TV reception - Channel 5

[tony1941]

Is anyone else having trouble with channel 5 on digital freeview?  I read something about a particularly large sunspot, but that was weeks ago and today reception is the worst it's been.  Most other channels are OK, but the signal strength on 5 is very very low.

[Bob A Job]

My TV picture has been diabolical all evening

This may explain why

[Buenchico]

Digital terrestrial TV has experienced lots of problems lately (probably due to sunspots). The channels one person has difficulties with may not be the same as his neighbour. A perfectly designed aerial for Channel 5 would have slightly different dimensions from one which was perfect for, say, BBC1. (This is because different frequencies require different dimensions for the aerials). Obviously, we can't have a different aerial for every channel we require so aerials are manufactured on a 'one-size-fits-all' basis - but they're not all identical. Your aerial might be excellent at picking up BBC1 but poor for Channel 5. Your neighbour could have an aerial with the opposite properties. So, when reception conditions are poor, you'll have problems with C5 - he'll have problems with BBC1. (The experts out there will point out that things aren't actually quite as simple as this with digital TV but the basic principles still apply).

Hoping this helps,

Chris

[tony1941]

Thanks for that.  I understand what you say, but it seems very odd that for analogue Tv, the channel most people complain about has always been 5, and now we have digital (which was supposed to be the panacea), it's 5 again that fails first in bad conditions.

Tony

[Shezza]

I live in Cheshire and we have never been able to watch terrestrial Channels 4 or 5 but they are O.K. to watch on Sky 104 and 105.  Drives us mad.

 

Shez

[DizzyLizzy]

I have three Freeview boxes and can get channel five perfectly on two of them but not at all on the third....evern though there are no problems with any of the other channels. However when I switch to terrestrial, reception is perfect. Odd !!!

DizzyLizzy