Back again after hardware problems
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV Sadly my PC broke down last week, after spending the previous seven days computing the new UK Free TV predictions.
Very strangely, I had to replace both the processor (CPU) and motherboard twice to get a working machine again.
I seem to have spent an awful lot of money on a new power supply unit (PSU), cooling fans, graphics card (GPU), memory (RAM) before it became clear that it was the new £200 CPU and the new motherboard that were also at fault.
Anyway, system (and consequent emotional) stability has been restored.
So, if you expected a reply from me in the last 7 days, hopefully I will be able to find it and catch up very shortly.
B
All questions
In this section
Saturday, 29 January 2011
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F Farrar12:31 PM
Camberley
Camberley Surrey always had inadequate TV coverage from Band I/III VHF 405 line & later UHF 625 transmitters, & is currently on the "not receive" overlap of Freeview Hannington & Crystal Palace - although uncertain reception is usually available. Nothing whatever can be detected from the nearby dim-lightbulb Guildford vertically-polarised transmitter. "Iffy" coverage seems very strange in a populous area only 26 miles from London - not exactly the remote Hebrides. Will stable reception of Freeview Std or HD be available after switchover?
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F's: mapF's Freeview map terrainF's terrain plot wavesF's frequency data F's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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Mike Dimmick2:15 PM
Reading
F Farrar: Digital UK's predictor (trade view) indicates that your best bet for HD services will be Hannington, but performance of the commercial multiplexes is likely to be intermittent. Alternatively, Midhurst should give good performance for the BBC and ITV/C4 PSB multiplexes, plus the SDN mux, but intermittent HD service.
The south-east does seem to have fewer relay transmitters to fill in the gaps in coverage. I think this may be because the Rediffusion cable network was quite extensive. Unfortunately the relay transmitter construction programme had pretty much ended by the time Robert Maxwell bought up, and killed off, Rediffusion in 1986.
If you find you can't get reliable coverage from any transmitter, you will have to consider satellite or cable. Freesat offers free-to-air channels, unencrypted, not requiring a viewing card, although the mix of channels is a bit different to Freeview.
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Mike's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 30 January 2011
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F Farrar12:19 PM
Camberley
Annoying news. Topography means Midhurst & Guildford Transmitters are undetectable. It seems odd that an area with the highest concentration of households outside Greater London is only badly served by signals unavoidably leaking out of the back of directional Crystal Palace & Hannington transmitters. Strange no apparent effort has been made to rectify this in the 58 years it has persisted for National TV services? DTV is worse for this area - bearably snowy on analog is equivalent to incomprehensibly broken-up on DTV. Reception from space just should not be necessary where you could see powerful transmitters on a clear day from a reasonable height.
If only Freeview transmitters were reconfigured to be vaguely omni-directional!!
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F's: mapF's Freeview map terrainF's terrain plot wavesF's frequency data F's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Thursday, 3 February 2011
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Colin Blackler12:39 AM
I have a spare sat box and am thinking of going for Premier Sport tv because they are going to televise all NASCAR races from U.S.
Any comments
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Colin Blackler: Looks OK, they've got a Facebook page at Incompatible browser | Facebook .
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Saturday, 9 April 2011
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jane8:34 AM
Hello, I am bewildered with a tv via pc issue and wonder if you can help. I watch tv via proxy service(ex-pat) and have just had a new tv and laptop. I was advised to buy a machine with a minimum I5 processor and WOW what a difference. Buffering has virtually died and the pictures, especially BBC, are almost 3D,(4od and demand 5 are good too) the i5 has washed away 2 years of frustrating tv watching. BUT, ITV is a disaster.Ads are a mash of colour, videos run but, poor quality. On my old pc, single core its good. Connecting on your site the same problem with itv. Am i doing something daft. Help please ?
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jane: I would try upgrading your Adobe Flash player - try this link please - Adobe - Install a different version of Adobe Flash Player .
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Monday, 11 April 2011
J
jane8:21 AM
Thanks for that Brian, the adverts are still a mash of vivid green and then fast moving/jerky/broken images BUT the actul programme/video plays ok and the quality is now watchable but still not the quality of other channels. I still do not understand why my other single core processor laptop running vista is perfect and our real antique tiny notebook running xp is also great.
I am grateful though to get ITV back, so THANK YOU.
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jane: Some ITV channels use a different format for the adverts than for the programmes (but not on ITV1), your equipment could be failing to detect the shift between the formats.
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