Poor Quality, ok signal strength

[mike82]

Hi

I have installed a bt TV box and unable to watch any Freeview channels. The pixelation is terrible, but if the same aerial and fly lead in to the TV is spot on?

What could the issue be?

[Midnight_Voice]

@mike82 

I take it you’ve looked in Settings/TV Signal Quality on the box, and Signal Strength is 100%, but Signal Quality is less than that?

So it sounds like the signal is too strong. Which might seem paradoxical, but think of someone SHOUTING in your ear, and making it harder to listen, and you’ll get the idea.

Try an attenuator - see this ongoing thread for details:-

https://community.bt.com/t5/YouView-from-BT/Pixelation/m-p/2323795#M74367

[mike82]

Hi

Thanks.

Signal was not quite 100% but above 80% and fluctuating a bit. I'll try the post you suggest. 

[Midnight_Voice]

@mike82 

Signal Quality is what matters. What was that?

But Strength should be 100%, and steady; 80% and fluctuating means poor strength, so you need to check everything back to and including the aerial, for shorts or other shortcomings, and the last thing you need at the moment is an attenuator.

(One of the ongoing problem with YouView boxes is that they max out at 100%, instead of going above that when the signal is too strong, so 100% can be good, or it can be terrible, and drag Signal Quality below 100%. It’s all very confusing unless you have the sort of signal strength tester that professional aerial installers carry).

What and where is your aerial, is it aligned correctly, and is it of the right band for your area?

[TimCurtis]

@mike82 

Signal quality is the important figure and 100% is the aim.

Signal strength is something entirely different and historically the tuners on all the Youview boxes cannot cope with a high strength figure. Something within the range of 80-90% should be good.

You definitely need a variable attenuator which plugs into the back of box and then plug the aerial feed into that. You then start increasing it's resistance until the signal strength figure drops down to an acceptable level and holds steady with the quality figure remaining at 100%.

This has been a very common problem over the years and this is the recommended solution.

[Crimliar]

Playing Captain obvious here, but you'd be surprised how many people manage to mix up the antenna in and out!

[Midnight_Voice]

@Crimliar 

Especially when they are different connectors!