Signal Strength vs Signal Quality

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Signal Strength vs Signal Quality

(7 posts)

crossmeister

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I recently took the plunge and moved away from Virgin Media and their V6 box. I purchased an Aura with the expectation that it would "just work". Freeview on my Samsung TV is rock solid and I foolishly thought the same would be true with the Aura. I have a distribution amplifier fitted and had read that there may be some pixelation/breakup issues with excessive signal strength so purchased a variable attenuator.

My findings are below:

Signal Quality
With NO attenuator fitted = 100%
With VARIABLE attenuator fitted = 100% (irrespective of attenuator setting)

Signal Strength
With NO attenuator fitted = 95-99%
With VARIABLE attenuator fitted: lowest setting 90%, highest setting 14%

The ****** Aura pixelates irrespective of attenuator setting. It's driving me mad!

Anyone with any pointers? Close to packaging it up and sending it back!

| Mon 22 Feb 2021 9:18:37 #1 |
davidrew

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I also have a similar set-up with a distribution and have a strong signal as the transmitter is only 23km away with clear line of sight.

I also have some ongoing issues with pixilation which lasts for just a second or two mostly in recordings and I am having an email exchange with Humax support about it as it did not happen on my previous Humax 5000T which was also attenuated. It is not a constant issue and I would say 95% time its fine.

Humax have advised that signal strength should be 70-89%, preferably 80-85% and anything less than 70% can cause issues.

I record and watch mostly HD and I currently have a difficult balancing act between the two HD MUX as I only have 47% signal strength on COM7 and 90% on BBCB. My highest is currently 93% on BBCA (non-HD), if I wind down the signal too far COM7 drops off. Oddly my old 5000T had 74% on COM7 so it was much more finely tuned with BBCB on 89%.

Unfortunately COM7 is temporary and now broadcasts nationally as a single frequency network at lower power on UHF C55 so can't manually tune it so have no idea where the signal is actually being picked up from. Arqiva have a three month rolling notice period on COM7 and it's due to be switched off by the end of June 2022 so that issue will go away then. I'm just hoping they convert one of the other MUX to HD to pick up the HD channels that will otherwise be lost.

| Mon 22 Feb 2021 12:05:21 #2 |
grahamlthompson

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davidrew - 2 mins ago »
I also have a similar set-up with a distribution and have a strong signal as the transmitter is only 23km away with clear line of sight.
I also have some ongoing issues with pixilation which lasts for just a second or two mostly in recordings and I am having an email exchange with Humax support about it as it did not happen on my previous Humax 5000T which was also attenuated. It is not a constant issue and I would say 95% time its fine.
Humax have advised that signal strength should be 70-89%, preferably 80-85% and anything less than 70% can cause issues.
I record and watch mostly HD and I currently have a difficult balancing act between the two HD MUX as I only have 47% signal strength on COM7 and 90% on BBCB. My highest is currently 93% on BBCA (non-HD), if I wind down the signal too far COM7 drops off. Oddly my old 5000T had 74% on COM7 so it was much more finely tuned with BBCB on 89%.
Unfortunately COM7 is temporary and now broadcasts nationally as a single frequency network at lower power on UHF C55 so can't manually tune it so have no idea where the signal is actually being picked up from. Arqiva have a three month rolling notice period on COM7 and it's due to be switched off by the end of June 2022 so that issue will go away then. I'm just hoping they convert one of the other MUX to HD to pick up the HD channels that will otherwise be lost.

I can't see that happening. To get the bandwidth would need the conversion of at least one SD DVB-T Mux to DVB-T2. That would mean that thousands of owners of older kit would lose all the channels.

| Mon 22 Feb 2021 12:10:44 #3 |
davidrew

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I can't see that happening. To get the bandwidth would need the conversion of at least one SD DVB-T Mux to DVB-T2. That would mean that thousands of owners of older kit would lose all the channels.

Agree, whatever happens going forward will probably get tied in with this: Freeview LCN Policy Consultation

| Mon 22 Feb 2021 12:54:01 #4 |
Geoff_W

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I'm on a relay (Nottingham) that doesn't carry Com 7, so can't get BBC4 HD or BBC News HD on Freeview. At present I use a Humax Foxsat HDR so I can get these stations on Freesat. I can also get C4 HD via the Custom Firmware. If and when my HDR finally dies, I would hope to get a Freeview recorder, maybe the Aura if the bugs get sorted. The loss of BBC4 HD would be an irritant, but at least there's iPlayer. I use BBC News HD to record Breakfast on Sunday mornings to avoid the 'puppet' doing sign language between 7am and 7.30am, and also the inconvenient switch over to footie (why does football have to take precedence over everything?).

| Tue 23 Feb 2021 10:26:43 #5 |
Faust

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I think the whole Freeview saga is a complete and utter mess. All these years on from HD broadcasts yet come 18:30 every evening one has to move from BBC channel 101 to BBC channel 1 in order to watch BBC regional news. Same at lunchtimes etc. unless of course you are inclined to do a bit of dancing to the music on 101.

Programming is first on one frequency then the other simply to satisfy mobile operators and government coffers.

| Tue 23 Feb 2021 16:51:48 #6 |
stevem1960

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If your pixelation is only occurring on a couple of lines for a second or 2 then it is likely due to impulse noise corrupting the signal sufficiently to prevent its recovery from the error correction data. This impulse noise is virtually impossible to eliminate at source (eg a distant lightning strike, or next door's electrically noisy hairdryer etc) but good well shielded aerial cable can help. I find that a lot of "professional" aerial installers use cheaper cable which has flimsy inadequate screening and has no chance of keeping the noise out. Good cable has both metalised mylar film AND copper braid shielding. The metalisation can be either aluminium or copper, imo copper is better but Al may be ok. Could it be worth changing your downlead for some better quality cable?

| Mon 1 Mar 2021 12:56:05 #7 |