# Channel 5 diital reception problems in London?



## MarkH (Nov 22, 2002)

Hi,

Please excuse my noobieness!

I have reception problems on channel 5 but only on my digital reception not on RF!

I have an external ariel and a panasonic FTV box. I have looked at the signal strength via the FTV and the signal ranges from 10 and it can crash to zero, particularly on programs with a lot of sound.

Is there some type of interference or do I just need to buy a signal booster?


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

MarkH said:


> I have an external ariel and a panasonic FTV box. I have looked at the signal strength via the FTV and the signal ranges from 10 and it can crash to zero, particularly on programs with a lot of sound.
> 
> Is there some type of interference or do I just need to buy a signal booster?


Its not unusual to have problems with one of the 6 digital multiplexes that supply the 30 or so channels. Presumably you also don't get Five US and Five Life. As this is the SDN Mux the rest of the output is mainly shopping channels and pay TopUpTv, which most normal people won't miss.

Check at www.ukfree.tv/transmitters.php and see what they think you should be receiving at your address. You can also check at www.dtg.org.uk/consumer/coverage.html Don't bother with the predictions at www.freeview.co.uk as these are usually wrong.

You either need to use a booster on your existing aerial to get Five and related channels or failing that you may need a new aerial specially designed for Freeview. That can be an expensive £200+ option in the London area.

You may be better off considering the £75 Sky Pay Once Watch Forever satellite dish and install service instead and there are a load of other FTA channels on Freesat that you can't get on Freeview like CNN, Bloomberg, Truemovies and all kinds of other stuff. There is a rumour Sky One and Sky Two may soon become FTA on this Sky Pay Once Watch Forever service in due course to try to wreck the BBC's proposed Freesat service.

See www.dixons.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/592736 where Dixons have just abolished the £3.95 delivery charge. Order via www.quidco.co.uk and you can save another 5% or £3.75 on the price bringing it down to £71.25 once you get the cashback.


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## MarkH (Nov 22, 2002)

Thanks pete, the site says I should be getting full digi signal May have to invest in a booster!

I already have a communal sky dish in my block, so I presume I would just need a sky sattelite box, apologies about my lack of av knowledge?


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

MarkH said:


> I already have a communal sky dish in my block, so I presume I would just need a sky sattelite box, apologies about my lack of av knowledge?


Yes a secondhand box off Ebay would work for everything except C4, Five, FiveUS, Five Life and Sky Three if it doesn't have an active Sky yellow house viewing card with it. But you can get one of those sent to you for £20 registered in your name from the Sky www.freesatfromsky.co.uk website. A cheap Sky box probably goes on Ebay for only £25 or £30 delivered.

The Sky Pay Once Watch Forever deal gives you a new Sky box and a satellite dish installed on a house or flat where you can have your own dish (sounds like you can't have your own dish or there wouldn't be a communal one installed) for £75 and I'm not sure if Sky would let you have just the new Sky digibox and a viewing card for the same price under this deal. Sometimes there are rules that they must be able to install the dish to get the whole deal.

You could definitely get a secondhand Sky box off Ebay (if you were lucky it might even come with a valid viewing card but Sky have forced Ebay not to show the cards in any Sky box listings as they are meant not to be transferrable) and then buy your own legit viewing card for it from Sky for £20.

Some time next year the BBC are launching FreesatFromSky and you could then get one of these boxes which don't need a viewing card at all but they may well still not do Five, Five US and Five Life (can't see how the BBC will manage to actually sell them though if that's the case) and Sky may well encrypt Sky News and Sky Three for BBC Freesat customers but I'm sure you will still be able to get this free of charge if you get one of Sky's Digiboxes secondhand with a Sky viewing card of your own.

If you have a rubbish Freeview signal I think that's your best option. Try getting a tv booster for Freeview for £20 from B&Q and try it out just in case as they will take it back if it doesn't work but I doubt the booster will cure your reception problems on Freeview. Its more likely that because you have a Sky communal system there the landlord isn't bothering to sort out the Freeview aerial which probably isn't good enough for a full DTT signal. I know that's my problem here. Sky fine but Freeview aerial is rubbish and doesn't get half the channels.


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## MarkH (Nov 22, 2002)

umm thinking about it, there are some satellite boxes on ebay that are patched, but could I still get other signals from a dish just pointing at a sky satellite?


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

MarkH said:


> umm thinking about it, there are some satellite boxes on ebay that are patched, but could I still get other signals from a dish just pointing at a sky satellite?


Patching refers to non Sky digiboxes generally pointing at other satellites than Astra at 28 degrees East where the Sky Digital service comes from. Some of those other satellite systems use encryption methods that are hackable. The Sky system is not considered hackable.

Your communal dish is just pointed at 28 degrees East and you can't point it anywhere else at another satellite so you can get all the FTA channels you can get on Astra but you can only get C4, Five, Five US, Five Life and Sky Three free with a Sky Digibox with a Sky viewing card for which there is no ongoing monthly charges.

