FOAK Freeview tuning

Being a tight **** and not wanting to pay more for my telly than I
have to I use Freeview. Since the need to retune I suffer with
problems of lipsynch, not a problem prior to the retune. I lose the
sound whilst it catches up with itself and synchs properly for a
couple of minutes, but not a difficulty on BBC1/2, ITV, Channel 4 or
5. Have retuned a nember of times but no help. Apart from paying fior
a cable service what else can be done?

Brian

 

Breaks in video or sound are typical of a poor signal or interference.
Check all connections. The centre conductor of each plug should be
soldered, not just pushed in.
Check that your antenna is still pointed in the correct direction.
Check that the antenna/cable connection is not corroded. (get a man
in if the antenna is at a dangerous height).
Get a decent antenna and downlead for your location, in some areas
the antenna which worked for analog may not be in the correct
frequency group for digital so you may need a broadband antenna.

If all else fails you might just be in an iffy location like mine,
give up and use freesat. If your neighbours also have problems with
Freeview this is probably the best idea.

 

Will have a bash, thanks.

Brian

 

One of my boxes does that if left switched on and on the same channel
for a while (days). The cure is to switch channels or cycle the power.

 

Is it *just* audio loss and lipsync, or do you get macro-blocking as
well?

If it's poor reception then you won't lose just audio; video will be
affected as well.

What receiver? I use a Humax PVR which has a menu that shows signal
strength and signal quality. If you are in a weak signal area though,
Id advise against a Humax personally.

I've seen a few signal issues because, at lease when I bought mine, we
were in an area designated as 'not covered by Freeview'. We do OK
though.

 

Not sure what macro-blocking is, but I just lose sound for a cople of
seconds, immediately prior to the loss it is clear that lipsynch is
out, when the sound returns it's sorted itself for a short while,
between one and ten minutes.

It's a built in receiver in a Phillips telly.

I'm in Upminster, just within the north east side of the great car
park known as the M25. I have been told by an arial installer that
this is a strong reception area, with access to transmission from both
Kent and London. Prior to the recent need to retune absolutely no
difficulties.

Brian

 

Sister is there, back of Rooms, no probs with FV (but problems can be
localised ... like if you are downstream of an iron railway bridge
like my Mum and Dad are).

It might be worth checking to see if there is an update for your set
(if you haven't already):

http://preview.tinyurl.com/yznlnqs

I think I did an update on my Topfield PVR after the retune but only
for the EPG if I remember correctly.

As has been mentioned, you can normally see from an engineering /
tuning menu the signal strength(s) and if they are (still?) ok then a
firm/software update might help.

Cheers, T i m

 

What are Topfields like? I'm getting increasingly pissed off with my
Humax, though maybe there is an update that it's missing.

 

Hmm, dunno about the lipsync thing. Macro-blocking is the (usually
momentary) appearance of odd squares of either old frames or funny
colours on the picture.

The picture is compressed at the transmit end by dividing it into
squares (macro blocks) and doing some Clever Stuff with them to reduce
the amount of data needed to 'describe' them. They are then compressed
using conventional compression technigues and error correction data
added.

If the signal degrades to the point where the error-correction cannot
'repair' the data then the macro blocks that were missing either don't
get updated or get updated wrongly and you see the odd squares.

Thus endeth a brain dump of my entire digital video knowledge.

 

Erm, I'm probably not the best person to ask if you like playing with
the bells and whistles but, ignoring the odd glitch it's pretty
good.[1]

I've only added a few of the TAPS, MyStuff and a couple of others but
even the process of putting them on has been fairly well automated in
many cases now (they just make the EPG look a bit better with logos
and give you alternative ways of seeing / doing stuff).

Quality wise, I'd have to say it's pretty good but again, we only have
a 19" TFT here. You can 'just' sometimes hear the HDD clattering away
when it's very quiet but I've got in on constant buffer / record. Turn
that off and you'd hardly hear it.

You can pull saved progs over the USB interface but of course it's a
bit slow (even with USB2 ... and I think it is).

I'd rate it alongside my Garmin GPS Quest re reliability and doing
what it says on the tin, whilst giving you access to many many
settings should you require.

HTH, T i m

[1] It suffered with a faulty PSU fairly early on (known fault) but
that was rectified foc and efficiently.

 

What problems? I got one for the parents following recommendations,
including UKRM. it's just been swapped[1] for another, keeps freezing
needing a power cycle and customer service from Humax has been pretty
shite.

[1] Full marks to comet for that.

 

Mostly very slow response to the remote, especially when
fast-forwarding or rewinding, so one massively overshoots where one
was aimong for. Usuually, but not always, cured by a reboot.

I'm not that impressed with the UI design, either.

Having said that, it is several orders of magnitude better than the
Sony[1] that preceded it. That one lasted for less than two weeks
before I took it back. It was truly awful and unfit for purpose.

[1] Actually a rebadged and (unfortunately) repriced Digifusion, I
believe.

 

I splashed out on a Topfield to replace my ancient Pace Twin-tuner PVR.
It's not perfect, it has some real idiosyncracies, but it's pretty damn
good. Which it should be, for the price.

 

They've just released a software update that's supposed to fix that,
at least on the 9300T. Downloadable now, should be OA when they can
get a slot.

 

Not something Humax support *ever* mentioned. There suggestion was
cycle power, do a re-install. Hopefully the new one has the newer SW.
I did try some months back when I visited to DL the latest SW but
following the instructions in the book it never happened.

 

Doubt it - it's only been out a few days.