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Problems with Winter Hill COM5/Arq A

jimbojimbo Posts: 16,289
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Is it my imagination, or is there a problem with this mux on Winter Hill?

My aunt has a Goodmans DTT box (can't remember the model number), but it was bought from Asda in August 2013 for £109 and can't get HD or anything fancy.

In my view it was not good value for money.

Anyway, now, the mux I mentioend above is not being received by it any more and I just wondered has anyone else had this issue with this mux on Winter Hill?

At one time, I sturggled to get that mux on this receiver, sometimes I could get it and sometimes not, now even trying four or five times still produced nothing. The signal quality kept changing between 40% and 60% every second, and it was not able to lock on to the mux to get the channels off it.

Thanks for your help.

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    jimbojimbo Posts: 16,289
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    Winston_1 wrote: »
    If there were any problems with Winter Hill or any other main transmitter there would be hundreds of posts on these forums and elsewhere. If there are problems with your aunts aerial installation only she and possibly you would notice it.

    In that case we can rest assured it is not the transmission. Srangely though, the aerial is fine because it goes into the box that can't get that mux, then back out to the TV - and the TV can get it no problem. Therefore it must be the set-top box which by the way at present is a Goodmans. It used to struggle to get COM5 but could sometimes but now it can't get it at all. The Goodmans box is 20 months old - maybe losing its input signal strength. Poor value for money given it cost £109.
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    oscar1oscar1 Posts: 5,079
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    jimbo.
    Have you anything else in the chain like an old VCR which could have a modulator outputting on C49 -- the same frequency as COM5 ?
    Is there an adjustable modulator output on the Goodmans ? If so shift it to a higher or lower channel.
    Just trying to help .
    Regards
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    anthony davidanthony david Posts: 14,504
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    Check the signal strength on the box and TV for all the multiplexes. I suspect that the whole installation is on the edge of the digital cliff due to an aerial problem of some kind but the Goodmans box is slightly less sensitive then the TV.
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    jimbojimbo Posts: 16,289
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    Thanks for your help. There is no VCR that is for sure it is just earlian into Goodmans out of that into TV.
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 435
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    Check the signal strength on the box and TV for all the multiplexes. I suspect that the whole installation is on the edge of the digital cliff due to an aerial problem of some kind but the Goodmans box is slightly less sensitive then the TV.

    Give us the figuires then ?
    What is the S/N ratio on this box , yer can look it up.

    There should be a margin of 10db for coverage of 90% for set top boxes with S/N ratio of 7dB ' with a 10dB gain rooftop antenna.
    Most STB,s are about 3dB
    I think you will find the actual ERP is low at the transmitter .
    Why don't you measure all the muxes to check this out, instead of guessing ?
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    Sandees50Sandees50 Posts: 15
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    Just turned TV on this morning and all BBC channels are breaking up. There is no problem on any other channel I have tried so there must be a problem somewhere.
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    jimbojimbo Posts: 16,289
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    Sandees50 wrote: »
    Just turned TV on this morning and all BBC channels are breaking up. There is no problem on any other channel I have tried so there must be a problem somewhere.

    I was in a pub last night who had Sky News on via Winter Hill and that was pixilating.
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    anthony davidanthony david Posts: 14,504
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    jimbo wrote: »
    I was in a pub last night who had Sky News on via Winter Hill and that was pixilating.

    There was a huge gale last night so I suspect the pub aerial was being blown around. I noticed this morning that quite a few cowboy installations had blown down overnight, big aerials with flimsy poles.
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    jimbojimbo Posts: 16,289
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    There was a huge gale last night so I suspect the pub aerial was being blown around. I noticed this morning that quite a few cowboy installations had blown down overnight, big aerials with flimsy poles.

    Indeed that is true.

    Just to let you know, I have now replaced my aunt's Freeview box for a Panasonic DVB-T2 box and I am pleased to report that COM5/Arq A is received perfectly, along with all the other muxes.

    So it was a problem with the Goodmans. I would not recommend a Goodmans box I'm afraid - it was just at the time I had troubel locating a box the last time my aunt's box failed - and it literally stopped receiving anything. All that was left was tne on-screen menus and now/next banner - no pictures or sound so it needed urgent replacement on that occasion and an HD box was not available at the time.

    I had a job persuading her to accept the box but it works perfectly on the TV in question and is of course a better spec then the Goodmans.
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