Can't get TV channels in one room, despite working in another?

Howdy do folks.


Apologies if this is the wrong forum for this (but I think I'm in the right place).

Pretty much, gutted the sitting room in the house, replastered, new floor etc. etc. never had a TV aerial in there so went out and picked up 10m of coax cable.

We have TV channels in the kitchen in the house. There's an aerial on the roof.

My presumption was that there would be a box in the attic, that I could stick the coax cable into, and then wire it into the TV and i'd be connected to the aerial for TV. That doesn't seem to be the case.


Just to point out, I've never messed about up in the attic before or did anything relating to the aerial. It was replaced about 2-3 years ago with a new one, but that was done by someone i hired.

The attic has since been freshly insulated and some plywood put down as a floor in parts. So there could be other things in the attic relating to the aerial that I can't see, as they are buried under the insulation (I had to dig up the bits that i did manage to find).



Anyway...


So I mooch around the attic and I find two boxes. One looks like a power supply for the aerial, the other looks like an input/output kinda box, with one aerial slot (input?) and two TV slots (output?).

I stick my new coax cable into the TV1 slot (the new cable is the white one) and I try to tune in the channels and nothing happens. TV in the kitchen is unaffected.

I figure maybe TV1 slot is broken, so I use a Y splitter to stick my new coax cable in with the old one (both sharing TV2 slot) and again, nothing will tune in (again, also, TV in the kitchen still working fine).

Wondering if anyone has any ideas here as to what I'm doing wrong? I'm perplexed.


Here's the photos:


Power Supply
https://i.postimg.cc/zJ7DfYcN/56551677-364994724114124-4590471856397484032-n.jpg



Input/Output
https://i.postimg.cc/w6gTHjFF/56527814-2637459272947169-2943777375021694976-n.jpg



Sad TV with No Channels
https://i.postimg.cc/W3QLx8bN/56890309-637348270065386-7019844408581292032-n.jpg



Anyone able to advise on this? Figured it'd take me two minutes. Nothing in this house ever goes easy. :rolleyes:


Cheers guys

Johnboy1951

First of all get that gear out from under the insulation.

What happens if you withdraw the kitchen cable and replace it with the new cable? Only the new cable plugged in.
Does the TV then tune in?

If the kitchen cable is put into the other socket does that TV still get signal? Only one TV cable in at the time.

If yes then I suspect you are missing something in the setup of the TV ...... maybe choosing Analogue instead of digital service or something else.

I dunno why i never tried that. :rolleyes:

But i just did that very thing, however, all I've done now is lost TV in the kitchen. Haven't gained anything in the sitting room. Starting to wonder if this (brand new!) coax cable is knackered. Surely can't be the case though.

actually, now im starting to think maybe the coax-in on the tv is knackered. Hmm. might have to drag the kitchen tv into the sitting room and see if it works.

The Cush

Deleted User wrote: »

Haven't gained anything in the sitting room. Starting to wonder if this (brand new!) coax cable is knackered. Surely can't be the case though.

Unfortunately it can, did anyone drive a nail through the cable in the wall during the renovation? or crushed or bend damage?

Too late now but myself and others here recommend running a number of spare co-ax cables when you can, for satellite connection as an example. Better to be looking at it than looking for it.

fritzelly

Are you even sure that box is supplying the signal - really no need for it bar an aerial splitter

Johnboy1951

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

First of all get that gear out from under the insulation.

What happens if you withdraw the kitchen cable and replace it with the new cable? Only the new cable plugged in.
Does the TV then tune in?

You answered this .... loss of TV in Kitchen as expected, and failed to tune in new TV.

If the kitchen cable is put into the other socket does that TV still get signal? Only one TV cable in at the time.

Did you try this?
Does plugging in the kitchen TV cable to the other socket give TV signal?
If yes then both outputs are working.

If yes then I suspect you are missing something in the setup of the TV ...... maybe choosing Analogue instead of digital service or something else.

