Freeview picture skipping

tigertiger Posts: 1,532
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Hi, my mum has a Hitachi freeview PVR. She is delighted at how easy it is to use, but complains of the odd picture judder or skip. She has rather hastily paid £200 for a new aerial to be fitted and still gets it. I'm guessing this is normal for freeview equipment ?

Any suggestions.

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  • emptyboxemptybox Posts: 13,917
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    No it's not usual with Freeview for the picture to skip or judder.
    I'm presuming this is with broadcast Freeview, rather than on recordings?
    Some PVRs do have occasional picture and sound glitches with recordings, but they shouldn't be present on the broadcast picture.

    If you have only marginal reception then that will manifest itself as pixellation effects on the screen, and I suppose the screen may momentarily freeze, but that could also suggest problems with the cabling or the aerial.
  • David (2)David (2) Posts: 20,632
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    could be local interference (which freeview suffers from a lot), from other electrical equipment either in the house (central heating), outside (street lighting), or even the next building. Even with a new aerial, new cables etc, perfect signal, you can still suffer from it.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,617
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    tiger wrote: »
    Hi, my mum has a Hitachi freeview PVR. She is delighted at how easy it is to use, but complains of the odd picture judder or skip. She has rather hastily paid £200 for a new aerial to be fitted and still gets it. I'm guessing this is normal for freeview equipment ?

    Any suggestions.

    It's not normal.

    I could be that the box is recording the UK broadcast at UK TV rates (50Hz) but incorrectly configured to play back at USA TV rates (60Hz). This is the usual cause for juddering on some PVRs.

    If the box supports the TV standard for multiple countries make sure (in the menus) it is set to the UK standard. It may have an option for PAL (UK) and NTSC (USA).
  • tigertiger Posts: 1,532
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    Thanks for the replies. It is only on broadcasts not recordings. So overall I'm reassured it's normal.
  • AlanOAlanO Posts: 3,773
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    David (2) wrote: »
    could be local interference (which freeview suffers from a lot), from other electrical equipment either in the house (central heating), outside (street lighting), or even the next building. Even with a new aerial, new cables etc, perfect signal, you can still suffer from it.

    Seconded - we quite often have jumps or glitches when the central heating kicks in.

    Also, I've noticed that Freeview suffers if the aerial lead is touching another (usually mains) lead - which is easily done if PVRs / receivers are in units with a single hole to feed all the cables out of.

    Hopefully matters will improve post DSO when the signal strength is increased.
  • David (2)David (2) Posts: 20,632
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    nope they wont - although the issues might change.

    I have overseen a replacement aerial install for some good friends of ours down the road, down the hill. They have always been tuned to a nearby relay (remember, bottom of a hill), and this went digital DSO last year. The old aerial worked but suffered quite a lot from local interference. With the new install, its about 98% perfect now, but at certain times of day they still suffer a burst of interference which only lasts for a moment. The conclusion is that this burst is from offices next door to them which just happens to be located in front the aerial (same direction as the tv signal).
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