ITV Digital picture rubbish,do the signal boosters work?

[wack]

The itv digital picture is very grainy,nowhere near as good as I think it should be,i've had an ariel upgrade but the signal strength is still only registering very low red on the meter on the setup screen.
Has anyone used a signal booster,are they any good,if so what make.
I'm even thinking of connecting my sky box back up when the subscription runs out it's that bad:(

[ianec]

I think you'll find that with ITV digital their lack of bandwidth is the main cause of a dodgy picture. What you'll usually see is a blocking effect, this would be particularly noticeable in (for example) an explosion scene in a film or in a football match when the camera pans across the crowd.

The thing with signal quality on digital is that you'll either get a picture or not (to a certain extent). There's no snowy picture like on an analogue broadcast.

Sky is generally better in my experience, and the situation with ITVD will not improve until their bandwidth increases. This could happen in 2 ways, - they don't cram as many channels into the available bandwidth or the big analogue switch off in a few years if this ever happens, but that's another argument.

[Simes]

A signal booster worked for me...
It got me 20 or so extra channels that the box originally would not pick up..
Got to be worth a try...
If you get one from Argos you can always take it back if it doesn't improve things for you.Thats what i did , but ended up keeping the booster cos it worked for me.
P.S. mine is a labgear single set booster, but they are all similar.

[Matt Hero]

Don't forget that boosters do exactly what you'd expect, boost the existing signal. OK, sounds stupid to say so, *but* it will boost both required signal and 'noise' that might surround the signal (which maybe causing your poor signal already).

If you are getting differing signal rates across different multiplexes, the boost will work uniformly across those signal.... ie the poorer signals will still be poorer.

If you are getting signals in the red (ie lower that something like 25%) then I doubt an indoor booster will add anything much to your viewing.

Far more likely to help would be an decent amplifier at the mast head and getting a proper alignment check done. Unless you are in a rural area miles from a transmitter (or indeed directly under a transmitter), I cannot believe that your reception is so poor. Are you in a Menu A area ?

The quality of the picture does differ across the the channels. The ITV / C5 pictures are prone to artifacing.... BBC / C4 are pretty much rock solid in my (60-70% reception) area.

[jonpeat]

Yeah, well just be happy that you could get anything at all. We had to go for itv digital and got the box last Friday. But, could we get any channels....nope, not one. Anyway, we cann't get a booster for the arial as we have a shared arial. So it had to be sent back...thing is we have a great analog signal and my mate just down the road can get itv digital without even a booster. So, no digital telly for me then!!!!! :mad:

[mozzer]

I have to agree with the bad quality of the output, after numerous calls to digital, including the £40.00 ariel upgrade I dumped it and went for sky dig.
I have only had it for a couple of months after taking up a £10 installation offer
but I think it is money well spent, having the extra 3 film four channels and many more channels. The quality is fantastic (in my opinion) also no break up in picture which I suffered for over a year with ITV. Digital inputting into a RGB channel via scart must also be helping I suppose, but no complaints from me.

[Matt Hero]

Originally posted by jonpeat
Yeah, well just be happy that you could get anything at all. We had to go for itv digital and got the box last Friday. But, could we get any channels....nope, not one. Anyway, we cann't get a booster for the arial as we have a shared arial. So it had to be sent back...thing is we have a great analog signal and my mate just down the road can get itv digital without even a booster. So, no digital telly for me then!!!!! :mad:

I too use a shared aerial.

The chances are that your aerial uses a 'cluster leveler' box which sorts the inbound requencies for the analogue channels and stops all unwanted frequencies before they get to the amplifier.

So currently, your aerial may well be able to receive the correct frequencies to a decent level (if you are getting a good analogue then it should be fine)but your leveller is blocking them all out !

This will need to be reset by an engineer to allow through the frequencies that the various ITV digital multiplexes work on (different depending on your local transmitter). That shouldn't be more than a hours work for a competant engineer.

For my building of 50 flats, the cost of a new mast, mast head amp, cluster box and amp was under £600.

[wack]

Thanks for the replies,I think i'll reconnect my sky box back up,I think the year is almost up and for £50 i've had my monies worth.
The analogue picture is sharper than the digital and at least i can get channel 5 now so the money spent on the upgrade wasn't a complete waste.

[ZX81]

Originally posted by wack
The itv digital picture is very grainy,nowhere near as good as I think it should be...

As someone else here as already said, you either get a picture or not. If the signal is not strong enough you will get 'blocking'. You're not using it via a coax connection are you? (apologies if this is a stupid question).

I noticed a vast picture improvement when I switched the box from composite to RGB output.

ZX

[ianec]

Something else to consider...

ITVD is also very susceptible to electrical interferrence, like the picture will break up when the fridge comes on or a lorry drives past.

Not everyone obviously suffers from this, but if you are ferrite rings may help. They're the round clips that 'snap' onto the cable, you quite often see them on monitor cables. They should be placed on the coax ariel download as close as possible to the input on your box.

You can pick them up for a few pence from Maplins / RF components etc.

[megabyte]

Just to add to this:
Over here on the East Coast of ROI-We obviously do not have a local ITV channel-just RTE's three channels and TV3.

However since the 1950's people have been putting up aerials and pointing them for Wales and getting very good analogue ITV, BBC and s4c.
I have a good group B aerial with a mast head amp pointed to Presely in South west Wales with anologue signals coming in at around 80db's.
This is despite the fact that they are travelling at least 120 miles across the Irish sea(we are only 60mls or so from Wales but Presely is twice that)

In Ireland then we are used to having to spend to get ITV-circa £200 sterling for what I have.

Anyhow to get to the point-last summer,I got an on digital box,plugged it in and its working perfectly over here, with the boxes signal meter between two and three and veering from white to green on all muxes!
Its brilliant as it gives me access to the excellent BBC News 24 and Channel four, both of which are not available on Sky digital in ROI.
Conn