Recording Tv

[ImLostAgain]

My Freeview recorder has suddenly stopped recording BBC channels. BBC's 1, 2, & 4. It just shows the warning that "the receiver is not receiving signal or the signal is too weak". Now, this is not a problem as such as it will record all BBC channels in HD. I'm just wondering why? I have a signal booster and all other channels are fine.
I've re-tuned the tv (Samsung) and the Humax but it has made no difference.

[Buenchico]

Freeview channels are transmitted in 'multiplexes' (= bundles of channels), with each multiplex using a different frequency. The lengths of the elements on your TV aerial should ideally be exactly correctto 'resonate' with the frequency that you want to receive but, since there are several different frequencies involved (one for each multiplex), that's not possible. So your aerial is only a 'rough match' to each of the various frequencies, meaning that it will be better at receiving some multiplexes than others.

BBC One, Two and Four are all transmitted using the PSB1 multiplex, which your aerial is poorly matched to, whereas their HD equivalents use the PSB3 multiplex, which your aerial is better suited to.

The strengths of the signals reaching your aerial don't remain constant. They're affected by atmospheric pressure, precipitation, the 11-year sunspot cycle, individual flares on the Sun's surface and lots of other factors. Further, the power of many TV transmitters has been (or soon will be) reduced to avoid interference to 5G mobile phone signals.

Your aerial (and its associated signal booster) can provide your Freeview recorder with a good enough signal to handle transmissions from the PSB1 multiplex when conditions are good but not when they're poor. So you need to improve the signal strength. That might mean replacing the aerial with a better model.

The first thing that occurs to me though is that your signal booster might have packed up. It's not unknown for the little power light on them to be on but with the circuitry inside them no longer functioning. (They don't last forever). I've experienced that problem at least three times over the years myself, with the most recent occasion being just this week.

So the first thing I'd try is replacing your signal booster with a new one. If that doesn't work, try chaining the two boosters together. (The textbooks say that you can't do that because it can introduce too many spurious signals into the cable but I've been using two signal boosters together for years!).

[ImLostAgain]

Cheers Buenchico, A good answer that even I could understand. A new booster it is then.

[Buenchico]

Thanks for your reply. Remember that you'll probably need to retune your Humax box after fitting the new booster.

[derek-33]

why dont you record and watch in HD ? which 1/2/4 are in