SBS digital off Tuggeranong hill nearly dead!

Well, my signal is back the same as it was before it died. I don’t have a strong signal, but it’s more than good enough for the STB to show. I just rung SBS and thanked them for the prompt action! The kids would have lynched me if they missed any more Mythbusters. 🙂

Miz, how is your SBS reception now? Has it degraded at all?

Vic, I found similar with my setup. I have a couple of Winfast DTV cards in a MythTV box in the back room and they *never* have a problem however the el-cheapo STB often gets out of sync and jitters. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for…

Now I’m about to go and install a parallel antenna system for the digital receivers both to improve the signal and make distribution around the house easier. With 5 TVs, VHS video machine, transact STB, and 3 digital receivers to distribute RF to and from it’s getting too messy.

Shameless is the best! Please watch it, anyone who reads this. FYI it’s available on SBS digital in South Gippsland… (just got home tonight)

On a similar note….

I had nothing but problems about 2 years ago when I first bought my STB (cheap from ebay). Some channels were OK some nights, awful the next. Pixellating images and stuttering sound. It eventually packed it in and stopped working altogether.

What a blessing in disguise that was.

I bought a Topfield unit to replace it, and the picture has been crisp and crystal clear, as has the sound. Faultless, simple as that.

The problems I was attributing to the ‘digital service’ was in fact my STB. And I’d been putting up with it for ages.

My SBS reception is brilliant, however I’m line of sight to the Tuggers tower so get a strong signal.

For what it’s worth…

Smee, good of you to post the follow up. Hope you get an improved picture. Cheers

Yeah Pandy, I get that too with my cheapie STB. Changing channel away, then back usually fixes it. The two Winfast cards in my backend Myth box however have no problems.

On the original problem, I got a phone call from a SBS technician who was on his way to the Tuggeranong hill site to check it. He said they use the timing signals from GPS receivers on both Tuggeranong Hill and Mt Taylor to synchronise the transmissions (they both use ch 57) which also allows them to steer the signals so that dead spots arn’t in populated areas. He though that may have a problem. I haven’t heard from him since. 🙂

In Belconnen, the ABC and SBS from Black Mountain seems to be having intermittant lip-sync problems.

Anyone lese noticed this? I thought that the STB might be stuffed.

Well I rang SBS and got through to “Vanessa” in their transmission unit. She said they would like reports from 3 people experiencing the problem and that there were no alerts active from the site however she would trigger off the process to get it looked at.

If anyone else in the Tuggeranong area, who uses SBS digital off Tuggeranong hill (ie ch 57) is having issues then please drop a line here, make sure your email address is correct and I’ll contact you and pass the details on to SBS!

Thanks!

Hrm…My (digital) SBS signal has been a bit dodgy for the past few weeks too (since before the hail, maybe a couple of weeks prior) – I’m out in Fraser (so a different transmitter to you), and I’d put it down to some weirdness with my aerial, but clearly now it’s some kind of right-wing plot to bring down SBS 🙂

miz: Unless you have a set-top-box or a full on digital receiver built into your TV (pretty rare), you’re still getting the analogue signal. Digital signals don’t get old-style static, ghosting, or dropping to black and white that you’re used to – if the signal it too weak, you’ll get all kinds of weird digital artefacts (though in my experience it will hold on to a “perfect” picture in signal areas where the analogue one is already pretty much un-watchable.

Interesting about the analog/digital signals . . . I live in Tuggeranong so I’ve always just assumed it was all beamed digitally off the repeater on Tuggeranong Hill.
Would you mind posting the feedback you get from SBS when you get in touch tomorrow? I’d be interested to see what’s going on.

Sounds like you’re watching the analogue signal Miz. It’s interesting that your analogue picture has been good for about the same time the digital picture has crapped out.

I rang the SBS complaint line after 5pm this evening and actually got to a human! I need to ring them again tomorrow between 9 and 5 to get to one of their transmission people.