If both outputs are working for the Kitchen TV then the problem is down to either

1. the new coax has a short (most likely) or a broken cable.
You should first check the connectors on the ends of the coax to ensure there is no fine wire gone astray and shorting the cable.

2. is it at all possible you are not doing the tuning of the TV correctly?

it is of course possible the cable has been damaged as others have said ....

The Cush

Righty oh, so I got it sorted. Dragged the sitting room tv into the kitchen and used the aerial there - no luck. dragged the tv from the kitchen to the sitting room and it worked fine, so presumed the TV itself had a damaged coax-in connection. Brought the problem TV back to the sitting room and started thinking about buying a new tv. Tried it once more just to see if there was a miracle, and realised where i was going wrong.

The region was set to Ireland, which got 0 channels. Just by trying my luck, i opted for UK, which got everything up and running and the telly now has.. erm... telly.

That's what I get for being loyal to my country. I should've been with the UK all along.

The Cush wrote: »

Too late now but myself and others here recommend running a number of spare co-ax cables when you can, for satellite connection as an example. Better to be looking at it than looking for it.

Can I ask you about that?




A chap that was here a while ago said the same thing about running at least another cable to keep as a spare, and it has me perplexed. I can't see why you'd do it? I'd imagine the likelihood of the cable itself ever getting damaged is fairly slim (unless someone damages it, but none of mine are within reach and I know where they run in the house walls etc).



But he also said incase i get satellite. I don't watch much TV and the wiring aspect of it, though i used to be really into it decades ago, is lost on me nowadays. If I installed a sat dish on the house, surely that'd pick up the channels im getting on the aerial anyway? So I'd just move the coax cable to the sat box rather than using a separate one, and cut the aerial itself out of the equation altogether?




Wouldn't mind finding out some more about this, as ive got about 3 weeks left of being able to run cables in and out of that room before i've no access to the cables anymore (kitchen fitter will be putting a wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-floor tv unit in, so at the moment it's a bare wall with wire hanging from the ceiling, in a month it'll be closed off and a much bigger job to add or remove things).

Johnboy1951

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

2. is it at all possible you are not doing the tuning of the TV correctly

Unfortunately that's what it was. I'm an idiot.

The Cush

Deleted User wrote: »

The region was set to Ireland, which got 0 channels. Just by trying my luck, i opted for UK, which got everything up and running and the telly now has.. erm... telly.

That's what I get for being loyal to my country. I should've been with the UK all along.

Very odd, a TV set to UK receiving the Saorview channels should dump them in random order into the 800s by default. The UK Freeview standard see them as out of region.

How old is that TV? My brother has a Philips TV in the early days of Saorview and never liked how it worked with Saorview and digital Aertel.

Deleted User wrote: »

But he also said incase i get satellite. I don't watch much TV and the wiring aspect of it, though i used to be really into it decades ago, is lost on me nowadays. If I installed a sat dish on the house, surely that'd pick up the channels im getting on the aerial anyway? So I'd just move the coax cable to the sat box rather than using a separate one, and cut the aerial itself out of the equation altogether?.

The Saorview channels aren't available free-to-air via satellite, only with a Sky subscription.

The new SkyQ receiver requires 2 cables from the dish to the receiver. The cables cannot be shared with the Saorview aerial signal.

A non-Sky receiver would require 2 cables to watch/record satellite channels.

There a are lots of free-to-air channels to tune in on Freesat or FTA satellite receiver or combi TV.

The Cush

Deleted User wrote: »

Wouldn't mind finding out some more about this, as ive got about 3 weeks left of being able to run cables in and out of that room before i've no access to the cables anymore (kitchen fitter will be putting a wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-floor tv unit in, so at the moment it's a bare wall with wire hanging from the ceiling, in a month it'll be closed off and a much bigger job to add or remove things).

