28 July 2012

WIN Canberra TV reception

| marco_b
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Over the last few weeks I have noticed that reception on WIN Canberra has been real dodgy. Pixelated and jerky most of the time. Watching the NRL is a nightmare. I am looking forward to the Olympics but watching the Games will be hopeless with the current reception. GEM and GO are similar but not quite as bad. All the other channels are fine.

Is anyone else experiencing this as well? Is there anything I can do about it?

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Andrew Emery11:07 am 24 Mar 21

Any one else finding there’s no free to air TV reception in Kambah, yesterday and this morning?

Milknife said :

Ok, I came across this unresolved thread and was struggling with WIN, and GO reception.

Seriously, if you toggle the subtitles, the reception seems to ‘reset’ and the channels are received just fine. Works every time, had no reception for WIN until stumbling across this. Hope it helps.

I’m going to guess that the subtitles are encoded slightly differently and it’s only an issue with particular hardware.regardless of if they are on or not as they are still sent / received.

OK a couple of points I’m going to make here, because I had similar issues, which have gone away now.

Firstly an amplifier to boost your signal will generally not fix a problem, only amplify it more. You only need these if you split your antenna say more than twice.

I knew my antenna was fine, as one TV never had issues. The other TV typically had issues on WIN. occasionally prime as well.

As it turns out, cabling can be a big problem. Don’t go buy cheap cables, it won’t help. I ended up DIY my own cables using RG6 coax. As it turns out from the wall plate to the PVR and PVR to the TV was where I was having issues and replacing those cables with RG6 coax fixed all my problems.

Its also worthwhile getting your wallplates done with F type connectors (ie screw type that foxtel uses).

Anyway if you know how to strip coax and terminate it (pretty easy) then its not too hard to DIY. Otherwise give a TV cabler a call. They may even have some pre made RG6 cables for you to try.

Milknife said :

Ok, I came across this unresolved thread and was struggling with WIN, and GO reception.

Seriously, if you toggle the subtitles, the reception seems to ‘reset’ and the channels are received just fine. Works every time, had no reception for WIN until stumbling across this. Hope it helps.

I’m going to guess that the subtitles are encoded slightly differently and it’s only an issue with particular hardware.regardless of if they are on or not as they are still sent / received.

Funny you should mention this, we bought an LG PVR the other day and when I did the initial scan it found a whole bunch of channels which were duplicates of the usual frequencies we get on the other equipment we have with digital tuners. Now the strange part is the usual freq’s for GO, GEM, and WIN do not receive any transmission yet the higher channel freqs receive these channels just fine.

I think I will just edit the channels to take out the ones that are not receiving.

Ok, I came across this unresolved thread and was struggling with WIN, and GO reception.

Seriously, if you toggle the subtitles, the reception seems to ‘reset’ and the channels are received just fine. Works every time, had no reception for WIN until stumbling across this. Hope it helps.

I’m going to guess that the subtitles are encoded slightly differently and it’s only an issue with particular hardware.regardless of if they are on or not as they are still sent / received.

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

Why you watching free tv for???

Anyone would pay for that crap?

I don’t have any problems with WIN, but I have never been able to get the ABC, and Ch10/11/OneHD drop in and out from being good to totally unwatchable.

This is since I got a new flat screen TV about 8 months ago. I have an antenna on the roof.

I don’t know what to do. It shits me to tears.

What TV are you using? From memory, WIN broadcast on what’s known as a .5 frequency. As in, SC10 broadcast on say 168.0 and Seven on 345.0 but WIN are on 293.5.

Some TV’s don’t search for the .5 and so it can only grab the nearest frequency which is almost there, but not quite.

Your not using a splitter are you ? I had to go out and buy a HD recorder, while keeping the old DVD VHS player. So I needed a splitter to get the piccy to the new box. Then noticed when the new box was on, the telly pics were mostly crook. Haven’t done a new seek whatever on the telly yet. Also haven’t had a yarn yet to one of the TV experts at the club ( there will be 4 or 5 of them ) but I suspect you and I may need a booster.

Yahoo’s TV guide for Canberra says we have a WIN 3D Trial for the Olympics. Is this new? I have never heard about this and is it working?

I reckon it must be a locational issue. I just use a set of rabbit ears (no external antenna at all) and my reception on all channels is perfect.

