A technician called to deal with my complaint of pixellation, frozen screens and jumped scenes in recordings through my subscription television service.

I kept several recordings online as examples. He conducted some tests and identified several problems. One being that my signal strength was low; he quoted a reading of 'minus 2'. The other problem in his view was that the original installation provide a 'five way splitter', when all I require is a 'three way splitter'. That is, I only require a signal to split three ways (one to each of the two subscription services I run and one for the internet connection itself.

He replaced the 'splitter' and did whatever it was that produced a signal strength of 'plus 7'.

Whilst he was investigating the problem I asked if he could cut the excess cabling I was left with from the installation. For three years I have had literally metres and metres of excess cabling on my lounge room floor from the miscalculation the installer made of how much cabling I needed. The technician initially declined firmly to touch the cabling at all which was a disappointment but then when he found the jungle of cables overwhelming him as he worked to replace the splitter he changed his mind and to my delight cut much of the excess cabling. I was delighted.

Initially it seemed the technician had solved the recording problems. The first couple of programs recorded perfectly. Unfortunately problems have returned but to nowhere near the extent previously. I suspect the set top box itself, which was not examined by the technician, is playing up.