I would run at least 3 cables to a main TV point for Saorview and future satellite connection. For the other TV points that might only require viewing of Saorview and satellite channels (recording may not be required) I would run at least 2 co-ax cables. Others here would recommend Cat5/6 ethernet cabling to each room, we are looking at a connected future.

The Cush

The Cush wrote: »

Very odd, a TV set to UK receiving the Saorview channels should dump them in random order into the 800s by default. The UK Freeview standard see them as out of region.

How old is that TV? My brother has a Philips TV in the early days of Saorview and never liked how it worked with Saorview and digital Aertel.



The Saorview channels aren't available free-to-air via satellite, only with a Sky subscription.

The new SkyQ receiver requires 2 cables from the dish to the receiver. The cables cannot be shared with the Saorview aerial signal.

A non-Sky receiver would require 2 cables to watch/record satellite channels.

There a are lots of free-to-air channels to tune in on Freesat or FTA satellite receiver or combi TV.

The TV is Philips and it's about.. 5-6 years old I'd guess (that is just a guess though). So could be just a weird set up.


I know this is gonna sound like I'm being deliberately awkward, which I'm genuinely not, but is there benefit to sticking a sat dish on the house at this point?


I'll never have a sky subscription (wouldn't pay for it, as I rarely ever watch TV, have a netflix subscription and use Youtube free, which between them is plenty of TV for me). However, if sticking a sat dish onto the house will be beneficial in terms of either better reception on the channels i have, plus more (free to air) channels, then I'd strongly consider it (depending on the cost to do it, of course).


I thought the channels I had on the TV at the moment were Saorview (which shows how much knowledge i have of this kinda thing).

The Cush

Deleted User wrote: »

I know this is gonna sound like I'm being deliberately awkward, which I'm genuinely not, but is there benefit to sticking a sat dish on the house at this point?

Only if you want to receive the free to air satellite channels I linked to in my post above.

Deleted User wrote: »

I'll never have a sky subscription (wouldn't pay for it, as I rarely ever watch TV, have a netflix subscription and use Youtube free, which between them is plenty of TV for me). However, if sticking a sat dish onto the house will be beneficial in terms of either better reception on the channels i have, plus more (free to air) channels, then I'd strongly consider it (depending on the cost to do it, of course).

More FTA channels would the main benefit IMO. Even if you don't go down the dish route now, running the extra cabling while you can would be recommended.

Deleted User wrote: »

I thought the channels I had on the TV at the moment were Saorview (which shows how much knowledge i have of this kinda thing).

The channels via the aerial are the Saorview channels.

Yeah, looks like I may aswell throw the extra wiring in (might get someone to stick a dish up too and wire it all in now too, I'm sure it can't be too expensive).

Cheers for the heads up on this. I wouldn't have bothered with it otherwise. Even when the TV Aerial installer chap was talking about throwing an extra coax in, he never really explained why it'd be worth bothering with.

Johnboy1951

I would be one of those who would most strongly recommend wiring each room to a central location with Cat5e or Cat6 ethernet cable. Also more than one cable per room.

The cable is cheap to buy and is easily fitted when renovating or building.
Even if you do not use it immediately, you will at least have future proofed the rooms to which it is fitted.
There should be one at each TV point also for best connection to streaming services or IP TV etc etc. Wireless connection is not great for TV use as it is susceptible to drop outs and interference.
I have an internet radio in the kitchen using one of the connections, and another in the bedroom.

In fact when I began renovating recently I threw out all the coax and distributed the FTA Satellite and Saorview TV channels via Cat5e. This of course requires a different set up to a standard set top box, but all the devices for digital connections are now in the one 'media press', easily accessible and yet hidden away. Not for everyone .... but very possible. Of course the Cat5e also carries internet connection.

I have about 200 channels mapped to my system .... some like a bunch of channels that others have no interest in

All I can say really is that the more cabling you put in when renovating the less aggravation you will have in future years as your needs change.