Mnet - showing wavy lines

Hemps

Hemps

Honorary Master
Joined
Jan 19, 2009
Messages
11,661
Reaction score
1,632
Location
Slummies
I recently received Mnet from my dad (dstv) have setup the Mnet decoder etc, get a signal (mnet channel) but it shows wavy lines across the screen, colour comes through and you can watch it but I would like to get it 100% clear.
Recieve SABC 1,2,3 fine - etv is very snowy.
I have a vhf aerial - do i need to get a booster or replace with a uhf aerial?
 
Well you could first try and move the aerial, to see if you get a better signal. Remember that Mnet might not use the same tower as SABC and there might be one with a stronger signal.

If that doesn't help, then I'd take a look at the UHF aerial, look around to see what the other ppl near you are using to see if there's a UHF transmitter near you. Or ask at your local TV repair shop.
VHF is usually used for longer ranges and UHF for shorter, like in a town or city.

You could also try the booster, but remember UHF gives allot stronger signal than VHF, but it doesn't have a long range.

Edit: I can remember that when we still lived in OD, that we had both a VHF and UHV aerial. That was because at the time Mnet was just on UHF. But that was over 10 years back :o
 
Last edited:
Hemps said:
I recently received Mnet from my dad (dstv) have setup the Mnet decoder etc, get a signal (mnet channel) but it shows wavy lines across the screen, colour comes through and you can watch it but I would like to get it 100% clear.
Recieve SABC 1,2,3 fine - etv is very snowy.
I have a vhf aerial - do i need to get a booster or replace with a uhf aerial?
Click to expand...
DSTV requires a satellite dish.
 
I take it that you are living in Gauteng and is thus receiving mnet and etv on the UHF band.

Does your etv reception mprove when you unplug your mnet decoder?

There were reports that eTv broadcasted very close to the defaul channel that your mnet decoder uses to transmit to your tv in which case the two signals interfere with one another.

It could thus be worth a try to move the output from your mnet decoder to another channel.
 
No worries blunomore :) a little humour never hurt anyone.

I actually live in East London, when I turn the Mnet decoder off - ETV picture improves to be at least watchable....but still a bit snowy.
Haven't tried to move the aerial around yet to maybe get a better signal - will give it a bash this weekend and setup a uhf/vhf booster i recently purchased.
Hopefully that will improve everything?
Or do you think switch over to a uhf aerial?
 
Replace with a UHF aerial. It should do a world of good!
 
Linoman said:
Replace with a UHF aerial. It should do a world of good!
Click to expand...

I agree that a UHF aerial would probably be the best solution, but I was thinking of a cheaper way that might still give a good result.

I'd test moving the aerial and a booster first and then the UHF aerial.
 
Get the UHF aerial, it's designed for UHF. The VHF aerial you are using is designed for ... you guessed it ... VHF.
Besides, you could buy the VHF aerial and the joiner for the price of a booster.
 
Hi guys. Have joined the forum in the last-gasp hope that perhaps someone can help me before I have to get the professionals in! We live in a flat and thus use a communal aerial, but this has never been a problem. We have ordinary M-Net (not DSTV) and a Comcrypt 4000M decoder, which has worked perfectly for years now. However, over the last month or so we have lost M-Net and have been unable to get it back. I don't think it's the aerial, because with or without the decoder we can still get all the SABC channels, e-TV and even CSN and CTV (we live in Bellville, Cape Town), but not M-Net itself - it just gives us a soundless scrambled picture like happened to non-subscribers when Open Time used to finish at 19h00 (the decoders sometimes flashes the E3 error message, but at other times the channel number is just displayed without the corresponding green / red light for the soundtrack).

Unfortunately I don't have a manual for the decoder, so I am working somewhat in the dark regarding tuning it in, but even then I don't think that's the problem either because it has worked perfectly for years until now. I have taken the decoder in to the Multichoice office twice (they tested it there and found nothing wrong), and even swapped it out anyway on the last occasion to hopefully rule out a faulty decoder. Besides that I have phoned their call centre numerous times - only to be told on each occasion that everything shows up fine on their side re the signal. I have the decoder channels 4 and 7 allocated to M-Net, one set to M-Net signal 11 and the other to 30, but both give the scrambled picture and no amount of fine-tuning does anything besides moving the signal up / down to the next one.

Any ideas? Is there some other way to tune the frequency? One guy told me that it may be the Telkom building just down the road whose broadcasting on the same frequency may be interfering with the M-Net signal. Thanks!
 
It definitely sounds like your TV is picking up a competing frequency.
I don't think it's the decoder itself since you're using two different M-Net signals and both of them don't work.
Therefore, it's likely the UHF frequency being used between the decoder and TV set.
Ask MC how to go about changing the frequency that the decoder transmits to the TV then just retune your TV to the new frequency instead.
 
Wavy lines is probably the only real action you'll see on m-net in any case, plus it prepares you for all the repeats.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X