UKC

Can anyone shed any light on this?!

My digital tv is fine 95 (maybe even 98%) of the time. But very occasionally the signal breaks down or fails entirely (like now, hence the grumpy post).

If it's fine the vast majority of the time then I don't believe it's a tv or ariel problem, does anyone have any other suggestions?!

It is *always* during very high viewing programmes.

Oh and I share an ariel with the flat above... could they be 'pinching' the signal?'

In reply to ClimberEd:

OKay, this is def happening! 9.59, Downton Abbey and Spooks end, and my signal comes back....wtf

In reply to ClimberEd:

My guess is it would depend on where the split is on your shared aerial. It might be possible that rather than 'pinching' signal, some of your upstairs neighbour's equipment is introducing noise to your aerial.

In reply to ClimberEd:

there is increasing evidence of interference being caused by power line data communications adaptors (eg comtrend etc) as used by the likes of BT Vision - see if they are using this stuff.

Broadcast interference problems have been shed by OFCOM to the BBC.


We have PLT interference at our location on HF and VHF/FM and also lost TV when temporary radio controlled traffic lights were installed.

We've also found digital TV prone to become useless when it's windy, where analogue would just have been a bit blurry

In reply to ClimberEd: Check how the signal is being split. It should really be done with a powered amplifier/splitter which maintains the signal strength to both TVs rather than splitting the power between them (so each gets <50%). This also avoids any noise being coupled back from their TV into yours.

Digital TV uses a complex encoding scheme to reduce the amount of data being sent - and some programs have more action, so these either have to be compressed more, or the other channels which they share with (since all your normal BBC channels are shared on a single frequency) have to be compressed more. Part of the compression is to only send a full picture every few frames, and between those to only send the bits that change. Hence in a weak signal area, or if there is some noise which corrupts the data, the TV has to wait for the next full frame to appear before it can display a valid picture. It may either blank the screen or freeze the last good picture while it waits for good data.
Denzil

In reply to Denzil:

Thanks, will do. Seems like that is the problem (waiting for good data....)