Why isn’t My New TV as Good as it was in the Store?!!
So you’ve gone out an purchased a brand new 4K ultra HD TV brought it home and you are now wondering why it isn’t looking like it was in the shop.
One word “MER”, or in technical terms Modulated Error Rate.
Well lets have a little chat about MER, and hopefully give you a bit of a knowledge based chat about MER.
MER is the radio wave that carries the ones and zeros in the computer language embedded within the TV signal.
If it’s below a certain level digital TV doesn’t function. If it is only in the middle of the spectrum, then you only get a basic TV picture.
The problem with MER it comes down to antenna type, and also just as importantly the type of cable.
To get the best from any antenna, you want the best shielded cable, The industry standard is RG6 quad shielded cable
So if you have an old analogue antenna, and your old 8 year old TV operates on it. Then that’s a lot of luck on the antenna systems side.
The average analogue and digital TV antenna carried 2 elements that are useful for digital TV, in today’s environment.
Those big long ones, at the end, they are white elephants. Just looking pretty or might of even broken off from old age.
Therefore, it’s producing maybe 22 MER, and your old digital TV functioned OK on it.
However your new 4K TV is like a demanding child, it wants 28 plus just to get going.
If its got 36 /40, then its in its butter zone. Beautiful pictures.
This is why I run a minimum element size to make sure you have at the best reception value for your location.
Now commonly I see in the industry a constant flogging of high gain antennas used as the selling method, with little regard to knowledge the customer is sold, only to find some channels start acting up after 12/24 months.
This is because they are universal type antennas made to suit every state in Australia, in a lot of cases. The next problem is the cabling, there is still lots of analogue cabling in houses, that they have a digital antenna, but they still have problems.
This is MER.
If your new TV (or even your old one!) is not giving you a perfect picture, give us a call on 131 546 or book a free quote online today!
We’ll be happy to inspect your signal and give you an assessment on how to get the best signal.
