plane of the aerial and the direction others have theirs set at..
after you have found a good picture and all the channels disconnect the old box from the TV and plug the aerial straight into the socket select DVB tv on the source button and see if the internal card picks up all the channels if it does great job done, if not it shows the internal freeview card is not boosted and will no work on that site (all though it may work on others).
in which case you will have to keep using the old freeview box along with your new TV but at least you will have something to watch.
colin

 

[kay4]

Thank you guys for all your feedback/comments we are off away again on Friday so will give it another go ) (fingers crossed)

 

[SirRogerFFS]

Kay.
First and foremost check and see which way everybody elses telly aerial is pointing and then retune your telly as it maybe if youve set your new tv up at home and you have gone to a different area to your caravan then you will have to retune tv
I would suggest that if you pick up some channels when your at your caravan turn your aerial to get the best picture and then retune tv I feel pretty sure from what you say this will do the trick
Sir Roger

 

[Dustydog]

How right you are Sir Rog.
I and her Ladyship seem to have shared the same Blandford Fly bites!

 

[JonnyG]

Responding to Kays original post.
You clearly had a digital signal, as you stated you got 7 or 9 channels, there are only 5 terrestrial ones.so you were getting a digital signal
We had the same problem at east Runton near Cromer except we could get the BBC ones but not some others. You see, with digital signals unlike terrestrial; ones, several channels are grouped together, so miss one signal and you can miss 3 or 4 channels.
As has been stated earlier, too strong or weak a signal can affect the tuning, as can atmospheric conditions, and caravan parks are not always in the best places for getting tv signals anyway, so it could have been you were on a park which had poor reception.
So its worth checking in future with the park as to how good TV reception is.

 

[hunny1]

We always have problems with our TV when we've set up somewhere new. We have found that we need to retune it every time, by re-doing the first installation. This seems to work every time.

 

[Afyfe]

It depends on which transmitter you tune into.
If you tune into one of the main transmitters you will get all the channels available from that transmitter.
However if you tune into one of the smaller relay station transmitters not all channels are available.
However I would have thought BBC1 etc would be available from the smaller transmitters.

 

[Royston]

Some freeview receivers within Tellys have a stonger reception than others.
I was on site at Ferry Meadows who have tv connections on their power points just plug your areial in , retune your telly and hey presto perfect reception.
I did just this, plugged the aerial into my Telly without a booster and received all the channels, The Caravan along side mine did the same could only get a few channels, it wasnt untill he rerouted through the caravan built in booster system that he could get the same channels as me . Royston,

 

[RichardJ]

Hi
We had a 15" TV, and useed a digi HD DVD box to tune in, this year we bought a 26", digital, tuned in several times, and except for the occasional freezing of the picture, caused by a poor signal.
The actual tuning takes about 3 minutes each time.
When tuning select DVB channels only, that may cure your problem

 

[RichardJ]

Hi
We had a 15" TV, and useed a digi HD DVD box to tune in, this year we bought a 26", digital, tuned in several times, and except for the occasional freezing of the picture, caused by a poor signal.
The actual tuning takes about 3 minutes each time.
When tuning select DVB channels only, that may cure your problem

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

Some freeview receivers within Tellys have a stonger reception than others.
I was on site at Ferry Meadows who have tv connections on their power points just plug your areial in , retune your telly and hey presto perfect reception.
I did just this, plugged the aerial into my Telly without a booster and received all the channels, The Caravan along side mine did the same could only get a few channels, it wasnt untill he rerouted through the caravan built in booster system that he could get the same channels as me . Royston,

hi Royston quite correct and the essence of what I posted 10 days ago the OP has not been back with a summary yet probably still at the van eventually we will establish the cause. MAY-BE

 

[Surfer]

I don't understand why people are tuning in their TVs if they have a receiver box. Surely all you need is a scart lead or a HDMI lead. Then there is no need to tune in the TV every time you go to a different place.
We have a satellite dish and no matter wher we are, we know which way to point the dish and get a perfect signal. In addition you get a whole lot more channels.