Pixelation in the Timaru region

Is anyone else suffering intermittant pixelation in Timaru?

This has increased in the last few weeks, yet I have line of sight to the cave hill transmitter and in fact in aligning the antenna I can see the transmitter tower on a good day.

I also have 10/10 on both signal quality and 8/10 on signal strength on my Panasonic TV.

I have no signal boosters or amplifiers.

Toddy

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Permalink Reply by DBrown on July 2, 2014 at 9:25

I have contacted JDA again and explained the issues as above. They have given me the name of the Networks System Engineer. Just waiting on a call back from them, when they are back in the office. Will see how long it takes. I'll put a note up here of any information I get from JDA to let the local viewers who may also be having problems.

Cheers

Debbie

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Permalink Reply by DBrown on July 2, 2014 at 9:54

JDA have asked me to monitor when the problem is happening and to give them a call back when its doing it worst and will see what we can sort out from there.

Computer is off to shop for a service so will update in a few days :)

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Permalink Reply by Dave Jackson on July 2, 2014 at 10:18

Nice, saved me contacting them today :-) I do have recordings of the issue if its any help but I doubt it will.

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Permalink Reply by Bel @ Freeview on July 2, 2014 at 10:32

Hi Debbie,

Great to hear that you're speaking with JDA with regards to the suspected transmission issues. Freeview doesn't manage or control transmission but have checked this out with JDA as well, at this stage JDA tells me they can't see anything in particular that would be causing this in their system but they're checking various components and with their fibre link provider just to be sure.

Thanks for monitoring and providing more details to JDA which will no doubt be of help - it'll be good to see what's causing these reception issues for you.

Just out of interest, have you tried retuning your device since the reception issues started? See here for retuning troubleshooting tips which can be helpful to check through when resolving reception issues.

Thanks!

Bel

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Permalink Reply by Biggles on July 2, 2014 at 12:35

Fair comment and I agree that Freeview (or the transmission provders) should be more proactive in their monitoring. I'm not sure that actually do any live monitoring of individual transmission sites using in-home TVs. They probably never see the problems from our perspective. They probably figure that because all looks OK at the transmission end then it must be OK at the viewers end.

DBrown said:

I'm also not expecting this Forum to be monitoring things, but the actual Freeview webpage has a Network Status page to keep viewers informed. All I'm asking Freeview company (not the Forum which is, as you state, for the viewers to discuss issues) to consider my suggestions above of a more proactive approach, to watch for the re-occurring provider problems and update their network status more regularly.

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Permalink Reply by forumuser on July 2, 2014 at 20:41

Hi Guys

The transmission is constantly monitored and the transmission providers update the forum network update page (Not the Freeview Team), though we double check to make sure things run when users report several incidents within a period and area.

We are working on the forum to make things easier for those willing to post solutions, as stated in our introduction welcome pages we do appreciate posts that contain issues, that the user supplies their setup and equipment information, Currently we are testing the profile questions which new users who sign up are required to input how they receive Freeview and what gear they are using to get it.

Joshua

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Permalink Reply by Biggles on July 3, 2014 at 12:24

No use complaining to them unless the cause is due to interference. They won't be interested if its a transmission or service provider problem.

Alana Johns said:

We are too....I have heard that the place to complain to is Radio Spectrum Management. Apparently they have no complains for Timaru but i'm not surprised because how would we know where to complain??!!

There is a form on their website and apparently if they get enough complaints they will investigate further...

http://www.rsm.govt.nz/cms/tools-and-services/publications/receptio...

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Permalink Reply by Bel @ Freeview on July 4, 2014 at 12:16

The transmission provider has advised that they've zoned in on a fault with the fibre-link, which their provider has fixed - is anyone still having reception issues in Timaru?

It's not really a radio spectrum planning issue in Timaru.

Re the transmission provider, they do have field technicians in all transmission areas who advise them of issues seen on the viewer end but not all issues impact all viewers in the same way (e.g. due to different equipment set-up, some viewers with marginal reception can experience more significant impact than others).

And Freeview monitors this forum and always request transmission providers to investigate any potential issue reported here. Reality is that it does take time to see if something is an individual set-up/installation issue or more likely a wider transmission issue.

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Permalink Reply by Dave Jackson on July 6, 2014 at 18:55

Sunday night now and Timaru is still getting pixilation and audio disruption on TV3 again

It is really odd how Sunday night seems to be becoming a routine start of a few days disruption then it clears later in the week and restarts Sunday night... well at least that's what I am seeing lol

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Permalink Reply by DBrown on July 6, 2014 at 21:39

Yep I'm getting bad freezing seconds apart on Ch 1 through 3 on TV now :) The person from JDA said to ring them when its doing it - but can't ring them at 9.40pm on Sunday night so will give them a call tomorrow morning.