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Signal Quality & Signal Strength

Caher — Mon, 07 Jun 2021 16:15:39 GMT

Hello,

On some channels, such as BBC News HD I get constant drop outs (Freeview). I noticed that signal strength can be 97% but quality drops to 7%. I've tried to retune several times but to no avail. I just the annoying Your Signal is Lost dialog box. Constantly.

Can this be fixed?

Thanks

Re: Signal Quality & Signal Strength

TimCurtis — Mon, 07 Jun 2021 16:27:51 GMT

@Caher

It's entirely possible that you have a too higher signal strength and that the Youview box's tuners are being overloaded.

The solution to this is to fit a variable attenuator into the input aerial connection of the box & then the aerial feed into that. Slowly adjust the attenuation until the signal strength drops to , say, 90% and see the effects of that.

I know that this seems counter-intuative but there have been numerous posts on here over the past years and this has been the solution.

On non-HD channels eg, BBC1 (channel 1) , what figures do you get?

Re: Signal Quality & Signal Strength

Caher — Mon, 07 Jun 2021 18:09:25 GMT

HI,
Thanks for replying. I am actually using an attenuator as i read on the perils of too strong a signal so for most channels I have tuned it down to 90% but there is a couple which do not seem constant on that they vary so much in signal quality.

Re: Signal Quality & Signal Strength

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Jun 2021 20:00:09 GMT

BBC News HD is carried on the Freeview COM7 temporary multiplex. All of the transmitters that carry COM7 do so on UHF channel 55. What this means in practice is that when there are periods of enhanced propagation you could well be receiving a signal from more than one transmitter and they will interfere with each other. Hence you are seeing a strong signal indicated, (the sum of the signals), but your TV or BT TV box cannot decode it due to the interference, so indicates a low signal quality.

When deciding how much time and effort you put in to resolve this, bear in mind that COM7 will close by the end of June 2022 to make way for EE 5G. What will happen to the channels currently on COM7 has not been publicly announced yet.

Re: Signal Quality & Signal Strength

Caher — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 19:12:50 GMT

Well no Freeview at all today I guess atmospherics are affecting it. Pity we cannot use Freesat with a YouView.

Re: Signal Quality & Signal Strength

Shyboy — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 10:55:05 GMT

I had this issue. I was loosing BBC HD (and other HD channels) on a frequent basis. The issue in my case was found to be that the 4G mobile phone frequency is very close to some HD channels (especially BBC HD news) and causes interruptions while watching tv.

I solved the problem by fitting a 4G interference filter (fits between the aerial and tv) and so far this has resolved the problem.

Re: Signal Quality & Signal Strength

Caher — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 14:53:49 GMT

thanks, I'll try that.