French TV channels

[Stan Streason]

I have a sky box but also used to be able to get French channels (both digital HD  and analogue) through an indoor aerial.  I know there was a big changeover 6 months or so ago and the TV rescanned everything and I now have (about 20) French stations.

Well all I have is the sound and a green screen.  (all the "info" is there as well). Is it just a case of me needing to sort a better bigger aerial or could there be a more fundamental problem.  My Samsung TV (3 years old) is set to "France".

Its far from urgent but if nothing else I liked to watch the local weather forecasts.

[Martin963]

As a first step I think I'd turn it off and unplug from the mains for a few minutes.   Then try again.

If that doesn't work I'd try a "First Time Install" - there's normally a way of doing this from a system menu or similar.  

Of course checking the aerial is still plugged in or hasn't fallen down would be a good idea,   but generally you'd expect to lose the sound too if the picture has frozen completely as a result of poor signal.

I take it you can still watch the output of the Sky box...?

[Stan Streason]

I had about a 3 month unplug during winter.  It was the same recently as it was in November when I left it.

Sky is working fine - I have done a complete restall twice.  It must be the aerial (but although an indoor one it worked OK last summer).

[halfblind]

This could be due to the change in France to digital ?

[pachapapa]

There was a storm with wind and flooding, before the two weeks of snow and sub zero temperatures.

It sounds like there has been differential subsidence of your complete foundation slab putting your aerial out of alignment.[:P]

[Martin963]

It does sound as though you need to play with your aerial.

On many TVs you can get a signal meter up on the screen;   concentrate on the Quality rather than Strength if there's a choice.

And of course make sure the meter is "looking" at one of the UHF channels actually in use,   you often get at this option by choosing Manual Scan,  selecting a channel number (between 21 - 68) and then not actually performing the scan until you've moved the aerial to somewhere where a good signal is registered.

[Stan Streason]

[quote user="pachapapa"]

There was a storm with wind and flooding, before the two weeks of snow and sub zero temperatures.

It sounds like there has been differential subsidence of your complete foundation slab putting your aerial out of alignment.[:P]

[/quote]

Goodness this sounds really serious.  May I have to have the whole house underpinned?  We do live on a slight hill and I would hate to think of the whole house slipping away.  I wonder if my insurance will cover this.

Alternatively I could just pick the aerial up off the shelf and move around a bit. I think this may be the cheaper option but I will certainly bear your thought in mind should that not work.

[pachapapa]

[quote user="Stan Streason"][quote user="pachapapa"]

There was a storm with wind and flooding, before the two weeks of snow and sub zero temperatures.

It sounds like there has been differential subsidence of your complete foundation slab putting your aerial out of alignment.[:P]

[/quote]

Goodness this sounds really serious.  May I have to have the whole house underpinned?  We do live on a slight hill and I would hate to think of the whole house slipping away.  I wonder if my insurance will cover this.

Alternatively I could just pick the aerial up off the shelf and move around a bit. I think this may be the cheaper option but I will certainly bear your thought in mind should that not work.

[/quote]

That might work for an analogue transmission but unlikely to work for a horizontally polarised numerique TNT transmission.

Go on get outside and fit a proper aerial, a special one from Dixons for digital TV, as a bonus you can check the float on your house at the same time.[:)]