He said it was common for people installing their own UHF aerials to set them up wrong.
Mr Gainsford said the little bars running along the UHF aerials should be pointing up and down not left to right.
"When people ring about [reception difficulties], I ask them if they have got the bars pointing left to right or up and down.
"If they say left to right, we say rotate it 90 degrees and you usually never hear back from them again."
Freeview general manager Sam Irvine said 2023 homes in the Rotorua district had yet to go digital at the end of August.
"It would be significantly less than that now," he said. "In those two months since the latest statistics, there has been a significant increase in the sale of Freeview receivers and televisions with built-in Freeview."
He said the biggest spike in Freeview sales generally came during the two weeks before and two weeks after the switch-over.
Mr Irvine said if people had already set up their main television for Freeview they should still consider setting up any other televisions in their home, which would also need a Freeview receiver.
People commenting on the Rotorua Daily Post Facebook page posted mixed messages about the quality of digital television. Rotorua's Richard Johnson told the paper he would sometimes lose the picture altogether.
He said that on a daily basis the picture would also feature some form of pixilation. Mr Johnson said he had spent $500 setting up Freeview and was a bit disappointed.
Going Digital national manager Greg Harford said wild weather could disrupt reception but it should not be a common occurrence.
He said having problems daily meant there was more than likely a problem with the set-up. He said if problems continued, contact an installation specialist or visit the website www.goingdigital.co.nz.