The channel lineup is basically Freeview channels minus E4 and More4, UK History, Virgin1, TMF and The Hits but E4 and More4 are expected to be available on a Sky box FTA next year when Sky stops encrypting them as they are no longer in the pay tv range. There are loads more free channels on a Sky box you can't get on Freeview like TrueMovies, Movies4Men, Playboy One, Reality Tv, Biography Tv, Wine Tv, Wedding Tv, LivingInSpain, UK Property Channel, Wedding Tv, South Africa Tv (just launched) and loads of stuff that are entertainment and not shopping channels. There are about 100 shopping channels too and about 30 asian language FTA channels but I doubt you will be watching those.

Don't get a Euro sat box that won't get you C4, Five etc for at least another year or more as it will be no good for you. Get a secondhandSky Digibox and a viewing card on which is there no ongoing subscription to pay.

Oh dear I suspect you still think you have to pay monthly to use a Sky Digibox even though you don't to pay anything to get FTA channels on a Sky Digibox. I give up. What more do I have to do to prove it to you.


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

Pete77 said:


> Oh dear I suspect you still think you have to pay monthly to use a Sky Digibox even though you don't to pay anything to get FTA channels on a Sky Digibox. I give up. What more do I have to do to prove it to you.


Either you've taken to arguing with yourself, or you copy and psted this from another thread without checking it!


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

TCM2007 said:


> Either you've taken to arguing with yourself, or you copy and psted this from another thread without checking it!


No the OP quite clearly gives the impression of wanting to go for a non Sky Euro sat box I suspect because he still thinks having a Sky box means he has to be one of their subscribers.

It was that course of action I was trying to dissuade him from.

Anyway we have already established that the purpose of many of your posts in response to mine (on your own admission) is actually to wind me up because you think its fun, even though that's actually against the forum rules.:down:


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## RichardJH (Oct 7, 2002)

> even though that's actually against the forum rules.


Naughty TCM  and you Pete are so innocent of rule breaking


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## Benedict (Jun 8, 2002)

Pete77 said:


> Anyway we have already established that the purpose of many of your posts in response to mine (on your own admission) is actually to wind me up because you think its fun, even though that's actually against the forum rules.:down:


Pete, if you're referring to this post than I think you are guilty of twisting facts.

TCM2007 admitted that he had never denied being somebody else, somebody who you believed him to be. This belief, coupled with his lack of denial allegedly caused you to get worked up.

This is quite different to what you have just accused him of since at no point do I recall him admitting that he actively posts in order to wind you up. (Happy to be proved wrong though.)


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Benedict said:


> TCM2007 admitted that he had never denied being somebody else, somebody who you believed him to be. This belief, coupled with his lack of denial allegedly caused you to get worked u


TCM posted:-



> This is because I get a perverse pleasure in watching him work himself up about it


And then his taking further bizarre and unexplained exception with my helpful post to the guy who couldn't get Channel 5 on his Freeview box seemed to be further evidence of TCM taking this form of "perverse pleasure".

I wouldn't have thought taking "perverse pleasure" in another forum member's discomfort is generally something the forum welcomes?


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## Nero2 (Aug 22, 2005)

Please can the bickering go on in the chit chat forum?


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

Oh dear, quoting out of context Pete77?


TCM said:


> I must make a confession at this point that whenever Pete has posted or PM'd me about this [Claiming that the_hut is his sock puppet] I've never actually denied to him that I am the hut. This is because I get a perverse pleasure in watching him work himself up about it. http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=5724424#post5724424


That seems pretty water tight to me now back to the *ACTUAL TOPIC*


MarkH said:


> umm thinking about it, there are some satellite boxes on ebay that are patched, but could I still get *other signals* from a dish just pointing at a sky satellite?


The OP has been looking at eBay listings for boxes promising more than the standard Free To View/Free To Air channels from an unsubscribed Sky box and was perhaps tempted by the less legitimate claims about free football etc.
As Pete77 correctly posted - you won't get more channels from a dish that you can't realign and you will probably get fewer channels if you're buying a non Sky decoder. You won't get hacked Sky channels at all.

If I were the OP I would call Sky and see if you can get the Watch Forever deal so you get a new box and a warranty - it's not much more expensive than an eBay Sky box and will work out simpler if there are problems.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

AMc said:


> If I were the OP I would call Sky and see if you can get the Watch Forever deal so you get a new box and a warranty - it's not much more expensive than an eBay Sky box and will work out simpler if there are problems.


Sky Pay Once Watch Forever is not available from Sky directly but only through the Dixons website link given above.

I'm not sure if it is available to flat dwellers though and clearly you won't get the benefit of a Sky installer having to spend 2 hours of their time putting in a dish on a 25 metre long cable round the side of the house because high trees totally blocked the line of site to my Mum's living room window.

So the Sky installer will just turn and plug a box in to your existing Sky point and tune in and take 10 minutes. Same price of £75 and you have used your one life of a free Sky subsidised installation. So it might still be better to go the Sky box from Ebay and a legit Freesat card direct from www.freesatfromsky.co.uk route instead.

Some of the older Sky boxes like the Sony unit are much prettier than the current white Flo design Sky models.

By the way I was only annoyed because TCM chose to make flippant off topic comments about my post in a post that was entirely aimed at answering the original thread starter's question.


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## threadkiller (Dec 12, 2002)

MarkH said:


> Thanks pete, the site says I should be getting full digi signal May have to invest in a booster!


unless you have an aerial that receives all bands, its still possible to not receive all channels


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