Digital TV Query

[STEVIEBOY1]

Good Morning,

I wonder if anybody has any advice, I'm having a bit of trouble with my digital Freeview television.
I often record from that onto an external hard drive and normally there is never any problem, however, within the last week, just on channel 10 which is ITV3, the sound and the picture are all out of synch and the picture often goes pixelated ? I've tried retuning / rescanning the television set and that doesn't make any difference, the other channels are absolutely fine when I record from them it is just ITV3 that I've got this problem with. I don't know if the signal's a bit weaker with that particular channel or whether it's been anything to do with the severe bad weather that we had lately. I live on the Surrey / Middlesex border just about 20 miles southwest of London so it's not as if I'm in a remote area or anything like that it's just a bit strange. #

Any suggestions / ideas would be much appreciated. Thank you very much.

 

[Howardh]

Possibly engineering work? Think there are websites where you can check, does sound strange on just one channel. Winter Hill had that and messed up a lot of the stations, so that now even though there's a strong signal many of my stations pixellate and drop occasionally (live, not recorded onto drive).

Also your aerial may need a tweak if it's dropped slightly. As you allude to, there may also be weather issues?

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

Ok thank you.

 

[Richardr]

Is it fine if you watch live?

How are ITV2 or ITV4 if you record? They (amongst others) are broadcast on the same multiplex, so if it is a broadcast signal issue, they will be affected.

 

[Pete_uk]

My hunch having had something similar myself is that it's something to do with the playback. I used to get a brief pause (well under a second) resulting in the picture and sound going out of sync. Rewinding a few seconds on the playing software would cure this.

One thing you could try (I'm assuming you are on Windows) is downloading the K-lite codec pack which has software that decodes many media types and keeps them updated.

 

[bubieyehyeh]

ITV have recently updated their video encoders its possible there is a configuration problem with that particular service in your area.

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

Is it fine if you watch live?

How are ITV2 or ITV4 if you record? They (amongst others) are broadcast on the same multiplex, so if it is a broadcast signal issue, they will be affected.

Yes, all three of those channels, ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 and fine when watching them live, I will try recording ITV2 and ITV4 to see what they look like.

One thing you could try (I'm assuming you are on Windows) is downloading the K-lite codec pack which has software that decodes many media types and keeps them updated.

Ok, I shall try that.

My hunch having had something similar myself is that it's something to do with the playback. I used to get a brief pause (well under a second) resulting in the picture and sound going out of sync. Rewinding a few seconds on the playing software would cure this.

I did try doing that, but it did not make any real difference.

Yes, all three of those channels, ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 and fine when watching them live, I will try recording ITV2 and ITV4 to see what they look like.


Ok, I shall try that.



I did try doing that, but it did not make any real difference.

OK, I did try recording ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 and they all had the same problem, although it did not seem to be quite as bad as it was before. I shall keep monitering it.

I still have an old VCR and Diggi Box and tried recording that way on the above channels and it was fine. So it seems it is something peculiar to my Diggi TV.

 

[Richardr]

Try recording from one of the BBC SD channels (i.e. non HD) - an example being BBC News. That is on a different multiplex, and so if it happens on that it would be an indication of a general issue at your end, if not a reception / broadcast issue with the ITV channels.

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

Try recording from one of the BBC SD channels (i.e. non HD) - an example being BBC News. That is on a different multiplex, and so if it happens on that it would be an indication of a general issue at your end, if not a reception / broadcast issue with the ITV channels.

Hi thank you for that suggestion. I did record the BBC News Channel and that was fine.