[StephenSky+]

For years, I have had my Sky signal piped round my house using the RF2 socket on the box. The signal is piped to my roof space via standard co-ax cable to a distribution amp, then fed to upstairs rooms.

I have just upgraded one of the TVs to a 32" screen, and am disappointed in the picture quality. It seems to be a bit grainy, with intermittent light interference lines through it.

Now, it may always have been like that but with a 14" screen I never noticed!

I'm not expecting HD quality, but should I expect a clean picture comparable to a good analogue signal, or is this just the way of the RF2 distribution?

[davemurgatroyd]

The interference lines are almost certainly caused by the channel you have set for the RF2 output is very close to a terrestrial channel in your area. Have you tried changing the RF channel and retuning the TV(s)?

[grahamlthompson]

The system generates a analogue TV channel from the composite video output. Small screen crts disguise the limitations. A 32" LCD is going to reveal the imperfections much more. You could try changing the channel the modulator uses to see if you can find a clearer UHF channel.

http://www.stevelarkins.freeuk.com/d...ing_advice.htm

[StephenSky+]

Originally Posted by davemurgatroyd

The interference lines are almost certainly caused by the channel you have set for the RF2 output is very close to a terrestrial channel in your area. Have you tried changing the RF channel and retuning the TV(s)?

I haven't tried retuning, but I selected channel 60 as I know it's absolutely nowhere near any existing channel.

So, you think I should be able to get a much clearer picture then on my 32" screen?

[Nigel Goodwin]

Originally Posted by StephenSky+

I haven't tried retuning, but I selected channel 60 as I know it's absolutely nowhere near any existing channel.

So, you think I should be able to get a much clearer picture then on my 32" screen?

You should get a perfectly good analogue picture, with mono sound - do you have clear channels in the low numbers?, the lower the channel number the better it feeds round.

However, moving from a 14 inch CRT to a 32 inch LCD with analogue pictures is likely to be slightly disappointing.

[sodafountain]

A good test would be to move the TV next to the Sky box, and use just a short fly lead between box and TV, with no other outside aerial plugged in, so no outside interference, see what sort of picture you get.

If it is better, then it is either outside interference (you can then feed it in and see), or the cable run/distribution amp.

[pedro2000uk]

We've installed quite a lot of RF dist systems to some pretty big TVs round pubs & in people's houses - I'm really fussy about PQ & it's better not done via RF but with decent modulators, good RF amps & clean wiring the results can be pretty good, I walked into a pub once that we'd installed an RF system as they didn't want to pay for HDMI dist- decent modulators/ stepper amp & decent & noise clean coax runs & I looked at the match that was on & thought they'd gone & got someone else in & got a HDMI dist' system installed - & he turned round & said - no.. that's what you did .. it was RF.

I think some TVs can mess the legacy analogue inputs with the main processing in digital for the HD / HDMI & the legacy formats getting a cheap digitally processed system which can add artifacts to the analogue.

[StephenSky+]

Thanks guys for all your advice!!

After your confirmation that a decent picture should be possible, I went into another room and examined the picture on an existing 14" screen. It looked absolutely fine, with no interference lines, so I concluded that there was a decent signal coming from the roof-space distribution amp. I then went to the 32" screen, and scratched my chin. After a bit, I then tried taking off the 'magic-eye' unit and plugged the fly lead directly into the TV. Bingo! Nice clean picture.

So, I bought a new 'magic-eye' and it's all sorted. I'd never heard of a faulty 'magic-eye' unit before, it could've been like that for ages, but with a 14" screen, it passed me by. I now have an entirely watchable picture, as I said not HD quality, but much improved over when I first posted!

Thanks again guys...

[MartinPickering]

1. A "magic eye" and its associated cable can pick up interference so it should be kept well away from the TV.

2. If it's plugged directly into the TV, there's a risk of mechanical (strain) damage to the unit and to the TV aerial socket, which may simply show up as the symptoms you described.

3. Magic eye units can be damaged even if not directly connected to the TV. Also, some units have better shielding against interference than others.

http://www.glodark.com/pdfs/Sky_magic_eye_Guide.pdf
http://www.satcure.co.uk/reviews/sat...167.htm#offers

[StephenSky+]

I never did fully resove the 'interference' issue on my 32" TV in the bedroom till yesterday! With the digital switchover now complete here in NI on Wednesday, the interference was still there, so I absolutely knew it wasn't caused by other analogue channels. So, I brought an old CRT TV into the room, hooked it up, and the RF2 picture was crystal clear.

I then went back to the 32" screen, and went into the menus. I stumbled across a 'fine tuning' option within analogue tuning - can you guess yet?

Yep, I simply hit the fine tuning option by one click, and instantly, I had the most perfect picture, comparable to the 'freeview' picture I get which is fault free.

In the (very) old days, you use to have a dedicated knob for each channel. You pullled out the BBC1 button (or whatever), turned it to get the best picture, then pushed it back in to lock it. With all this new digital stuff, it's easy to forget that letting the TV do all the tuning isn't necessarily the best in all occassions.

Can't beleive this issue was eventually sorted out in less than 20 seconds. So wish I'd known about this first!!

Hope if someone 'googles' this issue and comes across this post, this solution helps...