Easiest thing to do might be to run an autoseek on your telly, in case the set has wandered off the central frequency a bit.

niftydog said :

The bandwidth for the channel hasn’t changed – all the new channels have been broadcasting for ages, many of them just sans meaningful content. That in itself is no reason for the symptoms described; If it was then we’d all be complaining.

niftydog is right, both about frequency loading and the lack of meaningful content.

*puts on his old radio geek had*
Each frequency channel (bandwidth) is capable of holding a relatively large number of subchannels. These get multiplexed (layered) through the bandwidth, each taking up a small slice. Given the nature of digital television, with streaming and correction algorithms, it generally provides a more stable and cleaner picture.
Issues with delivery quality normally comes down to:
– Distance. I’ll presume you haven’t moved, so we can discount this.
– Atmospheric interference. Are your neighbours experiencing similar problems? Does it occur all day, every day? This is normally caused by electrical / electronic interference.
– Line of Sight. Has something been put in between your antenna and the signal source? Again, this will most likely also interfere with the signal to neighbours, and those also in the same path.
– Equipment? Dust; a dodgy connector; a chewed cable.

I am in Tuggeranong and haven’t noticed any problems. Perhaps, it’s because my TV is thankful I am not tuning into the NRL.

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd8:08 am 29 Jul 12

Why you watching free tv for???

Just get a signal booster for your antennae, or try a different aerial setup. I get random pixelating occasionally through the set of rabbit ears that’s trying to pick up a signal through several double brick walls. Different weather conditions can make a difference, and a simple 5 cm change in one “ear” position can improve it.

I don’t see how bandwidth would have any effect. The signal is there, you just need to pick it up.

M0les said :

The broadcast on WIN (8)…

That’s all off the Black Mountain tower, I might add – channel numbers will be different off the other repeaters.

The broadcast on WIN (8) is in 576i (Standard definition, interlaced) and looks pretty hideous (even looks like the frame rate is not consistent – possibly poorly down-sampled from HD)

The broadcast (re-broadcast?) on GEM (80) is in 1080i (Highest definition, interlaced) and has a smooth frame rate.

I hope that the demise of analogue TV will make all the TV stations broadcast everything in full HD ( but if hopes were dollars, I’d be a freaking millionaire).

Check your antenna, are you using a good roof mounted antenna??

There’s a few things you can try:

1. do you have any other electrical items in the vicinity? (eg 5-10 metres). Turn them off and see.
2. try a new cable between the TV and the antenna socket (if you have fixed antenna).
3. if you are using a fixed antenna on the roof, buy an indoor antenna’s from Big W (if they don’t work, easy to return them). If you’ve got an old fixed antenna which is the problem you may need to suck it up and get a new one installed.
4. if you can borrow a TV that works elsewhere, try it in your environment to isolate the problem.
5. try a factory reset on the TV and auto tune the channels again

Felix the Cat5:22 pm 28 Jul 12

I’ve found the same thing, especially bad this morning. I was getting ready to ring an antenna installer but it doesn’t sound like there’s much they can do, except lighten my wallet.

You’re not wrong! Watching the NRL on WIN is a nightmare, but I have not found that it has anything to do wit the reception in my area!

leneuromancer3:42 pm 28 Jul 12

there is a related thread on whirlpool re WIN (and Nine) dropping bitrates by around 25% …Friday night football lasted all but a couple of minutes for me last night as it truly was un-watchable

Ring the station and log a complaint. Otherwise they will think everything is hunky dory and nothing will happen.

Mr Gillespie1:12 pm 28 Jul 12

Can ACMA or FreeTV or some other media regulatory body step in and do something about the rubbish channel called “GOLD” which is a blatant waste of bandwidth? Can you write to them and complain?

The bandwidth for the channel hasn’t changed – all the new channels have been broadcasting for ages, many of them just sans meaningful content. That in itself is no reason for the symptoms described; If it was then we’d all be complaining.

PA1 said :

There’s nothing you can do. Due to all the multichannels taking away a lot of the bandwidth (including the new infomercial channel), there’s only a few megabits left for WIN.

Where is the transmitter situated?

No problems with it, check your equipment..

I haven’t had any problems with WIN (in the inner South). Where are you?

There’s nothing you can do. Due to all the multichannels taking away a lot of the bandwidth (including the new infomercial channel), there’s only a few megabits left for WIN.

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