JX Satellite and Communications is pleased to provide advice on installing UHF aerials suitable to receive New Zealand’s terrestrial Free View service. .This advice should be applicable for digital terrestrial TV reception via a UHF aerial in all regions of New Zealand which has coverage of the new free to air DTT / DVB-T television service.

JX aims to help to solve common Free View reception problems, diagnose faults, set top box and Free View ready Television installation issues. We also provide advice on upgrading your TV aerial installation to get the best digital reception, including advice on when and how to use Mast Head amplifiers to stabilize reception problems in difficult or fringe reception areas. 
If you're looking to buy a Free View receiver whether it is a set top box or a Free View ready TV or want to understand more about receiving terrestrial digital TV, you'll find invaluable tips and advice below.

Firstly check to see if there is any Free View coverage in your area and whether you'll need an aerial upgrade to receive FTA digital TV  

The table below provides all the current transmission sites and frequencies

Reception of Free view television (DTV) via a compatible aerial is currently possible in the regions outlined in the above table

. In some NZ regions, the DVB-T terrestrial digital television signal from more than one Free View transmitter may be received. (Auckland and Wellington)
This can cause Free View installation problems as the receiver may try to install the digital TV channels from more than one transmitter. The only way around this is to note the UHF DVB-T multiplex channel numbers for your preferred DTT transmitter as listed above and install them manually. Don’t forget that a standard UHF aerial has a beam width of approximately 15 degrees. It is important that your reception antenna is pointing to the transmitter you are trying to receive.

Before buying a Free View receiver or set top box, be sure to check the likelihood of getting reception using the table above. There may be fringe areas which show poor digital terrestrial TV coverage which may be able to get reasonable DTT reception if a high gain digital compatible aerial is used.
There are Twelve TV and Four radio terrestrial digital channels broadcast free to air (FTA) on Free View with TV Central available with in its coverage area   
Free view |HD (via UHF aerial)

TV 1, TV2, TV3,  TV 3+1 ,C4  Maori Television, TVNZ 6, TVNZ 7, Prime, Parliament TV, TV Central, Radio New Zealand National, Radio New Zealand Concert , George FM and Base FM.
Free View Allows you to access New Zealand's favorite television programmes and national radio, in crystal clear digital quality for free. You'll have access to a wide range of channels (as illustrated) with more channels likely to launch in the future!
Broadcasters are able to choose whether to broadcast their channels on satellite and/or terrestrial so the channel offering may differ between the two platforms. The Satellite platform is Mpeg 2 standard definition “SD” and the digital terrestrial platform Mpeg4 high definition “HD”when broadcast.
There are several transmitter sites that are proposed for the expansion of the Free View HD service to 87 percent coverage, but there are no definite plans for them broadcasting Free View HD

Both stand alone set top boxes and televisions, Free View capable, are available from Electronic shops, Retailers and installers. Depending on the home owners requirements, the choice of set top box or integrated TV depends on whether the house is a single or multi Television home. 

Digital television as broadcast, is a lot more forgiving than the old analog system .It only requires a fraction of the signal that the old analogue system required to produce a perfect picture. The input for digital TV can range from -35Dbm to -70Dbm. The old analogue system required signals better than – 65Dbm to produce a noise and snow free picture. As a comparison -35Dbm would equate to an analogue picture which would be so bad that it would not be watchable and would be turning from snow to a blue screen. Tests conducted during the TVNZ digital trials proved that an analogue picture with a signal input of -35Dbm was totally snow whist a digital receiver receiving the same signal locked up and performed perfectly.

Some common problems that are found with digital transmissions.

1.	2

1: Fine grain that surrounds fast moving objects. This is a picture artifact (or distortion) that can occur as a side effect of digital television-signal compression .The problem originates at the broadcaster. This is known as fast motion artifacts

2: Programmes break up into pixels then return to normal. This is normally caused by the incoming signal being on threshold. This means that the signal is so marginal that any attenuation can take the signal to under threshold and the result is that the picture will pixilate until the signal returns to above threshold at which time the picture will recover and stabilize.

To get the best results, the Free View receiver should be the first RF loop through device in any chain of equipment. This ensures that the Free View receiver gets the best signal quality. This avoids interference or added noise from other peripherals like video recorders or a Sky satellite receiver.
Most Free View receivers provide an on-screen method of checking signal quality and signal strength. Digital terrestrial TV signal quality is the most important of these parameters as very low signal quality reading will mean that your Free View receiver will be much more prone to domestic or outside interference leading to picture freezing, pixilation, break up and dropouts.

Single Television homes:

In a single television home the integrated Digital / analogue television would be the most obvious choice. Now that all the networks are on the Free View platform there is no need to even think about using the analogue system.
The easiest route would be to pull down the VHF aerial as it is no longer required and run a single high quality RG6u cable from the UHF aerial directly to the television aerial input socket.

This does away with any chance of signal problems that can occur from such items as incorrect cable, Saddle and clamp splitters, rusting diplexers and incorrectly installed Mast head amplifiers

Multi Television homes:

In multi television homes  the normal structure would be several televisions  receiving  the off air signal from a splitter located somewhere in the attic space.These splitters could well distribute both VHF and UHF signals around the house and may also have extra channels combined from satellite receiver UHF outputs.

It would be very doubtful if this combination will provide stable UHF digital terrestrial signals. It has been proven that 99% of all DTT reception problems stem from 60,s to 90.s style reception installations.

Today’s Digital installation requires a UHF aerial only. The older style VHF yagi’s which have provided reception of TV1 since its launch in 1964 , through TV2  in the seventies and TV3 in the eighties has now had its day.

