Not really related to OSMC, more TVHeadend in general.
Over the last week or so ive been struggling at certain times to receive channels in the UK from the mux that provides the HD channels, nothings changed in my setup…one minute they’re working then 5 minutes later they’re not, I get the error in tvheadend:
poll timeout
I haven’t lived in my current house long, and I use the antenna thats up in the loft, it looks old no idea what kind it is, I normally get around 45% signal strength when I look in TVHeadend Status…which seems kinda low.
Yeah I checked its pointing in the same direction as the roof antennas people near me have.
What kind of signal strength are u getting? Ive only ever got between 42-48%, and SNR is around 21dB (I don’t really understand the importance of SNR tbh, is lower better?)
Its irritating its only the HD mux thats affected, its the only one I ever really use, all the others work fine when im having problems.
SNR is signal to noise ratio. The higher the number, the ‘louder’ the signal to noise, which is what you want.
I can’t check my numbers at the moment as I’m making some driver changes and can’t get signal reporting through at the moment. Also check your cabling: the connection I have was set up in 1970 and the wiring has deteriorated quite badly. I also have a loose connection at the wall, which isn’t helpful.
Double-check you are on the right frequencies since they messed with them for mobile band clearance. Then it could be you need a new aerial for lower frequencies. What transmitter are you on?
Cheers Sam thats helpful.
I dropped a new bit of aerial cable from the loft to the room where the DVB stick is as it looked a bit ropey but it didn’t make and significant difference, the aerial socket in that room and the connection looks fine.
Im suspecting the aerial is cheap and nasty, I think what I’ll do is try a new aerial from amazon, if it doesn’t make a difference I’ll send it back…then do the same with a signal booster.
Still interested in people’s signal strength and SNR though…if anyone would like to chime in?
If it helps…For DVB-T2 I am using two MyGica T230 tuners.
Generally I get between 24dB-38dB reported by these tuners (some frequencies have a higher SNR than others).
My region doesn’t have a 682MHz mux - the closest frequency I have to that is 666MHz which is currently reporting an SNR of 23.2dB (currently the lowest SNR of all the frequencies for my region).
I have very little problems with the picture on my setup - only the odd very brief breakups every few days. Running tvheadend on a separate dedicated Intel NUC. I also have two DVB-S2 DVBSky S960 adapters connected to this same machine.
Signal boosters should normally only be used to overcome the losses from very long cable runs or splitting the signal an excessive amount of times. Using a booster if it is not needed is likely to make your signal worse, not better.
Well I tried a new aerial in the loft and things seem to have improved significantly.
On the mux I use the most the signal strength has gone from 40-45% to 65%, and the SNR has increased substantially from around 20 to 29.
And it was only a cheap and cheerful amazon aerial as well…I couldn’t afford the ones on the site Graham linked to.
I agree…have used that same site myself for advice on a number of occassions. I’m also lucky enough to live just round the corner from their shop. Went in recently to upgrade my satellite cabling and f-plugs…it’s a real aladins cave for a/v equipment.
