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Can't Get Dave
LemonadeMan
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Just got a freeview box from Tesco (Agora AEAGO08) and have every channel but Dave. Tried rescanning and when I try to do a manual scan, it won't let me put in 19, saying "Please enter a value in this range: 21-68"
Occasional blips in sound and picture too. Have had it set up for an hour. Please help.
Occasional blips in sound and picture too. Have had it set up for an hour. Please help.
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Its very unusual (but not impossible) to have only a single channel missing. Are you sure that no others are?
The first thing to do is check you should be able to get all channels at your postcode and if so then check your aerial and cabling is up to the job.
Can you explain is a bit more to me? I'm quite new to all this.
I checked using my postcode and I can apparently receive all the channels. Dave is the only one as far as I know that is missing.
This was because my aerial was old and could not receive the mux C & D on which they are located.
As mentioned the channel number 19 for Dave is not the channle you scan.
Down here in Swansea I use 66 & 68.
See here for details as to which channels yours will be on.
http://www.ukfree.tv/transmitters.php
Use your postcode and start the trail from there.
Eg. I enter my postcode and that shows Carmel TX.
Then it mentions a link for some channels on low power, which I click and it shows me that Dave is on Mux C in my area.
If you have Virgin1 then I'd expect you'd have Dave, but I'm a novice at this, but it will get you started.
If so then you are getting the multiplex that Dave is broadcast on. Virgin 1 is on a different multiplex to Dave so it is entirely possible to have one but not the other.
If you have the Sky channels but not Dave then that is less common.
One trick that can work is to unplug the aerial and do a full automatic scan. This should zap all your channels as it obviously won't be able to find any. Then plug the aerial back in and scan again.
Hopefully wiping the memory and starting afresh cures the problem.
However if you haven't got the Sky channels then you are missing an entire multiplex and that is a whole different issue. Your location would help solve that as it would give us an idea of which transmitter you are receiving from.
You wouldn't be receiving from the Divis transmitter by any chance? That is a prime suspect. It needs a different aerial type to receive digital to analogue. and guess which mux is out of band for an "analogue" aerial? Yes that right mux C.
In the "old days" of analogue the original three channels BBC1/2 and ITV were grouped together in a narrow range of frequencies. Effectively the broadcast band was divided up into sub bands and different transmitters used different sub bands to avoid interfering with each other.
Because of this aerials were designed to only receive these sub bands. There are various technical reasons why this occurred. On Divis the analogue channels are in Group A sub band as are most of the digital services. However it looks like they couldn't fit mux C into this band so it's had to go outside it.
Which is a long winded way of saying your aerial may not be receiving it. If it pre-dates digital it may well be a Group A type which is fine for analogue but not so good in this instance for digital.
Two options therefore. Wait till analogue switch-off in your area when the digital channels should be shuffled around and mux C may come in range of your aerial. Or get a new aerial fitted that does cover the mux C frequency.
If you care to don anorak and get all techie
http://www.dtg.org.uk/retailer/tx_ni.html
I can't find it right now, and someone else will no doubt list it for you, but the Mux for C (if yours is the same will be on a particular channel) and you can manually scan that channel.
My aerial in the loft, fell off my watertank (temporary measure only), and I lost both C & D muxes, until it was put back in place.
If you are getting a stonking good signal then it is just possible the analogue signals are overloading the front end of your freeview box and causing interference.
If you have an amplifier in the chain then try bypassing it.
Or reducing it's gain if it has variable gain. That would indicate if the problem is too much signal.
Otherwise if you have a Maplin store nearby they sell RF attenuators that you plug in line with the aerial. That will reduce the signal somewhat and may also cure the problem.
Another alternative to try would be plugging an indoor aerial in if you have one. That won't pick up anything like the same signal as a roof aerial. So will indicate if signal strength is the problem if you get perfect (or at least better) reception
The only differences are what UHF channel each mux is transmitted on around the country.
Channel List by mux
http://www.dtg.org.uk/retailer/dtt_channels.html
Mux UHF channels
http://www.dtg.org.uk/retailer/transmitters.html
If all aerial down leads are fed back to the aerial and just twisted together and stuffed into the terminal blocks then find who did it, stand them against the wall and shoot them! :eek::D
Almost as bad is wiring the downlead to one socket then stuffing a lead going to another socket into the same set of terminals.
The next worst is to use a load of those cheap and nasty platsic Y splitters. Especially if you daisy chain them, ie plug the aerial into one then have two more plugged into the first splitter to give you four outlets.
All the above are not best practice. And all will lead to attenuation of the signal and other potential nasties. There are decent quality passive splitters about. Most are metal bodied and have F type connectors rather then the more normal Belling Lee type you find on the back of the telly.
But all pasive splitters will attenuate the signal passing through them. So are only recommended in very strong signal areas where you can tolerate a bit of lost signal without affecting the picture quality too much.
The best method is to use a mast head distribution amp as close to the aerial as possible then wire direct from that to each room.
Failing that mounting the distribution in the loft is a good second best. If you have mains up there you can use a good low noise indoor amp or just screw a masthead amp to the wall and power it from one of the downleads just as if it was outside on the mast.
Third best is to take the aerial lead into the nearest upstairs room and distribute from there. Least best is to run the aerial cable all the way to the living room on the opposite side of the house and then run cables all the way back up stairs.
The ideal is to keep the cable between aerial and distribution amp as short as possible and the leads out to the rooms as short as possible.
Keeping the aerial to amp lead short minimises signal loss and the possibility of noise getting into the lead which can affect the signal quality. The longer the lead the more attenuation and the more noise that could get in. Especially if you use cheap low quality coax cable. Use double screened cable - often called Satellite grade though it works very well for UHF TV.
And if you are using a passive splitter and want to replace it with electronics then go for the amp with the lowest noise figure rather than a big number for the gain. Quite often you don't need the 40 odd dB of gain I've seen some amps boast about. 10 dB is often enough. But perhaps more important is how much extra noise the amp adds to the signal. Go for the lowest noise figure you can find.
Any additional noise added to an already weak digital signal is bad news. Hence why you need the unamplified bit of the chain to be as short as you can make it and why you should use good quality double screened cable.
The thing about digital is that it doesn't degrade in the same way as analogue. With analogue as the signal strength goes down the piscture starts to get grainy and maybe gets ghosting. With digital it can work perfectly untill a point is reached where the errors in the signal cannot be properly corrected by the box/TV and you start to get break up. Then very soon after it dies altogether.
If you are getting picture and sound break up then that can indicatge low signal. Though it could also be poor quality cable letting in loads of interfernce. Or perhaps more likely a combination of the two.
Box is BUSH BTU320DTR, in 8day epg mode I get all the program info as normal but no Dave channel, if I go to 14 day mode I can see the Save channels, but there is no program info for any of the other channels.
I have no idea how to sort this out and with lots of Xmas recording to do time is running out.
H E L P
Box is BUSH BTU320DTR, in 8day epg mode I get all the program info as normal but no Dave channel, if I go to 14 day mode I can see the Save channels, but there is no program info for any of the other channels.
I have no idea how to sort this out and with lots of Xmas recording to do time is running out.
H E L P
Up date..
An odd but small development, on 8day epg it now sees Dave and ja vu too, so I can at least record those channels, however the 14 day guide is still empty of info bar the channel names, no program info.
Have you tried flirting a bit more?
Yeah I tried that route. waste of time, annoying that the screen flashes keep trying to get me to go there :mad::mad::mad:
I do my best with what I have :)