Reception of New Zealand’s Digital Terrestrial Television “DTT” is is not with out its challenges.

JX Satellite and Communications advises the need for an independent antenna and cable run. If the signal is to be split to more than one location then new cable runs must be made from the splitter to each location where a Free View capable TV or set top box is to be installed.

The current reception antennas and mounting fixtures, unless very new should be discarded and a new UHF wide band antenna suitable for the specific area should be installed. This can be one of three models:

UHF Antenna	Channels 27-69
	23 element wide band UHF aerial for use in high signal areas. $55 JX
	43 element wide band UHF aerial for use in medium signal areas $75 JX
	91 element wide band UHF aerial for use in low signal and fringe reception areas $110 JX

Don’t be fooled by the words "HD compatible" or “HD approved" - it means nothing, and wont make the slightest bit of difference. A suitable aerial has to be chosen for your area, its better to have a larger aerial than too small.

If the signal is to be distributed around a house, the choice of a simple passive split or an amplified split system becomes very important. The signal at each point should be similar don’t forget that any splitter will attenuate the signal by over 3 db. So whilst the digital system may operate perfectly any analogue channels might be weak and noisy. The decision has to be made whether to forget about analogue and become a digital only house.

Using a mast head amplifier can increase not only the signal but the noise as well. Avoid using them unless absolutely necessary. Using a mast head amplifier with a poor aerial is absolutely no substitute for fitting a good quality, roof mounted High gain UHF aerial without an amplifier.
If you have to use a mast head amplifier, select one with good low noise specifications. Some times cheap is not worthwhile. Only mast head amplifiers can compensate for long cable runs and cable losses. Despite it being a popular myth you will not improve any reception by placing an amplifier next to the TV all that is happening is you are amplifying noise and what little signal is present which not a very satisfactory situation.

There are never any guarantees that fringe area Free View reception will be possible, but a good roof top aerial will really help. The aerial should be mounted above roof height and accurately aligned using a signal meter by a professional aerial company. A degree up-tilt on the mounting of the aerial may provide some further signal benefit for fringe reception, especially if you live in a valley or a nearby hill obstructs reception.

The antennas above can be mounted on a 2.1m pole which can be roof or wall mounted and stabilized by placing two stays from a suitable point to the antenna

2.1 meter aerial mast with stays	Stays and Mast $70.00

 
To get the best Free View TV reception we recommend using RG6u satellite grade coaxial cable from your digital TV aerial which is tested up to 3GHz and used extensively for satellite frequencies extending from 950 MHz to 2050 MHz. The New Zealand UHF frequency spectrum extends from 400 MHz to approximately 1000MHz so this cable type is ideal with approximately 6 db attenuation per 100m at 2050 MHz.

If you have pre-wired TV sockets in your rooms that were fitted when the house was built, it's worthwhile replacing the cable, especially if your Free View picture is breaking up regularly. Make sure all TV socket face plates are correctly wired using F connector sockets and use sky approved coaxial cable and en sure that the screen of the coaxial cable is connected to the F connector barrel.

If a property is surrounded by tall trees or where multi-path reception is experienced, it is not uncommon for Free View signal quality to go up and down as the trees or aerial move in high winds. Wet leaves attenuate UHF DVB-T multiplex signals even more. If you get a poor Free View TV signal and have tall trees directly in line to the transmitter, you may get problems with reception dropout under adverse weather conditions. Trees can attenuate the DTT signal considerably especially when leaves are wet.

The only way around this problem is to relocate the antenna to a position where there are no obstacles in the way of the transmission path. Movement in high winds will also affect the performance of the received digital signal and can cause pixilation as the signal strength rises and falls below the threshold level.
Before assuming that poor Free View signal quality is to blame for the missing channels, always try another re-installation of your Free View receiver  or choose "add channels" from the  installation menu to re-scan the UHF band for missing free to air digital TV channels.

• If you know the name and frequency of your local transmitter, you can identify the DTT multiplex. Once you have the UHF channel number for the missing DVB-T digital multiplex, you can then check Free View signal quality on that channel.

• If the Free View signal quality on one or more digital multiplexes is low, check that your aerial is pointed to the nearest operating transmitter.. If you need an digital aerial upgrade for good Free View reception, check pricing and purchase online from JX Satellite. www.jayx.co.nz as above.

• Although all the DTV transmissions are broadcast from the transmitter Some Free View channels may not be receivable in the Fringe reception areas of terrestrial digital TV transmitters  due to layering which can occur randomly once the reception location is deemed to be  out of the primary  or secondary broadcast coverage area .

If you have adhered to the advice provided, missing channels can sometimes be received by raising the aerial height and/or moving it side to side whilst observing the on-screen receiver signal quality menu. Check the signal quality of all channels to ensure readings are over 40%.

The HDT 801SC and Draco DVB-T HD - MPEG 4 - MHEG 5 – Free View receiver designed for NZ market.
HDT Terrestrial Free View Receiver HD801S

Hyuandai DTT receiver	Draco DTT receiver

The extremely stylish HDT Terrestrial HD receiver model 801S is a Hi-End Free View receiver which offers a high definition output in both HDMI and VDO component output which makes this receiver unique in the New Zealand market.

The 801S supports MHEG5 interactivity and 8 days EPG as per Free View requirements and includes 8 timers and reminders.
The 801S is built with the most advanced technology available today and delivers razor sharp picture quality and excellent sound.
The super sensitive built-in tuner will never let you down, even in heavy rain or places with poor reception. This extraordinary receiver is now available in NZ at an unbeatable price from JX satellite.

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