Poor Freeview & ITV & Channel 4 reception

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I have just bought a new Panasonic 32" LZD85 television and have a poor reception for ITV1 & Channel 4 via the analogue signal. BBC 1 / 2 & Channel 5 are ok. The aerial is located in the roof.

I can also recieve most of the Freeview channels apart from ITV 1 - 3 and C4.

I have an older CRT TV where the reception on ITV 1 & C4 is ok via the analogue signal.

Question - Apart from replacing the cable can anyone advise as to how I can resolve this? I am considering an aerial signal booster situated in the loft or a masthead signal booster.

Thanks

Peter

 

[D.J.KRIME]

Sounds to Me thats its more a issue with the aerial rather than a cable issue. How old is the aerial?

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I'm also interested in this as my TV which is a Sony KDL-W40A12U which is just over two years old and have occassionally and more frequently of late not been able to pick up the ITV channels.
Maybe its just me but it also seems worse when its raining - which I thought was a prblem for SKY dishes rather than digital aerials.

Our ariel is in the loft.

 

[Andy Clough]

I have a Sony KDL-W40A12U at home, and have no problem receiving all the analogue and digital channels (even during heavy rain storms!), so I reckon it must be an aerial problem, not the TV.

 

[Anonymous]

I also thought that it might be the aerial but I do not have signal problems on my older CRT TV. The Panasonic replaces an older Samung flatscreen where signal problems were worse.

I have recently moved and I still had problems with the Samsung in my other house. The TV aerial was also in the loft.

Could it be that the analogue signal is being weakened over to encourage people to move to digital or that flat screen TV's require a stronger signal?

Any thoughts re a signal booster?

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Andy,

Just a question regarding the Sony KDL 12W40A12U, one of its big "selling points" is the sound system, presumably though its still not going to be better than a seperate surround sound system, I'm looking at the Sony HT IS100 package. Would something like that be a sensible option with this TV?

Peter - at the output end i.e TV end, I did change my connectors from the standard ones which the installers used when they put the aeriel into the house (it came fitted by the house builders, it did improve the signal strength as I also have split the signal to go to a TV in our kitchen however its not made an impact on the picture problems. about two weeks ago we lost all ITV channels, plus Ch4 and 5 - thats on the digital signal. they mysteriously came back at the weekend. Analogue was unaffected but very poor signals on all channels.

Aswad

 

[Andy Clough]

Hi Aswad
I definitely think adding an external sound system to
the Sony TV would be worthwhile. The sound from the TV's own speakers
is adequate, but nothing special IMHO, so I normally watch with my
surround sound system switched on.

 

[hammill]

To answer the original question, yes put an amplifier in the attic as close to the aerial as possible (the signal has already attenuated by the time it reaches your tv). My freeview signal is split 8 ways (not all in use, but that does not matter) and is fine. Turn of the aerial amp and the signal is too poor to use.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Hammill. This was my thinking too.

Still not sure why the picture is okay on my old CRT TV and not on my new LCD TV.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Andy......now where's my cheque book!

 

[Anonymous]

So are aerial amps pretty much of a muchness or is there anything specific to look for?

We have a three storey house so thats a lot of cable between the aerial and the TV and probably not very high quality cable at that.

Aswad

 

[hammill]

Because the tuner in your old tv was more sensitive. I may be doing the WHAT HIFI reviewers a disservice, but they probably do not test how well tvs perform with a borderline signal, so there is no easy way to find out how a particular model will perform under those circumstances. My pace pvr has a menu option to show signal strengths (plural, it has two tuners) which was helpful in setting up the aerial position and showed how much difference the aerial amp made. Does your tv have this capability?