Have your say & ask the experts

Hi guys my television has a built in freeview but I am only able to receive via digital, bbc one, two, three, bbc news 24, and cbbc, for any other channel, it says channel unavailable.

What do you suggest I do? 

i see. thanks, any idea how much a new aerial will cost? 

Have you also checked out your area to find out if its a good signal area?

Some areas will continue to have poor quality signals even after switchover (you haven't said if you're in a switched over area).

Before buying anything, I'd check out some opinions from installers about the likely quality of the signal post switchover. If its poor / marginal then you might be better off with Freesat. If its good then you might be ok with Freeview and an aerial upgrade.

As a rough guide, if you're in a poor reception area with analogue, then you're probably going to get a poor signal with digital as its my understanding many of the same factors come into play - distance to transmitter, obstructions in the line of sight, trees etc.

As has been stated it might be the aerial.

What TV is it and how old is it? Some older digital TV's are having problems now that Freeview have made changes to how the signal is broadcast. (Ignore this if it's a new telly) 

Well I live in the Telford area and the switchover is meant to be taking place in 2011. As far my television is concerned it's a samsung LE26A456 

If you live in the Border TV area and were previously receiving only analogue TV then you are getting all you could receive until lunch time on 20th November.  Re-tuning now should get you all the other programmes.

 Where ever you live in UK go to http://www.digitaluk.co.uk  and it will tell you what you should be receiving and how to check your aerial through Teletext page 284 before having your aerial checked physically.

Andrew

hi fi newbie:

Well I live in the Telford area and the switchover is meant to be taking place in 2011. As far my television is concerned it's a samsung LE26A456 

Well post switchover, power levels will increase however with digital, signal strength and signal quality are too seperate things. The fact that you can't even receive some channels at all suggests that signal strength is low but whether or not the power boost from switchover will cure that or give you the required quality as well as strength its difficult to say.

The fact that you have no reception of some channels either suggests you have a very old poor quality aerial at the moment or are in a very bad area.

Do you know if your area is generally poor for tv reception?

If it is then I'd be inclined to look towards Freesat. It will also give you digital now and cut out the 3 year wait for a full strength service. Very few places in the UK can't get perfect Freesat reception albeit there aren't as many channels as on Freeview.

If you're in a good or moderate area, then it should be curable by a new aerial (of suitable gain characteristics) and possibly new quality coax and plugs - water impregenated coax can cause shorting, oxidisation and a poor signal. If you do go down the aerial route there are no guarantees and its important to get a quality aerial (not a flimsy contract one) of the right gain for your area. Too little or too much gain will give poor reception.

Using the postcode checker Andrew linked in the post above will give you a good idea of you coverage.

Ok it's a nearly new telly so you probably have an aerial problem.

I had a similar thing when I switched to a digital TV with built in tuner.

You need to fine a reputable installer in your area. Look for one who is digital certified or as a minimum is CAI registered or who you know from word of mouth recommendation can do a good job. A good installer will check the signal strength of all the MUX to make sure what the problem is.

Digital TV is broadcast in channel groups  with each group on a MUX of it's own. A lot of the BBC's are on a single MUX in most areas. ITV and other channels are on separate MUX. It's quite possible that the aerial you have which gets all the analogue signals perfectly will struggle to get all the digital signals from different MUX. This might be why you can get some channels and not others.

You probably need to have a wideband aerial fitted and you'll probably need the coax cable replaced as well. depending of access and where you live about £100 or so.