Spanish TV reception

[Sally Lambert]

We have just bought a new Spanish tv and seem unable to recieve as many Spanish channels as we did with the old English tv using a set top digibox. The new tv is digital and has automatically tuned into 10 spanish channels, whereas the English tv using the digibox could recieve more than 20 channels.

Can anyone offer any suggestions? Perhaps the digibox was boosting the signal and we need to buy a booster?

We are just outside Cocentaina and our tv aerial points towards Alcoy/Alicante

[djembe]

Have a look in the source menu (button on the remote), are you watching DTV ?

We have cable and Sky plugged into it, so we get all the cable on the TV, 40 Spanish channels on the DVT, and Sky on EXT1.

[Sally Lambert]

Have a look in the source menu (button on the remote), are you watching DTV ?

We have cable and Sky plugged into it, so we get all the cable on the TV, 40 Spanish channels on the DVT, and Sky on EXT1.

We dont have cable dj, sky on a huge dish and Spanish tv coming through the aerial. We have just 9 Spanish channels now (as opposed to about 25 when we used the Spanish digibox) and 95% of them appear to be in Valenciana. That's why we were thinking that our signal might need boosting.

Sky is working perfectly normally through the new Spainsh digital tv, it's the Spanish programmes we have lost. All the programmes( both Sky and Spanish tv) are being viewed through DTV.

[Darren]

We dont have cable dj, sky on a huge dish and Spanish tv coming through the aerial. We have just 9 Spanish channels now (as opposed to about 25 when we used the Spanish digibox) and 95% of them appear to be in Valenciana. That's why we were thinking that our signal might need boosting.

Sky is working perfectly normally through the new Spainsh digital tv, it's the Spanish programmes we have lost. All the programmes( both Sky and Spanish tv) are being viewed through DTV.

I think he means that most TV's now have a Digital TV (DTV) and Analogue TV (ATV) buttonss and if your TV is currently on the Analogue setting then it will not be showing the Digital TV channels. It's normally just a button on the remote that cycles through both systems.

Think of ATV like CH1-5 in the UK and DTV as freeview.

[Sally Lambert]

I think he means that most TV's now have a Digital TV (DTV) and Analogue TV (ATV) buttonss and if your TV is currently on the Analogue setting then it will not be showing the Digital TV channels. It's normally just a button on the remote that cycles through both systems.

Think of ATV like CH1-5 in the UK and DTV as freeview.

Yes, we are watching the Spanish channels on DTV, we have some ATV channels, which are very snowy (no mention of weather conditions please!), but the only Spanish channels we can pick up on DTV are:
Canal 9, Punt 2, Popular TV, Las Provincias, 24/9, Teledeporte, VE07, Sony TV en Veo, Tienda en Veo, Intereconomica

We have lost at least one cannel that I can remember, CNN+

Help!!!

[Darren]

Yes, we are watching the Spanish channels on DTV, we have some ATV channels, which are very snowy (no mention of weather conditions please!), but the only Spanish channels we can pick up on DTV are:
Canal 9, Punt 2, Popular TV, Las Provincias, 24/9, Teledeporte, VE07, Sony TV en Veo, Tienda en Veo, Intereconomica

We have lost at least one cannel that I can remember, CNN+

Help!!!

What's the TV make and model and do you have a roof aerial?

Normally when you can't pick up channels it's down to aerial, you can buy amplifier aerials.

[The Sat and PC Guy]

in theory if you got 20plus digital tv channels on your set top box you should get 20plus digital tv chanenls on your TV with digial integrated....

but
some of the new TVs with built in tuner are not as good a tuner as seperate set top boxes.....

you may have to go into the menu system and make sure the country settings for the TV are correct so the TV scans all the available channels.

you may have to turn on or off the TV amplifer that can cause issues, especxilly if you already have a powered amplifer..

[Sally Lambert]

Thanks for that,Sat and TV man! So if the Tv settings are all as they should be, but the signal is still weak, is it worth buying one of the tv signal amplifiers on sale for about 30 euros in the DIY shops? Also, would these amplifiers be any good for improving the signal from our 2.4 metre satellite dish, which is sighted quite a long way from the house?
Thanks in advance!

[The Sat and PC Guy]

the best amplifiers to use are a kit with a masthead amplifer that goes near to the aerial, and an internal power supply that provides power to the amplifier down the cable.

You cannot use these for satellite dishes.

In some cases an "inline" amplifer can help a bit on long cable runs betwqeen a dish and receiver, but I have personally found these to also assist in more loss of signal on certain channels!

Cable runs of about 70m or so should be OK (with good cable), but it is always good if the cable run can be reduced as much as possible.

[Sally Lambert]

Thanks once again. You have, as usual, been very helpful.