Digital TV Reception

slug · Post by **slug** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 10:24 am

OK - nothing to do with fishing, but it is electronic

Has anyone noticed a decline in the 'stability' of digital TV signal in Darwin over the past few weeks, or is it just my $hit antenna ready to blow off the roof?

I've got a digital TV, a digital PC tuner, and 2 set top boxes - all connected to the one antenna. For the past 6 months, other than the odd 'boxy flicker' (anyone who has watched digital will know what I mean) in general all have been pretty stable. Over the past few weeks it has gotten to the point of being almost unwatchable at times

Don't know if it is my end (antenna blowing in the wind??) or signal end (antenna blowing in the wind??).

Anyone else having reception 'issues'

NathanL · Post by **NathanL** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 10:48 am

Yes we have been here - for about the past month.

We thought it was just our antenna?!

Blinky · Post by **Blinky** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 12:48 pm

I have no problems with mine.
One of my daughters who lives in Smith St has the problem you talk about, her boyfriend reckons it's antenna troubles.

slug · Post by **slug** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 1:27 pm

Does your antenna 'sway' in the wind at all Blinky??

I've noticed mine swaying 5to10mm maybe. I don't know if this is the problem - all was good during the dry season during 15/20knot SEasters

Blinky · Post by **Blinky** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 6:27 pm

slug wrote:Does your antenna 'sway' in the wind at all Blinky??

Dunno Slug, I'm usually inside watching the tele, not the antenna

I'll duck outside and have a gander......................................................................................................................................................................Nope, all good, steady as a rock.

While on the subject of TV.........doe anyone experience the volume fluctuating on 9 HD? No problem on any other HD channels except 9. It is especially frustrating when the cricket it is on.

Any noticed the same????

Timbo · Post by **Timbo** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 8:22 pm

Mine had shifted in the wind, Got up on the roof and moved it around and improved the pic now worries.

SMITHY · Post by **SMITHY** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 9:19 pm

get the shakes out here a bit as well but antenna seems fine maybe all the storm activity at the mo

louis · Post by **louis** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 11:08 pm

yea cr.p reception out in leanyer, i used digital for 2 years and it was perfect but the last 2 months were terrible, 7,9,10 all broken signals

jasonmcc · Post by **jasonmcc** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 6:20 pm

Mine is perfect at the moment in Palmo. You only need a UHF antenna to receive digital TV. The usual cause of reception problems this time of the year is water getting inside your coxial cable.

Jason

bandit · Post by **bandit** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 6:58 pm

everytime time theres a storm we get sketchy free to air tv through set top box.

austar is EVEN worse. there phasing out the cable and giving everyone sat dishes. never had a problem before. but now every storm it drops out. shocking

doors off · Post by **doors off** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 9:32 pm

CB,
you are on the money, it is the digital that is stuffed. It is due to the heavy rain, does not happen with 'old' TV. Austar forced us to change to digital, charges us all more and gives us less reliability.

It happens all around Australia during heavy rain.

Trouble is that it pisses down here for months at a time.

You would think that they know that.
I have been seriously considering keeping a record of interuptions when i watch it, which is not a great deal, and it gets interupted and then going to consumer affairs - inferior product, false advertising etc!
I just know that the first six weeks of the Reds Super 14 games will be during Big Wet Rain (that we need for continued top fishing) and I will be staring at a pixelated screen cursing Austar -

Doors Off

Billster · Post by **Billster** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 10:12 pm

I have had all the above problems, only for the last 3 weeks though. That was when like CB said we got the Austar changed over from cable to sat dish, they did fit a free to air antenna for nothing but I have done nothing but curse Austar ever since. The first night of having the dish we had a good rain and the Austar dropped out along with the digital free to air signal. This has happened every heavy rain since. Oh yeh and I now have a couple of leaks onto my balcony roof that weren't there before the change over.

Blinky · Post by **Blinky** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 10:53 pm

I've had Austar satellite for over 4 years now and I reckon I could count the number of times it's dropped out on two hands, I got no concern with it.

slug · Post by **slug** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 12:18 am

Cheers for the responses troops

looks to be a bit of a trend.
Could easily of shelled out a few hundred clams for the antenna guy only find that it's an issue at the 'transmission end'

Interesting to note that some do & some some don't experience the dreaded 'no signal' - I wonder if it's a location thing dependent on what 'relay' your picking up??

Interesting also to hear those sighting heavy rain as a culprit. I'm get 'pixelation' (or whatever it's called

) even when it's not raining - that's not to say that it's not pi$$ing down somewhere between my antenna & the transmitting beacon

The WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor

) is VERY low at the minute - she'd sooner watch a 'snowy' , cr.p, 'stable' OLD reception, than a sometimes crystal clear, then NADA digital reception program.

To put things in perspective however, I'm currently on a gig in Brunei, and it's taken me an hour just to get to this point of posting this

I'll never bag Telstra again (until I get back to paradise

)

Blinky wrote: While on the subject of TV.........doe anyone experience the volume fluctuating on 9 HD? No problem on any other HD channels except 9. It is especially frustrating when the cricket it is on.

Any noticed the same????

Yep - I'm hearing ya Blinky. Sound effects from ground microphones overpower the audio from the commentator's - not that that's a bad thing - don't get me started.

I've got a Home Theatre PC setup with big screen, HTPC, surround sound, etc,etc - ya reckon my neighbors don't know about it when my boys switch channels from ABC1 to HD70

Myst · Post by **Myst** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 7:22 am

was having major issues with digital tv reception in Bakewell, was fine during the day, but after dark the signal would drop out, flicker, and carry on... found out the little pigeon things were roosting on it and fuzzing things up... well placed shot in the centre of seen mass with a tennis ball saw the problem sorted... took ages for the could of feathers lingering near the antenna to dissipate too...

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