Freeview TV problem

sallytrafic · Southern Rally Co-ordinator

Having some small reputation with electronics I didn't know whether to be flattered or annoyed when someone brought me a TV to look at before I was fully parked at a rally last weekend.

The symptoms were no matter whether it was plugged into the vans aerial or to the bollard TV outlet they had 'no signal' when they tried to tune it in. It was in a very poor signal area and the site was tucked into a valley.

The set was new but it had worked perfectly at home. It was a small freeview digital TV. I flicked through their user manual. Although the set was a different 'make' to mine it had the same illustrations, screenshots etc.

Several other people were watching freeview and normal channels on the site all using the tv 'hookup'. It was only after I borrowed their lead and plugged my own set into the hookup and carefully compared my TV with theirs that the penny dropped.

Unlike mine their set didn't have an analogue capability it was digital freeview only.

This explained why their manual was a little thinner than mine!

The site owners were sending the all* the freeview channels down the TV hookup as analogue signals. I didn't talk to the site owners to ask how this was done as if they had used a normal freeview box only one (selected) channel would be available at a time. No one else had noticed that their sets were working in the analogue mode. Or that the digital signal was not available having been stripped from the RF input.

*probably not all just a selection I expect

Regards Frank

geraldandannie · Moderator

Funny coincidence, Frank. I didn't know I had analog on my digital freeview set until I tried to tune it in on Saturday to watch the football, and I saw a new menu system.

This is a problem with digital stuff - if it works, it's great, but if it doesn't, it's rubbish. With analog (as I found out), you can watch a poor signal, and the match was watchable, even through a grey snowstorm. On the digital selection, I got lunps of very good picture, but not enough to make a whole picture, and these lumps kept freezing. I couldn't even get the audio properly.

Hoorah for analog - not something you'll hear me say often. Except for watches. And volume controls. And tuning knobs. And light dimmers. And ....

Gerald

fdhadi

"and the match was watchable" Embarassed

Obviously watched the Scots then !!!!!

sallytrafic · Southern Rally Co-ordinator