My inspiration for writing this blog because I have encountered a peculiar problem isolated to with BT Vision and Youview boxes and I’m sure many BT Vision boxes have been binned or subscriptions cancelled by something that could have been easily fixed.

I mean BT profits are not my primary concern but if we want to get broadband installed in this country capable of meeting the demands of the 21st century then I guess we need them to remain profitable.

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My main concern is that there are people out there who potentially wanted BT Vision which hasn’t worked as they had hoped only to find they have hit a dead end..

Genuine BT Vision Signal Issue Scenario

Here’s the scenario, your BT Vision Youview box is playing up, TV signal is pixelating and you’re experiencing loss of TV picture. You get the TV aerial installer who installed the aerial or aerial TV point who tests the signal on his TV spectrum analyser who says it is working fine and confirms this for you by unplugging the aerial coax from the set top box and pugs it direct in to TV where the signal is working perfectly.

Naturally he blames the box, saying it is faulty after retuning and testing.

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Confident you have a faulty box you go back to BT to explain the problem who book an installer to come out and install you a new box, which he does only for that not to work also and he says that the problem lies with the TV aerial and not with the BT Vision box who also claims you need a “digital TV aerial” (No such thing by the way)

You go back to installer and report that you have a problem with the aerial, you may meet some reluctance here but any good installer should come back to investigate their own work at least once. It is my personal opinion here and I may be biased if you are expecting your installer to come back multiple times to investigate signal issues and it can’t be confirmed that they have done anything wrong you should expect to pay for their time after one visit to come back and investigate a problem as there are numerous reasons you could be having signal issues that was not their fault or covered by any guarantee and they have certainly not charged you for originally to investigate. Obviously if the installer has made a mistake with the installation then he should fix the issue with no charge.

Sorry I meant a bit off topic there…

The installer arrives who closely monitors the incoming signal and can still see nothing wrong with the signal, no out of band interference, no 4G/ 5G interference, all signals are acceptable levels with good C/N readings. He is a good installer so he has state of the art test equipment, more specifically a Promax HD Ranger.

Could it be that you have been given two faulty Youview boxes by BT? Surely Not?

Just so he can say he has tried and exhausted all possibilities he installs a bandpass filter just before the TV that fixes the problem, which it shouldn’t have and has just unearthed a TV signal problem that seems to be isolated to BT Vision & Youview set top boxes. In his 11 years in the trade he has seem numerous issues similar to this but has only ever had this exact problem one other time not on a BT Vision box. He has now seen this issue nearly 10 times in the last few years exclusively on BT Vision boxes.

Who Was Wrong The TV Aerial Installer Or The BT Engineer?

Well remarkably neither was in the wrong, the aerial installer had installed an aerial point that worked fine, the BT Engineer had installed two set top boxes that both worked fine.

I’m going to end all mystery here and reveal myself as the aerial installer in this scenario, no more talking in the third person from here on. J

The above story was the first time I encountered this issue with the boxes when I installed a new aerial point in Northiam in East Sussex near Hastings and all was true apart from the bit where the customer was met with reluctance when reporting the issue. I was in the peculiar position where the customer was saying that he believed he needed a new digital TV aerial after being told by the BT installer that he needed one and wanted one and I was saying that he didn’t need one and should save his money, I even got a letter from Tim Jenks at the CAI to dispel the myth of a “digital TV Aerial”. I was not trying to be difficult I was actually trying to save him money and was concerned that installing a new TV aerial would still not fix the problem.

I was right in this instance and got a four year old C/D filter off the van with fixed it.

How To Fix The BT Vision & Youview Signal Issue

Like I said above this has happened numerous times and simply installing correct band pass filter for the transmitter you are using before the box itself has fixed the problem.

I’m not saying that this will fix all or most problems because it won’t but if you are ever in the position where your aerial installer is blaming BT for the poor TV reception and vice versa and you feel like the middle man not knowing what to do. Ask your aerial installer to try the above, he may say it won’t work or is unnecessary but please continue until he has tried it at least. Even show him this blog for good measure.

You will need to ask the aerial installer as the BT installer in unlikely to understand what you are asking of him and is almost certainly not going to have the filter required on the van.

If you’re comfortable terminating a coaxial cable you could do this yourself and save yourself the cost of calling out an aerial company. Simply do a bit of research on the transmitter you’re using and buy a correct band pass filter on the internet for the frequencies that it uses.

I hope that this blog helps at least one person as it drawing on my own personal experiences it must have affected many boxes out there.

BT Vision & Youview TV Reception Problems In Eastbourne, Bexhill, Hastings, Seaford

If you are having problems with BT Vision reception problems in Eastbourne or BT Vision reception problems in Hastings or Bexhill & Seaford. Across the entire East Sussex for that fact from Brighton up to Crowborough and across the Rye then please do contact us as we can help you.

If you liked this blog or have any questions, please do LEAVE A COMMENT below and I will try to help you.

Until next time, Tom