TV reception

[glenbarr]

I have recently moved into a house that needs a lot of work so have kept my old Sony TV until the messy work is over. The previous owners had NTL and left cables all over the place which I had no idea what to do with. I plugged our sets in and the only one I could get a decent reception on was in the bedroom so called out an ariel man. He said the ariel wasn't strong enough for the sets and then fitted a gadget in a bedroom called a booster or amplifier or something which must be left on all the time. He then couldn't tune the set in the living room as I no longer had the instructions so he set it up to work through the video. This worked fine apart from a few times when it went off making a shushing sound as though there was no ariel at all. I have been away for a few days and when I came home tonight I am back where I started as the living room set wont work again. At least the set seems to go on but the video wont show the channel numbers. At one point the TV screen was almost red. Please has anyone any ideas on this. I paid �152 for the chap to set these TV's up.
Thank you
Maggie

[Toureman]

I feel sorry for you Maggie, you have been ripped off, �152 for a booster that could have been bought at Curries for �10-�15 and charging the rest for a few minutes tuning is ridiculous.

One remedy is to subscibe to NTL as the cables are already there and the NTL engineers will set it all up for you.

Or get a reputable Ariel company to fit a digital Ariel and tune in your sets.

[CSG2306]

Hi Glenbarr,

You have been well and truly ripped off. As the guy to come back or tell him that you will report him to the Trading Standards Association.

First and foremost, have you a TV aerial? If not you will have to install one either in your loft - outside on your roof or an inside one. The best bet is to have a chat with your next door neighbours and ask them what the TV reception is like.

Don't just go out and buy an aerial, you must establish what type of aerial is suitable for your area, and whither it is fitted horizontal or vertical. all these questions can be answered by an aerial installer or by phoning the BBC engineering dept.

Best of luck.

[romko]

post the make and model numbers of your machines.
many videos (especially philips ) switch themselves off into power save mode after 10 mins of inactivity. That may be the problem with the video. usually there is a button marked tuner on the remote, or you have to hold STOP for 5 seconds or longer to get it to stay on.