Feedback
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV For the last six years, I have answered many thousands of personal emails that you have sent to UK Free TV.
Sadly, I am unable to offer this personal service at the moment.
Until I can restore this service, please can you leave any questions you have on an appropriate page, where they will be answered as soon as possible, or below, if you can't figure out where to ask.
I look forward to your questions!
Help with TV/radio stations?
In this section
Saturday, 8 March 2014
C
Carol5:38 PM
I have a sky dish,but am no longer with sky. I have freesat in my bedroom, connected to sky. I can get sound and vision,but if i try to change channels with the remote control it all goes off. Could this be a fault on my freesat box, or the dish?
| link to this comment |
J
jb388:39 PM
Carol: When you say "connected to Sky", are you simply meaning that you have a Freesat box connected to the ex Sky dish? or are you meaning that you have a TV in the bedroom that is connected to the RF2 socket of an ex Sky box located in another room, and you are using a magic eye system to change the channels on the Sky box?
If the latter applies, check that the TV button hasn't been accidentally pressed on the Sky remote control you are using in the bedroom, because when a person stops subscribing to Sky nothing changes as far as remote control operation is concerned.
| link to this comment |
R
Roy Brown9:03 PM
Film 4 issue
It's very hard to find any help with this, as the web is full of last years' Film 4 multiplex change, and the tuning issues that followed. But I got through all that with no issues, and it have a strange, very 2014, Film 4 issue.
Basically, I can't get Film 4 on my YouView box at all now.every other channel I should get, from Ridge Hill, to Bishops a Cleeve near Cheltenham, is all present and correct. Including all those on the same multiplex Film 4 is now on, and Film 4+1, which I can receive just fine.
Investigating the issue, I retuned all the sets in my house, all of which were getting Film 4 in its new home, and two of them lost it - an ageing Sony Bravia and my Digistream PVR. But both found it again on a retune, though the YouView box still just shows a blank screen for this channel.
So there's something odd about my reception of a Film 4, but I can't imagine what it might be. I thought that in this digital age, you either get a whole multiplex or you don't, not that you can have selective difficulties with just one channel on that mux.
YouView can't reproduce the issue, and nor have other users reported it - it seems unique to me. I did notice that Film 4 was showing 85% signal strength, where no other channel gives more than 82%, and YouView have suggested that maybe the signal is too strong and needs to be attenuated.
Which I have yet to try. But again, I don't understand how different channels on the same multiplex can show different signal strengths - is this usual? And how come?
My aerial is a loft one, with a distribution amp feeding about 7 aerial sockets in the house with 6 TVs and two PVRs, and apart from this Film 4 issue, it's all very satisfactory.
Any advice or explanation of the above would be most welcome.
| link to this comment |
Sunday, 9 March 2014
F
Frank Rewaj2:30 PM
Kirkby-in-furness
Why does my freeview map show my home in the correct place, South Cumbria and my local transmitters in South Wales and Bristol. Please help.
| link to this comment |
Frank's: mapF's Freeview map terrainF's terrain plot wavesF's frequency data F's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Frank Rewaj: That's very strange! I will look into that for you.
Thank you for pointing it out.
| link to this comment |
Sunday, 16 March 2014
D
dave macready6:24 AM
Once again, after several months of relatively trouble free viewing Sandy Heath is beginning to break up again as the weather warms up.
Last night Drama channel 20 was off air for 30% of "Waking The Dead" and BBCs 1.2.3.4 were showing signs of cracking and the HD channels were totally unavailable.
When is the BBC etc going to admit that they GROSSLY underestimated the effect of co-channel I on digital broadcasts and DO something about it or at least admit the problem and allow people to move on to other solutions?
Going satellite would be a big problem for me but if the BBC tell me it is the ONLY way to get consistent service at NN5 5P* I will do it!
| link to this comment |
M
Martin Szczerbicki10:33 AM
Hi,
I am about two miles from whitehawk just a few yards from the fiveways junction, from the roof top I can see the transmitter.
I had a high gain aerial which did not work very well.
The aerial got damaged while building work was being carried out and now it needs replacing.
Am I right in thinking a cheap wide band digital aerial is most appropriate.
Best regards
Martin S
| link to this comment |
G
G Bryant4:50 PM
Pulborough
Up until two weeks ago I had excellent freeview reception. Now ch54 only( all channels on c54) is very low on power and keeps showing "no service". All other MUXS are ok and showing strong reception. I am on the Midhurst transmitter, RH20 2BN.
What has gone wrong.?
| link to this comment |
G's: mapG's Freeview map terrainG's terrain plot wavesG's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage
MikeP
8:00 PM
8:00 PM
Martin Szczerbicki
You need a log periodic aerial that covers all channels in use now and will be suitable for all future transmissions. There is no such thing as a 'digital' aerial, all aerials used for TV reception are designed to receive all services in the UHF bands (and some are 'grouped' to receive a sub-set of the channels).
What you don't want is a 'wide band yagi' aerial as they are not able to give the same reception across all channels as will be needed in the foreseeable future. Also you do not need any amplification in your aerial system.
It is better to have a good quality log periodic aerial fitted and correctly aimed at the transmitter. As you are so close to Whitehawk Hill you may need some attenuation if the signal strength is too high - you do *not* want 100% strength.
| link to this comment |
MikeP
8:03 PM
8:03 PM
G Bryant
It is possible that the current region of high pressure is causing unusual transmission distances and hence interference from other transmitters some distance away but using the same channels.
There is nothing you or anybody else can do about it, it is a well known natural phenomenon that affected analogue TV as well as digital.
| link to this comment |
Select more comments
Your comment please